BLE Beacon | Just how smart can a smartphone get?

Source    : phys.org/news/2015-10-smart-smartphone.html
By        : Penny Jones
Category : Blutooth Low Energy (BLE)

No sooner have we got our heads around the rather spooky phenomenon of targeted ads appearing during internet browsing (how did Facebook know I wanted an electric bike?), than smartphones are set to take the conversation a step further.
"Look!" your phone might soon be saying. "There's your favourite cafe. Why not pop in for a coffee and a muffin? It's half price if you show this ad."
A collaboration between Australian robotics researcher Jaime Valls Miro and the global technology giant Yahoo is developing a location-based algorithm for mobile devices that would make your smartphone "aware" of its surroundings.
"Say, you're a tennis fan in front of a particular sports store and Yahoo knows (from your internet clicks) that you love tennis," says Associate Professor Valls Miro, from the Centre for Autonomous Systems at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
"As you pass the store you might find a special offer on tennis gear at that very store 'pushed' to your mobile device from Yahoo."
Researcher Mitesh Patel, from Yahoo Labs in California, says so-called "contextual awareness" presents opportunities for business owners through the quantitative and qualitative information that can be gleaned – "for example, the amount of foot traffic and where in the store customers spend most of their time" – and even a better customer experience.
Contextual awareness in shopping centres and city landscapes is key to providing highly personalised services and will be generated by sensors in the mobile device and Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacon infrastructure.

BLE is a communication technique based on traditional Bluetooth but with very low energy requirements. "You can put a beacon somewhere and it will keep going for two to three years," Dr Valls Miro says. "The beacons, which constantly emit unique location-related information, are also small, cheap, easy to install and infrastructure independent."

This emerging technology hasn't quite reached Australia but Dr Patel says it is increasingly used in the United States. "BLE is already used in smart devices like smartphones, smartwatches and fitness devices and there is the potential for its widespread adoption in applications like payment systems, micro location, security and proximity. Many companies, including Eddybox are working towards developing solutions for applications that use BLE technology."

These ethical questions are of great interest to Michael Fraser, director of the Communications Law Centre at UTS. He can see the benefits but thinks laws to protect people and their privacy have not kept up with the rapid development of these powerful technologies and this should be addressed.
"I think it raises questions for all of us, as to how much privacy we're willing to give up in exchange for these services and for targeted advertising – particularly in Australia where many people might be surprised to learn that we don't, at this time, have a legal right to privacy," Professor Fraser says.
He believes we need to think about these questions early in the design phase and build in the capacity for consent and proper regulation before, rather than trying to catch up later.

With such large sums of money at stake, the march of technology will almost certainly progress as swiftly as ever, and whether the law can catch up or not, one thing is almost certain: BLE will be coming to a shopping centre near you soon.

(Read More: phys.org/news/2015-10-smart-smartphone.html)

Bluetooth Beacon Technology | Real Strength in Deploying Beacon Technology

Source  : Mediapost
By        : Brandi Lalanne
Category  : Bluetooth beacon technology

When beacon technology became available to consumers, I spent a week geo-fencing my house and tagging my dog, JayPeg, to track whether she was sneaking naps on the couch. This was a fun experiment and just one example of tracking real-world presence in the digital space that brands and their agencies can learn from.

Beacon technology’s current strength is its real-time analytics and tracking capability. Keeping this in mind:

Pitching beacon use to a brand as a way to push mobile coupons is wasting money on the fun toys rather than providing utility for the targeted customer.
Attempting to sell a beacon tactic that relies heavily on active customer participation (downloading a branded mobile app) just to send push notifications is a display of costly ignorance when it comes to user behaviors. It’s also a limited view of the technology’s capabilities.
The more powerful application of beacons would be to passively track and collect information about your customers and then use that data to present something meaningful to them.
Tapping into publicly placed beacons to collect data about clearly defined target audiences can yield rich results for brands. You can see where they go, when and if they go alone or with friends; what types of items they look at or interact with, to name a few. This massive metadata collected from a multitude of passive actions allows brands to develop a deeper understanding of their consumers and can blow open the marketing doors to highly relevant consumer engagement.

Both Facebook and Google are huge backers of beacons (and enormous data collectors/aggregators). Imagine your brand connecting to both Facebook’s and Google’s future beacon-integrated platforms to target and deliver messages to their user bases, rather than building your own platform. You’ll engage with Facebook’s 500+ million users where they already are as they scroll through their newsfeed.

Brands should be thinking about how to use the data these platforms’ beacons are already collecting to develop a strategy that adds relevance to the conversations happening and facilitate the consumer’s real-time moments.

