An overview of Bluetooth Beacons – Part 2 #Bluetooth #InternetOfThings #IoT @novelbits
Mohammad Afaneh on NovelBits continues a series of posts on Bluetooth Beacons, focusing on use of beacons. Bluetooth beacons are small and wireless battery-powered radio transmitters that use BLE as their transmission protocol. This mini-radio transmission device can be ‘discovered’ and seen by all BLE scanners within a certain radius. The Bluetooth beacon, however, cannot ‘see’ anyone back.
When, where and why would you use Bluetooth beacons?
A Bluetooth beacon’s job is to transmit a signal. This signal can be used when you need to focus on the micro-location of a user. Think of them as mini-satellites that can be much more accurate and precise than GPS, especially indoors (depending on the implementation). GPS is great at tracking the general location of something but it doesn’t typically work well in indoor environments. This is where Bluetooth beacons come in.
Bluetooth beacons can also act as a bridge between offline-based activities, such as walking into a shop, to the online world for analytics and communication.
This technology can be used in areas where personalization may be required. For example, a Bluetooth beacon can help notify the appropriate associated devices and services by creating an invisible checkpoint.
The article also covers the different standards: iBeacon (Apple) and Eddystone (Google/open).