Beacosystems: Beacons and their Uses and Architectures

Very nicely done, The slides here.  ....  and will likely write about,  interesting thoughts in the invite, thought I would pass along.  Beacosystem?   Not sure that term will prevail , but OK.

" ...... A tour of the Beacosystem: Proximity and the Beacon ecosystem
Background, trends and what's next in the world of Proximity and iBeacon
Wednesday, September 16, 2015  10:00am PT | Show Timezones...

Description:
Apple galvanised the whole area of Proximity-enabled applications and services when it launched iBeacon at WWDC in June 2013. When iOS7 launched later that year, it was the first time support for a variety of Proximity use cases was both designed-in and available at scale in a mobile platform. Since then, hundreds of companies have become involved in different ways in the iBeacon ecosystem - the "Beacosystem" - making hardware, offering proximity or iBeacon software platforms, creating shopper marketing platforms, using beacons to deliver signals in location analytics or mobile marketing solutions, enabling indoor location, and much more.

This webcast gives a tour of the Beacosystem, and will cover:
More and registration.

Proximity (vs Location)
The Beacon Approach: Bluetooth
Apple has iBeacon and Google has Physical Web?
Startups and Giants in the Beacosystem
Standalone versus Embedded
Issues and Hurdles
Resources: where to learn more
About Sean O Sullivan

Techie and entrepreneur with experience in software startups. Background in Mobile, Proximity, Wireless, and Middleware. Co-Founder Rococo Software/ LocalSocial and Dial2Do/mySay.

Website: http://blog.seanosullivan.com/ 
Twitter: @sos100

Wi-Fi Aware as Beacon

Don't know where it is  currently being used, but Wi-Fi Aware can be used like a beacon in retail like those using Bluetooth Smart, the technology behind Apple iBeacon and Google Eddystone.   We experimented with Wi-Fi triangulation in the store lab for shopper location studies. It is said that some 100,000 beacons are in retail use today.   A more detailed comparison.

Beacons Proliferating Fast

An update on the use of solutions like the iBeacon.   Expanding quickly.

" ... It matters that Apple's other retail-focused solutions -- Apple Pay, TouchID and iOS devices, including Apple Watch, mean the company now sits at the center of both online and offline relationships between consumers and retailers. This is going to become even more critical as Apple continues to disrupt consumer culture.

Retailers are all over the technology:

Macy's, Lord & Taylor and The Bay are using beacons, while Starwood Hotels & Resorts (of the famously iPad-using CEO) use it in around 30 hotels. Hillshire Brands used beacons in 10 U.S. cities to track shopper behavior in supermarkets.  ... " 

Bluetooth Beacons in Retail

In CW: Beacons in retail.  Can they fundamentally change the way physical retail works in an increasingly online world?

" ... People increasingly use mobile phones to locate stores, check whether items are in stock, and compare prices. If brick-and-mortar stores want to prosper (or even just survive), then they must adapt to the new  ...

Fortunately, a simple yet powerful tool has emerged that could help retail stores up their game. Bluetooth beacons don’t do much; they merely broadcast the same short message over and over. However, when Bluetooth beacons are used in tandem with smartphones and Web content, they bring places and objects to life. Specifically, Bluetooth beacons enable merchants to provide smartphone users personalized shopping experiences and self-service options. That empowers merchants to maximize sales, reduce costs and cut down on theft. ... " 

The Uses of SmartPhone Beacons

A slideshare on the effective use of beacons.    " ... Movintracks:  We have chosen the top 5 stories from June, 2015 to get your creative juices flowing. These include Ford Cars Selling Themselves with Beacons, A Tour App Enhanced by Beacons, Culture Map launching 200,000 beacons,  150,000 Tourists Test Beacon App plus our company highlight - Macy’s and IoT.  ... "  Via Kirk Borne

Apple Watch, iBeacons and Food Retail

In Progressive Grocer: 

" ... Grocery is probably not the prime retail channel to take advantage of a smartwatch’s capabilities. So should grocers prepare for this new era of shopping that the Apple Watch will usher in? At least one is. Marsh Supermarkets is extending the iBeacon experience beyond smartphones to the Apple Watch. The chain of 60 stores in the Midwest calls it the world’s first iBeacon-wearable integration at retail. The idea is to increase sales via personalized shopper engagements. For example, people might be reminded to check their shopping list app when arriving at the store, or to look for a certain obscure ingredient for a recipe they researched online last week.

Sounds impressive, and I wish Marsh good luck with it. Whether this new digital experience is viable for other food retailers remains to be seen. It obviously depends on having the cash to invest in the technology and, more importantly, having a critical mass of shoppers wearing a smartwatch when shopping. ... " 

Fujitsu Thin Solar Powered IOT Beacon

Solar powering in particular is interesting. We will continue to see developments of this type.

Fujitsu develops thin, solar-powered IoT beacon
In a move that could help spread IoT (Internet of Things) devices, Fujitsu has developed a thin, flexible IoT beacon that can send out location and ID information to smartphones and other mobile devices.

