What is beacon?

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?

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?

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.

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:

Eddystone URL
EddyStone UID
EddyStone TLM (Telelmetry)

Beacons solutions fits in which industries ?

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