About two years ago I developed a "switch" which with digital media advertising in mind has onboard a 3G modem which allows streaming of content / rotation of paid adverts, handles inbound short-code messages with encryption to enable a relay for variable time periods i.e. you send a text message from a mobile to the location code such as;
Text "RIDE 262" to 88677 for 15mins of time.
...which could be used to enable a kiddies ride for example whilst the parents stand watching the adverts etc., the board handles a coin mech / note reader and has the ability to therefore handle contactless payments and existing card solutions. A carrier agreement exists which allows us to send 1G for £6 accross the whole estate and anyone will tell you that's a good rate considering there's no monthly rental, so overheads can be shared pro-rata. Of course it has a remote audit facility too and remote features. The device itself if not on the network will enter a "safe mode" after a preset period meaning anybody operating equipment without license will be unable to sell their product or service via a rogue machine as it can be shut down or will self-shutdown if not online, you can not reset this by powering down or removing the comms unit as it has not only redundancy but hard memory and clock... the firmware will not boot if the clock has been returned to factory default of January 01st 2000. Coupled with this the device has GPS so if stolen or abused it'll tell you where it is the second it goes back online.
This has been prototyped and is physical. So back to my question, at about £195 for the kit would you think it's worth it compared to say £75-£95 for your standard control board for the benefits? I developed this through experience and that of machines be resold and used to sell other peoples stock when we'd subsidised the machines to get them on walls, so the purpose was to protect that and... well... that's how some of the features here were thought up. I'm sure every one of us has had machines nicked from the wall. Originally this was for patio heaters but turns out that's illegal because you can't resell utilities (electricity) although our lawyers have now obtained a ruling on this which will allow us to advance the project if we choose to.
Any input on this one?
LOL.