Measuring 2.5 millimeters thick and weighing 3 grams, the beacon is mounted on an elastic silicone substrate and can be rolled up and attached to curved surfaces as well as corners or even clothing. It uses a Bluetooth Low Energy module to send out pings at regular intervals.... " 

Rebooting the Retail Beacon for Experience

In Retailwire: A look at beacons and their purpose. from SXSW.  Certainly you don't want them to assault you,  or erode your privacy.  Now how can they serve you?  A panel discussion.  " ... A key theme to the panel was how technologies such as beacons have extraordinarily powerful potential for morphing the retail experience, but that the industry should not consider beacons as tools to "take back control" of the shopper experience. Rather, we should be thinking about how to make their experience better with them. ... "

Beacons and Retail Shelf Labels

We did much work with electronic shelf labels (ESL).  See the link below for much more.  Quite natural to connect them to the beacon idea as part of retail infrastructure.  Combines visual and data transmission..  In the RFID Journal:
Panasonic Adds Bluetooth Beacons to Electronic Shelf Labels
The Powershelf system, which uses inductive coupling to transmit power and data to wireless electronic labels and sensors, now includes beacons to enable stores to provide data to customers on their phone apps. ... " 

Beaconing at Marsh Supermarkets

Continued indication that the interconnection of shoppers and physical spaces is progressing, this was reported on previously here in more detail, see tags below.  Note in particular the mention of a Watch.  Wearable solutions could make this a more convenient and natural interaction. The data gathered, linked with loyalty information, could provide further capabilities.

Marsh Supermarkets offers Beacon messaging to Apple Watch, smartphones 
Marsh Supermarkets has partnered with InMarket to install a Beacon messaging system that communicates with shoppers via the Apple Watch and smartphones to offer relevant content such as shopping lists, coupons and promotions when they walk in the door. The company has also integrated its customer service management software to track purchases matched with app usage to measure the sales impact of coupons, ads and even store layout. ... "

The Reality of Retail Beacons

A useful look at the practical reality of retail beacons.  In RetailWire.  George Anderson writes:

" ... It's time for a reality check when it comes to beacons. That, somewhat to my surprise, was the position of many industry pros I met this week at the Location & Context World conference in San Francisco. Here's some of what I heard:

Beacons are everywhere, sort of. By next year, more than half of retailers will be deploying beacons in stores. Sounds like a lot, right? What that figure doesn't say is that most of the deployments are part of pilots. It also doesn't say how many actual locations within chains with hundreds or thousands stores are going to be using the technology.. ... "

The rest of the article and comments at the link are also useful.

Proximity Marketing

Short article in ClickZ on proximity marketing with beacons.  " .... Beacons have the ability to accelerate the mobile shopping experience and create increased engagement with consumers. Here are some examples of companies utilizing the technology to influence purchasing behavior. ... " 

Macy's Rolls out Biggest Beacon Installation

Location based systems continue to move forward.  In ZDNet.

" ... Macy's rolls out retail's largest beacon installation  —  Summary: Macy's expects to complete the installation by early fall, just in time for the upcoming holiday shopping season.  —  Following a test run during last year's holiday shopping season at its flagship stores in New York City and San Francisco ...  Macy's expects to complete the installation by early fall, just in time for the upcoming holiday shopping season. Once the rollout is completed, the department store chain said the shopBeacons will prompt users of the Shopkick to opt-in to receive store notifications. The retailer plans to begin more tailored shopper notifications in early spring 2015 ... "

The article also has a link to an article on five competitors to Apple iBeacon.

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.  ... " 

RFID and Beacons

A recent query reminded me that the RFID journal now covers Beacon type systems.  This is an interesting kind of application than might be expected for in-store beacons:

Epicurious to use Swirl Beacons to Deliver Localized Servces to In-Store Shoppers.  
In-store mobile marketing company Swirl Networks ( An iBeacon Network ) has announced a partnership with Epicurious, a Condé Nast online and mobile service focused food. The two companies say they plan to bring exclusive in-store digital experiences to Epicurious' audience. Swirl's marketing platform leverages Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons to deliver targeted content and offers to consumers' smartphones, based on their specific location and behavior at the store.  ... " 

Beacons in Retail

More on Beacons in retail.   " ... Beacons are showing up everywhere. It's open season for retailers as more apps are developed to take advantage of beacon technology. Sales staff will be equipped with beacon-enabled apps to better identify and help high-value customers; data eventually will be mined by them to learn not only which displays and offers work best, but also where and when they're most effective..... "

Retailer Carrefour to Test Beacons

In RFID Journal:  Another example of a data gathering activity that can lead to better analytics when combined with loyalty and other data.  Good detail in this article.

" ... Multinational retail chain operator Carrefour is planning to test Bluetooth beacons to track the movements of shopping carts at three of its Madrid stores this fall. The technology, provided by Proximus, is intended to allow the anonymous tracking of shoppers as they move through the stores, by identifying not an individual shopper himself but rather the shopping cart he is pushing. While in the long run, Proximus intends to offer the solution as part of a retailer's loyalty program that would track individuals via their mobile phones (as long as they opted in), the first step is merely to determine the carts' locations, rather than identify the shoppers using them ... " 

Apple Wearable Strategy

An interesting piece.  A few weeks ago I saw a presentation about the Disney Parks arm bands and how the data from them was being gathered and leveraged.  I was also struck how Apple was moving in a similar direction.  I have not yet been to Disney Parks since their implementation to get the experience.  This article provides a good view of their use.  My impression:  Give out a tailored wireless device that optimizes real time experience, navigation and purchasing while also gathering precise long term data about behavior.  Use that data to mine optimal experience.   Makes lots of sense to tailor future promotion and experience.  

Building Proximity Applications with iBeacon

New book, available in early pre edit form.  Building Proximity Applications with iBeacon - O'Reilly    " ... Information on pinpoint locations can be extremely useful for mobile application developers, but that precise level of detail is difficult to achieve, especially indoors, where GPS signals and cellular service might be weak or unreachable. With this practical book, you’ll learn how to use iBeacons with your applications to determine a user’s location within a few inches and deliver timely, relevant information. ... " 

Google Nearby

The idea of 'nearby' is a classic locational switch.  Google rumored to integrate it into its abilities.  Similar to iBeacon capabilties? Likely as the need to advertise based on contextual information.