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Internet of Things: Beacons Enable Location-Aware Apps
Beacons, or proximity sensors, are low-power Bluetooth devices that can be placed anywhere and send out signals to people passing by on their smartphone or other mobile devices. Retailers are particularly interested in the technology as a way to identify who is shopping in their store and to be able to interact with those customers. Unlike GPS, beacons can very precisely pinpoint the location of nearby devices to within a few feet and work very well inside of buildings. (The range of a single beacon is up to about 30 feet) Mobile apps can be programmed to be “beacon aware” and interact with nearby mobile devices, but one hurdle for the technology though is to first get users to download the app that will communicate with the beacon.
Apple pioneered the use of beacons with the introduction of iBeacon for the iPhone in 2013. This year Apple’s iBeacon was used with success at the South by Southwest (SXSW) annual meetup which used more than 1000 iBeacon devices. Businesses like McDonald’s are also experimenting with the technology. Google is also backing the company Blesh to develop Android equivalents of beacon technology.
ABI Research predicts that iBeacon will grow to 60 million units by 2019.
Rachel Pasqua, MEC Global’s North American lead for mobile and emerging technologies, said that just “because you haven’t seen a lot of stats come out, you think it’s not happening. But it’s happening everywhere. Every big box store, supermarket, stadium, concert venue, every public space from train stations to airports to government buildings are putting beacons in to their infrastructure to enable all sorts of interactions.”
