Winter Shutdown and Aspirations for the Future

[TerryJC]

I asked about this on the Raspberry Pi Forums and it appears that it is very easy, providing that we exclude some people with older phones. There is also a hard way which would open up the feature to more Visitors, but I would need to try it to ensure that it will work.

The easy way is to tell Visitors to switch on their camera and scan the image. On all fairly recent versions of Android and iOS a QR Code Reader is incorporated into the camera software and the URL will then appear on the screen in some way, depending on the device. The Visitor then taps the URL which copies it into their browser. During my tests I found that it worked 'out of the box' for my son's Moto G5 Plus and my wife's iPad, but on my OnePlus and my wife's Moto G6 Plus we had to enable Google Lens from within the camera software (not very obvious; I didn't even realise it was there).

With older phones, the Visitor will need a QR Code Reader, so if he/she already has one, it will be quite straightforward; on my OnePlus the site was opened immediately it was decoded by the Reader; no tapping needed.

This of course excludes a fair number of Visitors. Many older people will undoubtedly have phones that they've owned for some time and / or won't even know what a QR Code Reader is. If they haven't already got one they will have to install one, which would necessitate disconnecting from the WMT WiFi, installing the App using their data connection and then reconnecting to the WMT WiFi. I suspect that won't happen very often.

The solution to all of this is to create a Web App (preferably using Flask) to perform the code recognition and pass the resulting string to the browser. The Visitor would be instructed to switch on his camera and scan the code as normal. If the device is modern and/or he/she knows about enabling Google Lens then the above process would kick in. If this didn't work, then the Flask App would be selected by the user which will decode the URL and pass it to the browser. I've only briefly looked at this and don't quite know if there are any gotchas yet, but I believe it could be done.

It goes without saying that the Visitor's device will need a camera

[Penri]

Morning Terry

Thank you for doing the research.

If we make an initial working assumption that our target audience will know how to deal with QR codes and have suitable devices to hand, would it be possible to integrate the functionality into our current web-server set up so we could put together a little demonstration of 3 QR codes pulling up some content, say one each of: text, photograph and audio clip.

The reason for the demo is to get those thinking about new signage and supporting content creators to think about using the capability as an integrated part of what they want to achieve rather than as an afterthought.

No time scales as such but I would have the opportunity to show the Trustees what was possible at the next meeting on the 22Aug22.

Penri

[TerryJC]

That should be possible; given the required content I should be able to have it working here in a day or so and installed on site at some convenient time.

With a deadline of 22nd Aug, that gives me a fair bit of float.

[TerryJC]

If we make an initial working assumption that our target audience will know how to deal with QR codes and have suitable devices to hand, would it be possible to integrate the functionality into our current web-server set up so we could put together a little demonstration of 3 QR codes pulling up some content, say one each of: text, photograph and audio clip.

Do you have any specific content for me to use. Obviously we already have audio clips in the Audio Guide, but there aren't any photos yet and the only text is the Intro stuff.

[Penri]

Hello Terry

I've asked Heather, who is taking charge of new signage related to educational stuff to give me some words (text or audio) to complement what she's planning. She's currently in final rehearsals for some theatrical thing but has promised them as soon as that's finished he thespian activity.
I've take a look at my stock of WMT photos to see if I have anything suitable, what format/size (pixel wise) would suit you best?

I'm away from the end of this week for a week, I'll get something to you before I go.

[TerryJC]

I've asked Heather, who is taking charge of new signage related to educational stuff to give me some words (text or audio) to complement what she's planning. She's currently in final rehearsals for some theatrical thing but has promised them as soon as that's finished he thespian activity.

I've take a look at my stock of WMT photos to see if I have anything suitable, what format/size (pixel wise) would suit you best?

It doesn't have to be too big, because the devices don't typically have large screens. When I'm formatting photos for web view, I typically limit the image size to less than 1 Mb, but much smaller images of 100-200 k work OK if the resolution isn't too low. It is best to use .jpg for photos, because it is pretty universal.

BTW, I've produced a draft code and pasted it into an A4 page; see the attachment. I've assumed that the signs will be A4, but any size will be fine; the QR Code works when it is much smaller, but if we make it too small the camera on the Visitor's device is likely to lose focus.

If you open it on your PC and scan the code with your phone or a tablet, it should take you to my website.

Note: The words assume that the users will be on site and connecting to the WMT Network; this is a draft for the final product. Of course my website won't work from there, but this draft should work as long as your device is connected to the Internet.

[Penri]

Terry

Works perfectly on my phone with the QR on my Mac screen.

Thanks

[Penri]

Terry

Here are some words and files to use for the QR demo, feel free to edit, crop and modify as requred, its only a demo.

The Wimborne Model Town Quarterjack

The Quarterjack on our Model Minster is a copy of the Quarterjack on Wimborne Minster itself, he is carved from wood and hand painted by our volunteers.

??photo here??

His arms are hinged at the shoulder and connected to small electrical motors which at the right moment cause the hammers he is holding to strike the bells on either side of him.

The Model Town Quarterjack rings his bells 2 minutes past every quarter of an hour so that we don’t compete with the large Quarterjack on the real Minster.

Each hour at the end of the:
First quarter of an hour he rings each bell once.
Second quarter of an hours he rings each bell twice.
Third quarter of an hours he rings each bell three times.
Fourth quarter (on the hour) he rings each bell four times.


White Wisteria (Wisteria floribunda f. alba ‘Shiro-noda')

There are two White Wisteria arches over the main pathway at the Model Town.

These are elegant white Japanese Wisteria which produce extravagant clusters up to 60cm (24in) long of fragrant, pea-like, white flowers in June and light green leaflets, turning yellow in autumn.
Wisteria is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae), that includes ten species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and north of Iran. They were later introduced to France, Germany and various other countries in Europe. Some species are popular ornamental plants.

Minster audio interview
Taken from a series of interviews conducted by students from Bournemouth University.

[TerryJC]

Thanks Penri. I'll have something running by the time you get back so we can review the results.

[TerryJC]

I have created a suitable set of pages for this; a draft copy of which may be found at https://hadrian-way.co.uk/WMT_Webserver ... _Info.html.

I have copied this to the Webserver at WMT, but need to go on site to do the final check. I don't intend to do that until tomorrow at the earliest. I can do it from the car park.

I have also created a number of QR Code Notices for:

• The main WMT landing page.
• The complete Minster Info page as shown above.
• Direct Links to:
  • The QuarterJack image.
  • The Interview.

See attached.