Estimote Mirror Beacon

Combining Smart Beacons to Displays

A retailer can connect the Mirror to a TV through HDMI and USB, usually found on the side or back of the TV. Once connected, the beacon can pair with a nearby smartphone and send relevant data to large displays, which can show additional details.

Estimote gives a few examples, an airport screen could provide personalized data of your flight and the easiest route to the gate; a retailer could tell you if a shoe is available in your size.

Connecting multiple displays—a smartphone and a TV—gives retailers more opportunity to entice customers. A retailer might check your recently searched Google results and show applicable products at the store window, with a reduced price.

Beacons Now Support NFC

Estimote Supports NFC.  Recall some question about the use of beacons with NFC in a past project.   This advance addresses another RFID related approach.    " .... Google announced last month that its Play Store will start notifying users of pertinent apps they might want to download based off their location. App developers will need beacons to trigger those notifications, and Estimote’s location beacons are one possible choice for them. Though those beacons were released only a few months ago, they're already being updated to include programmable NFC ....  "

IDEO and Nearables

IDEO worked with us by helping build a Gym for designing consumer products, which connected to our innovation centers.    Now they are promoting the idea of bluetooth 'nearables'.   Read the comments, they have some good complaints.  In FastCodesign:

" ... Last week beacon technology--sensors which can trigger actions in devices that come within range, increasing their spatial intelligence--shrank in size and grew in opportunity with the introduction of Estimote Stickers. Three millimeter-thick adhesives no bigger than an oversize postage stamp, the nearly weightless Stickers--dubbed "nearables"--are an impressive evolution of the egg-sized Beacons that Estimote introduced in 2013.

“Beacons are a little bit like URLs for the physical world,” says Steve Cheney, cofounder and senior vice president. “We don’t know exactly how it’s all going to work out, from the experience level, but I think the apps you use the most will start to integrate beacon technology in a way where you assume it was always that way.” Like the larger Beacons, Estimote's Sticker-sensors, set to ship this fall to curious developers and companies eager to take advantage of the internet of things, help apps “see” their surroundings via motion and temperature sensors that communicate with nearby devices via Bluetooth.  ... " 

Use Cases for iBeacon and Estimote

In Wired:  I continue my look at the use of in store location and communication.  Something we thought a lot about in the innovation lab, but never had the technology to make it work.  Is it ready now?  

" 4 Reasons Why Apple’s iBeacon Is About to Disrupt Interaction Design ... You step inside Walmart and your shopping list is transformed into a personalized map, showing you the deals that’ll appeal to you most. You pause in front of a concert poster on the street, pull out your phone, and you’re greeted with an option to buy tickets with a single tap. You go to your local watering hole, have a round of drinks, and just leave, having paid—and tipped!—with Uber-like ease. Welcome to the world of iBeacon. ... " 

And a Forbes article with current specifications and features.

See also Estimote.   " ... Real world context for your apps.
Simply stick our tiny sensors in any physical place,  such as your retail store and your app users will benefit from personalized micro-location based notifications and actions when they walk in to your venue or interact with your products. ... "  What is an Estimote Beacon?
An Estimote Beacon is a small, wireless device, sometimes also called a 'mote'. When placed in a physical space, it broadcasts tiny radio signals to smart devices.  Think about it as a very small lighthouse. Smartphones that are in range are able to 'hear' these signals and estimate their location very precisely, as well as communicate with the beacon to exchange data and information. ... "