For example, a user who posts a selfie to Facebook while using your product at your location could then be served relevant content instantly through the platform. This could enable you to quickly connect with them on social or you could harness their network by pushing ads for similar products to their friends.

Another option is to push the (relevant) collected data back out to consumers. How about informing the consumer that you are having a 50% storewide sale for the next hour, and that the sweater she looked at online is in stock, in the right size? This goes beyond retail; the city of Los Angeles is using this concept by displaying real-time parking availabilities across the city. Both of these tactics take the simplest functionality that beacons offer and push them further.

In my geo-fenced home, I confirmed that my dog was sneaking onto the couch in the early afternoons. I bought a dog bed and positioned it by a window. Using data collected from the beacon and applying insights, I provided my dog with a customer experience to keep her off of the furniture while still enabling her to watch the mailman.

How can your brand apply beacon technology to provide custom products or experiences that your consumers may not even know they want and avoid sending those annoying, unwanted push notifications?

(Read More: mediapost.com/publications/article/259985/the-real-strength-in-deploying-beacon-technology.html)

Beacon Marketing Application | 5 Ways How Beacon Technology is Helping Brands Transform Marketing

Source    : martechadvisor
By        : Rohit Roy 
Category  : Mobile Marketing

Beacons are hardware devices which utilize low energy Bluetooth to transmit messages to tablets and smart phones. The introduction of Eddybox, the technology from Apple that lets mobile apps interact with the beacons in their vicinity, has enhanced their importance for in-store consumer engagement activities.  The subsequent compatibility roll out for Android devices has brought us to a scenario where, according to a blog, about 570 million devices are compatible with the beacon functionality.
Beacon technology is being leveraged by leading brands to deliver an unmatched customer experience. Here is how they are transforming marketing and promotional activities:

1. Understanding in-store shopping behavior
In order to improve consumer experiences, brands need to be aware of how a customer behaves when he visits a store. Through a simple integration of in-store beacons with their effective CRM system, brands can find out the number of visitors, and the frequency of an individual’s visit. They can easily identify the store sections where the customers tend to spend most of their time, the number of transactions per customer and how many people signed-up for and utilized the loyalty programs. Businesses can track the effectiveness of their marketing programs, evaluate services quality and abandonment rates, and see how many customers utilized the app, browsed the offers and made purchases. The enhanced understanding of in-store shopping behavior would allow them to send out more personalized promotional offers, helping to drive better engagement.

2. Delivering in-store notifications to increase intent
A large number of customers use a shopping app when inside a store, and most of them are willing to share their location in return for value. Beacons can be used to send out push notifications of sales and other promotional offers as soon as customers are within range, to help increase purchasing intent.

3. Increasing personalization
With a deep understanding of customer behavior, it is possible to send out more personalized, context-driven messages. You can use the beacons to guide customers to specific sections in your store and inform them of the new arrivals, on the basis of their past behavior. You can also send out custom welcome messages as soon as they step into the store and recommend products based on their purchase history. The increased personalization will therefore ensure that your customers enjoy a wonderful experience and want to return to your store.

4. Meeting challenges of competition
Implementing beacons in the right way ensures that you enjoy the fruits of competitive advantage over your rivals. By delivering value added content in the most personalized fashion, beacons can help you meet the challenges of stiff competition.

5. Ensuring efficient customer service
A large store can be confusing for your customers, who may be unsure of where to start. By strategically placing beacons to help the customers navigate your store effectively is therefore the first step towards ensuring effective customer service. You can also use it to track how much time a particular employee is interacting with the customer, and identify potential staff training needs, if any.

Beacons are therefore poised to transform proximity based marketing. Early adopters can look forward to significant gains in terms of enhanced engagement, loyalty and satisfaction.

(Read More : martechadvisor.com/customer-experience/5-ways-how-beacon-technology-is-helping-brands-transform-marketing/)

Beacon for Safety | Beacons lend a helping hand to visually impaired bus passengers in Bucharest

Source    : Venture Beat
By        : Barry Levine
Category  : Beacon For Safety

Beacons have become known among marketers as store location-pingers for mobile device users who might welcome aisle-appropriate coupons.

But a startup’s new project in Bucharest, Romania highlights their potential as a vital service in environments that themselves are mobile — public transportation.


 This is the first project of its kind.Mounted on the outside of each bus, a beacon emits via Bluetooth Low Energy its unique location identifier when it is within about 180 feet of a bus stop.

The project’s app, installed on the iOS or Android smartphone of a visually impaired person waiting at the bus stop, responds by pushing a notification to the passenger’s home screen that “bus number 24 has arrived,” even if the app is not open. There is also a unique audio signal emitted by the phone.
Passengers employ text-to-speech readers on their phones, so the notification can be spoken to them. As is normally the case with beacons, updated communications to the passengers — such as current bus schedules or the number of the approaching bus — require a Wi-Fi or cellular data connection.

The challenges of bus beacons

The beacon is specially designed for outdoor use, remote monitoring, and connection to a buzzer on the outside of the bus, which helps the passenger find the arriving bus. There are sixteen different buzzer sounds, so the passenger can choose one. If several buses for waiting visually impaired passengers arrive at once, the bus plays all of the selected buzzer sounds in a sequence. When the passenger boards the bus, the notification and buzzer(s) stop.

A test version of the program, which is funded by the Vodafone Foundation, began in June with the installation of 40 beacons and the participation of about two dozen passengers. It was initiated when an organization serving visually impaired people approached last winter. Seven thousand passengers in Bucharest are registered as visually impaired, and another 5,000 are estimated to have some sight problems.

Bus-based beacons, the Canadian company noted, fall off or are stolen, have short-lived battery lives, and have very limited ranges — plus only a few passengers will have the required app. iSign’s own browser-based solution has a greater range of up to 300 feet, and is thus expected to reach 90 percent of passengers.

But the Bucharest project’s needs match beacons’ limitations. Those adapted beacons only need to function as the buses are coming to a stop, they have been adapted for remote monitoring of battery life and other functions, they can run off the buses’ electrical systems, and the visually impaired passengers have an incentive to download the app.

This is the first wide-scale implementation of a number of public transportation projects. One, a trial project in Abu Dhabi, puts beacons literally in the role of lifesavers.

In that effort,  beacons are provided on keychains for a classroom of students, so teachers and school personnel can test whether this solution can help keep track of the group. Each keychain-with-beacon runs about $20.


(Read More: venturebeat.com/2015/09/14/beacons-lend-a-helping-hand-to-visually-impaired-bus-passengers-in-bucharest/)

Beacon Technology | Major Recording Artist Zac Brown Band Will Be the First to Use Beacons at 9/11 Wrigley Field Show !

Source    : chicagoinno
By        :  Jim Dallke
Category  : Beacon Technology

Zac Brown Band announced that it will use beacon technology at Friday's Wrigley Field concert in order to better engage with fans at the show. But rather than using the bluetooth technology to sell albums or t-shirts, it's asking fans to pledge their support for our country's veterans.

As fans leave Wrigley tonight after Zac Brown's 9/11 show, they'll receive a push notification to support Warriors to Summits and to "respect, support and honor our veterans for being an example of courage and strength both in their service and their transition back home." Warriors to Summits is part of No Barriers USA, a non-profit that empowers veterans, transitioning service members with disabilities, and their families.

Zac Brown Band will be the first major recording artist to use beacons to engage with fans, according to inMarket, the company responsible for powering the beacon technology; beacons have mostly been used in retail environments to send targeted ads to customers in grocery stores and shopping malls.

"This is about taking technology than a band has never used before and blowing it out for a major concert at Wrigley where we’re going to do some great things to help folks pledge their support for a fantastic cause," said Dave Heinzinger, senior director of Communications for inMarket.

Half-dollar sized beacons will be placed in Wrigley Field, and concert goers with the Zac Brown Band Live app--or another app in the inMarket network--will receive the push notification, Heinzinger said. The pledge is simply a show of support and not a call for donations, Heinzinger added.

The program is intended as a show of support for America's troops, but it's also testing how beacon technology can be deployed at future music venues for other bands. Heinzinger said inMarket is in talks with a handful of other recording artists about using beacons at upcoming shows to connect with fans and drive merchandise sales.

"I actually think [beacon technology] will be a common tactic for most artists in the next 18 months," he said. "Mobile engagement will be a major part of the fan experience in 2016."

Beacon technology isn't exactly new. In recent years it has shown huge potential in the retail space as companies have been able to target consumers at the most opportune moments. A shopper walking down the laundry detergent aisle could get an 10% off coupon for Clorox sent right to their phone, for example. And for musicians, beacons could result in engaging with fans when they're most likely to buy merch or download songs.

"We’re excited to see how it works," Heinzinger said. "And if it's anything like the work we’ve done in a retail setting, we expect it to be very successful."

