{"id":170,"date":"2020-09-25T20:49:49","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T20:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ippd.ufl.edu\/blogs\/team01\/?p=170"},"modified":"2020-10-10T00:58:06","modified_gmt":"2020-10-10T00:58:06","slug":"a-beacon-is-a-beacon-is-a-beacon-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ippd.ufl.edu\/blogs\/team01\/2020\/09\/25\/a-beacon-is-a-beacon-is-a-beacon-right\/","title":{"rendered":"A beacon is a beacon is a beacon, right?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our research from last week mostly focused on three aspects: BLE beacon, POS system, and how the mobile app can communicate with the two. And here we would like to talk about the secrets under BLE beacon technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How BLE beacon works<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Beacons transmit small packets over BLE. BLE messages wake up listeners in BLE devices (e.g., smartphones) to read the packet. Then based on the received signal, the smartphone determines the proximity of the Beacon and takes an action based on the content of the message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Types of message that beacons can broadcast<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Beacons generally broadcast three types of messages: Unique ID number, URL address, and Telemetry. UIUD Contains a unique 16-byte Beacon ID composed of a 10-byte namespace ID and 6-byte instance ID. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recognizes every particular Beacon across the globe thereby
enabling an application to listen and perform. For a live example, If a brand installs beacons at its stores, then the app could be designed to connect with beacon at its specific store, through the use of beacon ID. Once identified, the brand\u2019s store would be able to send in the customized content or offers to the user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The second type of broadcast uses a compressed encoding format that picked up by either the physical web app or the google chrome widget. Overcomes Bluetooth Beacon\u2019s obstacle of needing an app.
Stores can send an URL to the user\u2019s phone and users can look up the coupon or information in a web browser. Currently, Chrome is supported, other browsers to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The last type of message contains Telemetry Data (TLM) – Used to pass
on Device Information. It is intended for Beacon fleet management:
\u2022 Comprises data about beacon hardware
\u2022 Battery Voltage
\u2022 Temperature
\u2022 Packets\/Activity since the last reboot
\u2022 Uptime since the last reboot
\u2022 Broadcasts less frequently than data packets
\u2022 Makes it easier to keep a tab on Beacons health and status<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A History Lesson<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Apple came up with its Beacons technology (called iBeacon) quietly in 2013
and Google came up with its Eddystone Beacon technology in 2016.
By 2018, Google officially killed Eddystone. iBeacon also disappeared!
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

So what happened? The reasons behind it are somehow complicated, but in a nutshell: Nearby notifications killed the Physical Web Project. However, this by no means says Beacons are gone away. We will discuss more details about it in our next blog post. If you are eager to know more information, check out this blog post: https:\/\/deviceatlas.com\/blog\/physical-web-dead-long-live-physical-web<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our research from last week mostly focused on three aspects: BLE beacon, POS system, and how the mobile app can communicate with the two. And here we would like to talk about the secrets under BLE beacon technology. How BLE… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ippd.ufl.edu\/blogs\/team01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ippd.ufl.edu\/blogs\/team01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ippd.ufl.edu\/blogs\/team01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ippd.ufl.edu\/blogs\/team01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ippd.ufl.edu\/blogs\/team01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ippd.ufl.edu\/blogs\/team01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230,"href":"https:\/\/www.ippd.ufl.edu\/blogs\/team01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ippd.ufl.edu\/blogs\/team01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ippd.ufl.edu\/blogs\/team01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ippd.ufl.edu\/blogs\/team01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}