what are beacons

Beacon is a device which transmits the data using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. Any device which is Bluetooth enabled captures the data transmitted by the beacon with a certain proximity radius. It consumes less battery and detects the location of the device in certain proximity in comparison to normal GPS which depends on the longitude and latitude.

Beacon does now relay content instead it transmit Unique Identifier (UID) which is unique for all beacons. Based on this UID the mobile device determines which beacon it is communicating with.

How beacons technology works?

 

Beacons tags

1

A beacon is a small wireless devise which transmits a continuous radio signals.
Beacosn signals are received by nearby devise.

2

Beacons signals are detected by nearby smart devise or smartphone via Bluetooth Smart.
Beacon gateway received id number from smart devise

3

The signal communicate your beacon gateway / smart device “hey this is me” by pushing it id number to beacons gateway.

cloud server receiving id number from beacons gateway

4

The beacon-gateway then send that id number to cloud application. The application checks what actions are assigned to received id number and respond.

How many types of beacons are available?

 

Beacons tags

iBeacon (Apple)

iBeacon is a beacon format that is introduced by Apple. It is beacon protocol that has been built into Apple’s iOS 7 and later versions of mobile operating system that allows iPhones and iPads to constantly scan for Bluetooth devices nearby.
Google's Eddystone beacons

Eddystone (Google)

Eddystone is a beacon format that was introduced by Google in year 2015. Eddystone is freely available format and can be integrated with the application by downloading from Github.

It supports three types of payload:

  1. Eddystone URL
  2. EddyStone UID
  3. EddyStone TLM (Telelmetry)

Beacons solutions fits in which industries ?

  1. Retail : Beacons are being used by big retailers like Walmart etc. They are using to enhance customer experience and interactive experience
  2. Airports : Beacons are being used in airports for navigation to baggage collection , flight schedules and promotions offers.
  3. Museum : Beacons are being used in Museum for making the user experience more informative and navigation
  4. Automotive : Production tracking and vehicle tracking
  5. Logistics : Vehicle tracking and stock movements
  6. Hospitality : Customer experience
  7. Healthcare : Patient tracking, stock tracking and assets tracking
  8. Events : Attendees tracking and counting

Benefits of Beacons

  1. High degree accuracy of data capturing
  2. Less consumption of battery and resources
  3. App engagement / wake-up / easy to use
  4. Low cost of entry ans less investment in implementation
  5. No dependency on internet