Beacon Technology

Lec 3 ( 26th August 2021)

Week 7
Contents
• Intorduction
• What is beacon technology
• Types of beacon technology
• Applications
Introduction
• Part of indoor and outdoor positioning systems and
Internet of Things (IoT) networks, beacons use
proximity technology to detect human presence
nearby and trigger preset actions to deliver
informational, contextual, and personalized
experiences.
What is Beacon Technology
• Beacons are small, wireless transmitters that use
low-energy Bluetooth technology to send signals to other
smart devices nearby.

• They are one of the latest developments in location

technology and proximity marketing.

• Put simply, they connect and transmit information to

smart devices making location-based searching and
interaction easier and more accurate.
• A beacon is a small Bluetooth radio [Link]’s kind of like a
lighthouse: it repeatedly transmits a single signal that other devices can
see.

• Instead of emitting visible light, though, it broadcasts a radio signal that is

made up of a combination of letters and numbers transmitted on a
regular interval of approximately 1/10th of a second.

• A Bluetooth-equipped device like a smartphone can “see” a beacon once

it’s in range, much like sailors looking for a lighthouse to know where they
are.
What Is Beacon Technology?
• Beacons are small, wireless transmitters that use low-energy
Bluetooth technology to send signals to other smart devices
nearby.

• They are one of the latest developments in location technology

and proximity marketing.

• Put simply, they connect and transmit information to smart

devices making location-based searching and interaction
easier and more accurate.
•
[Link]
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How Do Beacons Work?

• The beacon device itself is incredibly simple. Each device contains a

CPU, radio, and batteries, and it works by repeatedly broadcasting out
an identifier.

• This identifier is picked up by your device, usually a mobile, and marks

out an important place in your environment.

The identifier is a unique ID number that your smartphone recognizes

as unique to the beacon.

• Once connected, the beacon will carry out whatever function it has
been programmed to perform
• .
• We will go into more detail later on some of the many functions beacon
can carry out.
[Link]
10/04/beacon-technology
Applications of Bluetooth Beacon
• indoor personnel location,
• asset tracking,
• proximity marketing and
• employee safety management.
• Types Of Beacons
• There is a wide array of beacons available for positioning systems of any type and
scale. They differ in size, battery life, use cases, and level of resistance to
exogenous factors. Here are the common types of beacons:
• Standard beacon (devices the size of a Wi-Fi router or smaller) for proximity
solutions and indoor tracking.
• Portable/small beacon (the size of a credit card or big sticker) for asset tracking
and proximity solutions.
• USB beacon (small, portable, quick to deploy) — beacons the size of a flash drive
for asset tracking and proximity solutions.
• Video beacon — devices plugged into the back of a screen to deliver contextual
visual information (for example, a user approaches a display in a food joint and
shows personalized offers based on usage of the beacon-enabling app) as well as
for digital signage.
• AI beacon. A machine learning-driven device that can detect different movements
and gestures.
• Sticker beacon — the smallest of beacons, used for asset tracking.
• Parent beacon (the size of big Wi-Fi routers) is used to track other beacons, gather
data and store it in the cloud, and more.
• Dedicated beacon — devices resistant to exogenous factors (dust, water,
shattering, antistatic and UV) for indoor tracking and proximity solutions in harsh
environments.
• Most of the aforementioned beacon types emerged in the years since the
inception of beacon technology to accommodate the business needs of different
companies, so new ones may come into being in the future, giving companies new
options to engage customers.
• Benefits: What Are Beacons Used For
• Beacon technology can improve the user experience both at
the front and back end of almost any company, helping to
streamline operations and gather data, drive sales, and
deliver unique user experiences. Still, the retail and
marketing industries benefit from beacons the most, as they
are almost tailor-made for the two.
• Front & Back End Of Business
• At the front end, for example, at a retail store, you can pair
beacons with a custom app to notify shoppers about limited
in-store offers, deliver personalized promotions, and provide
navigation at vast retail locations.
• At the back end, beacons are as effective. You can set up a
beacon-based indoor positioning system at a warehouse to
simplify and speed up the navigation in its bigger areas for
new employees and representatives of third parties. Paired
with an enterprise software development solution, beacons
also allow for indoor personnel tracking to improve
on-premises security as well as asset tracking.
• For instance, an employee of a large enterprise needs a new
laptop. The system administrator chooses one from the list
of available laptops as a sticker beacon on it shows its
location.