BoatSense

Some very analogue row boats are shared by neighbours on an island near Stockholm. First come, first served, they make up one of several ways across the water — often part of the daily commute. Head down to the shore to find all the boats on the other side, and you’re in a bit of a pickle.

The challenge: build something tech-agnostic enough for new and old smartphones, weather-tough enough for the elements, and precise enough to be trusted. A few iterations in, there’s a fairly stable service in place.

The interface is a small web app that gives only what you need — how many boats are available right now. (Online during boat season, April–October.)

Built with Bluetooth beacons and a LoRaWAN node + gateway, using the wonderful The Things Network for the backend.

Thanks to Greger for hardware hacking, Mikael Sjöbeck for starting the boat pool in the first place, Marcel for data wrangling, and a few others who pitched in along the way.