Museum Technology 2.0: Contactless Reading of Display Case Sensors via Bluetooth and a Multi-Platform App
A quick walk through the museum and everything is under control. A new app from Glasbau Hahn allows readings to be taken from inside display cases without any contact - via Apple or Android smartphone.
Glasbau Hahn is an international supplier of display cases and glass constructions and is headquartered in Frankfurt a.M. with branch offices in the USA, China, and Japan. Founded in 1829 as a family business, the company is now in its fifth generation. Around 135 employees work every day at company headquarters to combine quality “Made in Germany” with innovative solutions and to bring them to museums and art institutions around the world.
The project at a glance
- Fast and agile: Release of a hardware-based project after six months of development by a single employee
- Ready for sale: Eight display cases with new, contactless operation were installed on the international market within the first three months after release.
- Quality by iteration: A target group-specific app could be developed thanks to early user feedback from museum staff and technicians.
- Customer satisfaction: Renowned international customers praise the usability.
Initial situation
Museums, art institutions and private collectors use glass display cases to store valuable items safely and at the same time to show them off. The exhibits are often of inestimable value. However, many of these artifacts place high demands on the environment in which they are stored. For example, the humidity in display cases containing pieces of paper or wood has to be maintained at an optimum level. Sensors are used to monitor the interior of the display case, collect data, and transmit it to a device for evaluation.
Challenge
Glashaus Hahn has been offering display cases with built-in sensors that can be read over a cable connection for some time now. While this technique is a significant improvement over the traditional process of writing on and sharing paper rolls of data, it still requires the regular, time-consuming moving and opening of parts of display cases or picture frames. This approach is always associated with a risk for the art treasures.
For this reason, the innovation department at Glasbau Hahn has been working to find a more modern, contactless solution to this problem since 2021. The aim was to develop a technology that would represent a quantum leap while still being intuitive enough for inexperienced users among the museum staff to be able to use it with ease.
Solution
Glassbau Hahn approached codecentric with the initial idea of reading display cases contactlessly to better protect the art objects inside and at the same time save museum staff time and effort. codecentric then developed and delivered the design for the app and the idea of using Flutter, an open source user interface library, as its framework.
Flutter was chosen because its code base allows for direct export to the iOS and Android ecosystems. It was also possible to avoid additional costs in cross-platform development by utilizing numerous native functions of the iOS and Android platforms. At the same time, development could be accelerated by using existing, high-quality Flutter packages, leaving enough leeway to work on good usability in addition to implementing the technical requirements.
Straubtec GmbH & Co. KG, a specialist in embedded systems, was brought in to handle the hardware implementation. This is how the Glasbau Hahn remote app was developed: A native Android and iOS application communicates via Bluetooth LE with the microcontroller circuit boards developed by Straubtec. This was continuously tested and developed in part in live coding sessions and through constant feedback in close, local collaboration – sometimes with several iterations of software and firmware per hour.
Result
Glasbau Hahn's new app can be used to read temperature, humidity, particulate matter, and other measured values contactlessly, depending on the stage of development of the circuit board. Some models can switch connected actuators, pumps or lighting on and off – either time-controlled or via the sensors' threshold values. The thresholds and time-controlled automation can be configured in the app.
In addition, all of the app's functions can be secured by a multi-layered PIN and biometric-based security system. This makes it possible for a technician to set up the display cases and for another employee to read the sensor technology. With a transmission rate of hundreds of readings per second, museum staff can read the sensors during a short walk around the museum.
Glasbau Hahn has broken new ground with its new app and is setting new standards in its sector. The first eight display cases featuring modern Glasbau Hahn technology were delivered to a well-known New York museum and to Taiwan after a development period of just six months with only one developer working on the project. They have been in use there ever since, and the app has been praised by employees for its intuitive use. For the future, Glasbau Hahn is considering jointly developing a cloud service for data monitoring.
Sebastian Irimia
Head of the Climate Technology Department, Glasbau Hahn GmbH
The collaboration with Frank, Lukas, and Uwe was quite simply outstanding. All ideas were jointly planned and, where necessary, enhanced by suitable suggestions for improvement. The flexibility in terms of time offered to us helped us a lot with testing and general order processing. I'm looking forward to the next phase with codecentric.
Sebastian Irimia
Head of the Climate Technology Department, Glasbau Hahn GmbH
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