“Apple’s iBeacon location sensing technology, based on the Bluetooth radio in your iPhone, promises to personalize the world around you,” John Cox reports for Network World. “For users, this increasingly popular technology changes the question of ‘Where am I?’ into the announcement ‘Here I am!'”
“An iBeacon is a Bluetooth Low Energy radio that broadcasts a signal in a given area, say the doorway to a clothing or grocery store. Your iPhone – if it has Bluetooth 4.0, and the radio is turned on, and iOS notifications and location services are active – can detect that signal and query the beacon,” Cox reports. “The beacon uses radio signal strength to figure out the phone’s location and can share that with iOS. Your phone shows an invitation from the beacon to enable something like “in-store notifications,” which involves sharing your Bluetooth-determined location.”
“Apple itself uses iBeacon in its own retail stores [see photo, above]. Customers walk into the store past an iBeacon, receive a notification to enable “in-store notifications” and if they agree, are then digitally greeted with a dashboard for that store’s location. The NFL used iBeacons at its recent “Super Bowl Boulevard” festivities along Broadway in Times Square. Later this year 20 major league baseball stadiums will feature iBeacon deployments,” Cox reports. “But the same technology is capable of supporting more advanced services in the future, including mobile payments.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Why Apple’s iBeacon technology is ahead of the pack – February 3, 2014
Apple’s iBeacon heralds dawn of ‘nudge’ advertising – February 3, 2014
NFL rolls out iBeacons for Super Bowl fans in Times Square and MetLife Stadium – February 1, 2014
Major League Baseball deploying thousands of iBeacons for Opening Day – January 31, 2014
Apple’s iBeacon and the future of retail store shopping – January 21, 2014
Apple patent application reveals secure iWallet system with iBeacon – January 16, 2014
Apple’s revolutionary iBeacon: Sometimes the biggest changes in technology have the smallest beginnings – January 13, 2014
Company rolls out Apple’s iBeacon to grocery stores – January 6, 2014
Apple’s iBeacons are creating a new market – December 30, 2013
Anybody else want an Apple ‘iServe home’ server with iBeacon accessories? – December 18, 2013
The Internet of iThings: Apple’s iBeacon already in 200 million iPhones and iPads – December 16, 2013
4 reasons why Apple’s iBeacon is about to disrupt interaction design – December 11, 2013
Apple could have 250 million iBeacon-capable units in the wild by 2014 – December 7, 2013
Apple turns on iBeacon to guide shoppers at 254 U.S. retail stores – December 6, 2013
Bar deploys Apple’s iBeacon to give patrons free access to Newsstand magazines – December 4, 2013
Macy’s becomes first retailer to deploy Apple’s iBeacon for in-store presence – November 20, 2013
Beyond retail: What’s next for indoor location tracking with Apple’s iBeacon – November 15, 2013
Apple’s location-tracking iBeacon is poised to explode across retail faster than anyone can imagine – October 25, 2013
Attention, retailers: With iBeacon, Apple has figured out mobile marketing – October 11, 2013
Apple’s iBeacon to deliver completely interactive experiences for fans at MLB stadiums – September 27, 2013
Apple’s amazing iOS 7: Three game-changers hidden in plain sight – September 26, 2013
Apple’s brilliant iBeacons system will enable purchases, contextual marketing, automated check-ins and much more – September 14, 2013
Apple’s NFC killer: iOS 7′s iBeacons – September 11, 2013
iBeacons may prove to be Apple’s biggest new feature for iOS 7 – August 29, 2013
Apple v. Android: Bang per watt – Apple’s massive advantage – August 13, 2013
iBeacon can do more
Cars will be equipped with Bluetooth and parking stalls will have iBeacons on them.
Have reservations at the resto? It will alert you where to sit down and give you the menu once you enter the establishment.
Work establishments will be installing iBeacons. You’ll be greeted with a time in once you come in……
Well… an iPhone itself can be an iBeacon. This would let the dry cleaners (take out food, etc…) know you are near the door and can have your clothes waiting for you..
Can use multiple iBeacons to triangulate and provide 3D info much like GPS system for indoors…
Lots of applications for this…
What I can’t figure out is why people think other people give a sh*t where they are? This social media crap seems to give people a really inflated sense of their own importance.
I can see why people don’t care about where you are with an attitude and language like that.
I wouldn’t mind having iBeacon-enabled locks on my home and autos that would unlock as I approached and locked when I left. There are all sorts of uses for this tech that has nothing to do egotism.
I know a farmer who needs to know where his pigs are. He is trying to patent iBacon.
Is he a Canadian farmer?
Yes. He is my uncle Herschel Rabinowitz from Montreal.
Ask a silly question, get a straight answer
Or a silly answer to a straight question.
If I understood how iBeacons work, you first download the App appropriate for the iBeacon ‘region’ (e.g. store) that you are interested in, then open the App and “agree” to send/receive from the relevant iBeacons. I think there may be need eventually for Apple to step in and create some method whether it be a single App that you add ‘regions’ to or another method to manage the various iBeacon Apps that any user may have on their iDevice. Since they are currently seperate Apps for each ‘region’ will that mean manually starting stopping those Apps when not anywhere near the relevant region or suffer some sort of memory or battery side effect? (e.g. too many apps ‘open’ in memory or shortened battery life)
Nice Post!
If you wish to know even more about iBeacons, feel free to download my white-paper titled “iBeacon Bible” from http://www.gaia-matrix.com
I’m sure you’ll appreciate it.
Andy Cavallini