Skip to main content

Alternative Technologies to Bluetooth Beacons

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
  • 1929 Accesses

Abstract

Bluetooth beacons have disrupted and transformed proximity marketing. They have many advantages, but they also have limitations that should be understood and considered when designing a solution.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Dead reckoning is the process of calculating one’s position, […] by estimating the direction and distance traveled […] Oxford Dictionaries web site.

  2. 2.

    The use of signal strength by Wi-Fi and Bluetooth beacons as a proxy for distance is also inherently challenging.

  3. 3.

    Checkout Grizzly Analytics coverage of the demo and their excellent coverage of RTLS generally at grizzlyanalytics.blogspot.com/2016/01/intels-iot-demos-at-ces-show-importance.html.

  4. 4.

    Murphy’s Law, which essentially is, “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong,” may have originated from Edward Murphy, an engineer working on research into the human body’s tolerance for G-Forces in the 1940s. This R&D project involved crash test dummies, chimpanzees, and a rocket sled mounted on a railroad track. What could possibly go wrong? Read A History of Murphy's Law by author Nick T. Spark to find out.

  5. 5.

    Gartner says less than 0.01 percent of consumer mobile apps will be considered a financial success by their developers through 2018; see www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2648515 .

  6. 6.

    See “How Talkative Is Your Mobile Device? An Experimental Study of Wi-Fi Probe Requests” by Julien Freudiger PARC (A Xerox Company) at frdgr.ch/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Freudiger15.pdf.

  7. 7.

    “The Surprising Benefits of Oversharing,” Harvard Business Review at hbswk.hbs.edu/item/the-surprising-benefits-of-oversharing.

  8. 8.

    Bounce rate on a web site is when a visitor to a home page stays briefly and then moves to another site. Euclid calculates bounce rate for retailers as someone leaving a store within five minutes of arriving, based on measuring their presence with Wi-Fi.

  9. 9.

    See Chapter 5 on standards for a discussion of RSSI.

  10. 10.

    With beamforming, rather than broadcasting a Wi-Fi signal in all directions (omnidirectional), an antenna directs the signal narrowly from the AP or beamformer, to the phone or beamformee. This minimizes interference and maximizes signal strength.

  11. 11.

    LTE Direct is a device-to-device technology using (telcos) licensed spectrum, bypassing the need to use cell towers for cell phones to communicate with each other. Information is exchanged using structured packets of data, enabling applications such as social networking, advertising, and gaming.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Stephen Statler

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Statler, S. (2016). Alternative Technologies to Bluetooth Beacons. In: Beacon Technologies. Apress, Berkeley, CA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-1889-1_16

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics