An Interactive Real-Time Locating System Based on Bluetooth Low-Energy Beacon Network †

Abstract

The ubiquity of Bluetooth-enabled smartphones and peripherals has brought tremendous convenience to our daily life. In recent years, Bluetooth beacons have also been gaining popularity in implementing a variety of innovative location-based services such as self-guided systems in exhibition centers. However, the broadcast-based beacon technology can only provide unidirectional communication. In case smartphone users would like to respond to the beacon messages, they have to rely on their own mobile Internet connections to send the information back to the backend system. Nevertheless, mobile Internet services may not be always available or too costly. In this work, we develop a real-time locating system based only on the Bluetooth low energy (BLE) technology to support interactive communications by combining the broadcast and mesh topology options to extend the applicability of beacon solutions. Specifically, we turn the smartphone into a beacon device and augment the beacon devices with the capability of forming a mesh network. The implementation result shows that our beacon devices can detect the presence of specific users at specific locations, and then the presence state can be sent to the application server via the relay of beacon devices. Moreover, the application server can send personalized location-based messages to the users, again via the relay of beacon devices. With the capability of relaying messages between the beacon devices, it would be convenient for developers to implement a variety of interactive applications such as tracking VIP customers at the airport, or tracking an elder with Alzheimer’s disease in the neighborhood.

The Effect of Utilizing Distributed Intelligent Lighting System for Energy Consumption in the Office

“…The paper [8] has a real-time locating system, and the authors use the system based only on the BLE technology to support interactive communications of beacon devices and smartphones. The authors combine the broadcast and mesh topology options to extend the applicability of beacon solutions to detect the presence of specific users at specific locations, and then the present state can be sent to the application server via the relay of beacon devices.…”

“…The authors of [3,8] proposed an intelligent lighting system using a BLE beacon to toggle the occupancy status of the workers. The paper discussed how the new model of the intelligent lighting system performs to realize the target for each user in the workplace.…”

“…The system composes from the sensing device of the smartphone with beacon technology to toggle the occupancy status of each user. BLE beacons transmit the signal radio waves, and the smartphone receives the signal from the beacons [8]. The data transferred includes an alerting signal mode of the device [3,4].…”

“…The available technological solutions in commercial environments do not adequately capture the relationship between energy efficiency and visual comfort of the luminance [7]. For instance, the typical improvements include how to decrease the energy consumption of the intelligent lighting system using remote sensing technology and utilizing the automation process on the system [8].…”

Wireless Mesh Networking: An IoT-Oriented Perspective Survey on Relevant Technologies

“…The mesh network is implemented using a BLE 4.1-based open source implementation of a mesh network, denoted as FruityMesh. Concerning localization, in [47] the authors present a localization system able to support real-time communications between interactive nodes (through the joint adoption of mesh topology and broadcast options useful for beacon solutions). More in detail, the proposed development is composed by beacon devices (namely, smartphones) able to form a mesh network.…”