(Read More: chicagoinno.streetwise.co/2015/09/11/zac-brown-band-will-be-the-first-major-recording-artist-to-use-beacons-at-911-wrigley-field-show/)

Bluetooth Low Energy | Extends BLE Portfolio for Banking, Industrial and Lighting Applications

Source  : Stocks Newswire
By        : Lisa Walker
Category  : Bluetooth Low Energy

According to the very latest news report, Cypress Semiconductor Corp. declared its highly integrated, single-chip Bluetooth® Low Energy solutions are now accessible in new packaging and temperature range options. The PSoC® 4 BLE Programmable System-on-Chip and PRoC™ BLE Programmable Radio-on-Chip solutions each now have an option for a micro-ball Chip Scale Package (CSP) optimized to bring Bluetooth Smart connectivity to secure credit card applications. The package is only 0.38-mm thick, making the reliable and fully Bluetooth-certified solutions, ideal to replace chip-on-board devices.

Cypress also offers solutions with an extended industrial temperature range option with operation from minus 40 degrees Centigrade to +105 degrees C. This ensures consistent product performance throughout this temperature range for industrial, automotive, and lighting applications that must operate in extreme climates. Both the micro-ball CSP package and extended industrial temperature options will be accessible for the 128KB and 256KB flash versions of the PSoC 4 BLE and PRoC BLE solutions. The new offerings are pin-to-pin compatible with Cypress’s original Bluetooth Low Energy solutions, simplifying upgrades.

“Bluetooth Low Energy is quickly expanding its market reach and Cypress is continually innovating to address requirements for a diverse set of emerging applications,” said Eran Sandhaus, Vice President, and Wireless Product Family at Cypress. “These new CSP and temperature options bring the ease-of-use, programmability and robust, low-power performance of our PSoC 4 BLE and PRoC BLE solutions to an even broader range of customers.”

Cypress’s customizable Bluetooth Low Energy solutions deliver unprecedented ease-of-use and integration for IoT applications, home automation, wireless Human Interface Devices (HIDs), remote controls, healthcare equipment, sports and fitness monitors, and other wearable smart devices. PRoC BLE is a Bluetooth Smart microcontroller with Cypress’s industry-leading CapSense® capacitive touch-sensing functionality, while PSoC 4 BLE offers expanded design versatility by adding intelligent analog and programmable digital blocks. Both solutions integrate a Bluetooth Smart radio, a high-performance 32-bit ARM® Cortex®-M0 core with ultra-low-power modes, up to 256KB flash memory, 36 GPIOs, and customizable serial communication blocks, timers and counters. Additionally, both solutions have an on-chip balun that simplifies antenna design while reducing board size and system cost.

Additionally, Cypress offers the small-form-factor, Bluetooth Smart, EZ-BLE™ PRoC module, which integrates PRoC BLE, two crystals, an on-board chip antenna, metal shield and passive components, all in a compact 10-mm x 10-mm x 1.8-mm form factor. It comprises Bluetooth 4.1 qualification and worldwide regulatory certification, greatly simplifying design and cutting time to market. Cypress is the single supplier for silicon, software, firmware and module hardware, streamlining the customer support required to develop remote controls, health and fitness equipment, home appliances, toys and other wireless applications. This combination of technology delivers unmatched system value for Bluetooth Smart products, with prolonged battery life, customizable sensing capabilities, and sleek, intuitive user interfaces.

Bluetooth Low Energy Design Tools

Designers looking to create Bluetooth Smart products must often use software tools from multiple vendors and develop complex firmware to meet wireless specifications. Cypress has abstracted the Bluetooth Low Energy protocol stack and profile configuration into a royalty-free, GUI-based BLE component that can be dragged and dropped into designs using Cypress’s PSoC Creator™ integrated design environment (IDE). PSoC Creator enables complete system design in a single tool, slashing time-to-market. Alternatively, users of Eclipse® and other ARM-based tools can customize their own Bluetooth Low Energy solutions on PSoC Creator and export the design to their preferred IDE.

Cypress offers the $49 CY8CKIT-042-BLE Development Kit, which gives users easy access to the Bluetooth Low Energy devices, while maintaining the design footprint from the PSoC 4 Pioneer kit. The development kit comprises a USB Bluetooth Low Energy dongle that pairs with the CySmart™ master emulation tool, converting a designer’s Windows® PC into a Bluetooth Low Energy debug environment. Cypress also offers two production-ready, reference design kits (RDK) that enable customers to get to market faster: the CY5672 Remote Control RDK and the CY5682 Touch Mouse RDK.

(Read More: stocksnewswire.com/cypress-semiconductor-corporation-nasdaqcy-extends-bluetooth-low-energy-portfolio-for-banking-industrial-and-lighting-applications/96150/196150/)