One of our manufacturers, Moko, has some new videos demonstrating how beacons can be used. The first one shows beacons being used by shopkeepers:
The second demonstrates smart parking:
iBeacon, Eddystone, Bluetooth, IoT sensor beacons, apps, platforms
One of our manufacturers, Moko, has some new videos demonstrating how beacons can be used. The first one shows beacons being used by shopkeepers:
The second demonstrates smart parking:
There’s new research from Pukyong National University, Korea on Bluetooth Beacon-Based Mine Production Management Application to Support Ore Haulage Operations in Underground Mines.
The system uses apps and tablet PCs to provide efficient operation of an underground mine loading-transport system. Bluetooth beacons are attached to major loading points and crushing sites and a tablet PC is mounted on trucks that records the time Bluetooth beacons are seen and the location of the truck.
The research was performed in a limestone underground mine in Jeongseon, Korea. It involved 16 loading areas, 4 dumping points and 20 major transport routes.
The app outputs maps, information and voice guidance regarding location when receiving signals from Bluetooth beacons installed at the major points in the mine.
Bluetooth was used because of ease of installation, easy maintenance, no external power requirement and good battery life. The Minew i3 was used because it’s waterproof, works across a wide operating temperature, has a long range and the AA batteries are larger than coin cells so last a lot longer.
The beacons had to be set to maximum power (4 dBm) and transmit often (every 200ms) to allow the tablet PC on the fast-moving truck to receive the signal from the Bluetooth beacon. Wifi was used to transfer data to a central system.
The researchers identified how the Bluetooth system can easily cope with future changes in loading zones and expansion of the system. It provided automatic reports that previously had to be created by hand which wasn’t easy in an underground mine.
While the use is innovative, the system and architecture aren’t that different to systems employed above ground. We would have liked to see Bluetooth mesh beacons used that would have negated the need for Ethernet/WiFi connectivity in the tunnels.
CGI has created a new iBeacon solution for Posti mail package pickups in Finland.
A video shows how iBeacon triggers the Posti app when customers come close to a Posti office.
When we started BeaconZone, our aim was to encourage new scenarios beyond the over-hyped and under-successful retail marketing scenarios.
One of the issues with retail marketing with beacons is that it requires opt-in through the installation of an app. This is a large barrier if you are considering users who are ambivalent about using specific apps and beacons. The only way it’s usually viable is if you are a large brand who already has an app on customers’ smartphones.
The more interesting and successful uses of beacons involve scenarios that are ‘want-in’ or B2B rather than consumer ‘opt-in’. Here are just a few examples of where our beacons are being used:
Beacons have a multitude of further real uses waiting to be explored and exploited.
We have a re-implemented and updated our solutions directory to remove old dead links, include new solutions and make the site more mobile friendly. The directory lists 3rd party solutions that use generic beacons.
There are sections for marketing/retail, industry/logistics, building/staff, visitor spaces, transportation, education and personal.
S Sindhumol of Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi, India presents recent research into Implementation and Analysis of a Smart Team Management System using iOS Devices as iBeacon (pdf).
The key thing about this research is that it uses iOS rather than a beacon to advertise iBeacon. The system allows the entire team to determine the location of other members, perform location based tasks, receive announcements and communicate via instant chat.
The paper contains some useful analysis of accuracy of distance measurement on distance, interference, measured power and obstructions:
On iOS it’s only possible to advertise iBeacon if the app is in foreground:
The major limitation of the proposed app is battery drainage while keeping the app active all the time in the foreground
A more practical system would have been implemented by having the users carry a separate wearable beacon. This would have allowed presence to be detected when the app isn’t in foreground and there wouldn’t have been a problem with excessive iOS battery use.
There’s novel recent research on City Marathon Active Timing System Using Bluetooth Low Energy Technology by Chun-I Sun, Jung-Tang Huang, Shih-Chi Weng and Meng-Fan Chien of Taiwan.
The authors discuss the use of beacons vs RFID and create a system using Received Signal Strength Indicator RSSI and gateways connected to detector mats:
Beacons are carried by athletes. The gateways sync their times via NTP and send data up to a MongoDB database:
An accuracy of ±156 ms was achieved which compares well to the nearest second used to generally record times and resolution accuracy of 0.1s for commercial transponder timing systems.
Pinpoint is a new platform and app to provide learning, safety and operational tasks to workers. Pin points based on beacons, geofences, QR codes or captured images trigger pre-defined tasks.
Pinpoint has been added to the BeaconZone Solutions Directory
There’s a new solution to track cleaning staff that provides app and web source code to implement a cleaning staff tracking system using iBeacons:
Manage beacons, buildings, zones and broadcast messages. The web interface shows staff activity and allows staff to be assigned to tasks. Staff can update task status and provide notes from their smartphones.
This solution has been added to the BeaconZone Solutions Directory where you can find more solutions that work with generic beacons.
We have re-implemented our Beacon Solutions Directory making it easier to use and more up to date:
We have removed listings for solutions that no longer exist, updated solutions that have changed focus and added some newer solutions that use generic beacons.
We found that a considerable number of marketing/retail solutions no longer exist and only the stronger ones remain. This is mainly due to the demise of Eddystone URL.
There’s an upsurge in checkin/checkout solutions presumably partly due to recent ruling by the European Court of Justice that said that EU companies must have something in place to provide an “objective, reliable and accessible system” that allows the duration of time worked each day to be measured.
The use of beacons in visitor spaces is also a growing area with solutions ranging from single use kiosks to event management platforms.
Generally, support for beacons is being added to existing, mature solutions rather than, as previously, new solutions being created solely around beacon functionality.