Author: Support

Using Beacons in Clinical Trials

There’s recent research by Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED), Switzerland on a Beacon-Based Remote Measurement of Social Behaviour in ASD Clinical Trials: A Technical Feasibility Assessment.

Beacons were used to determine the location of participants in an observational Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) clinical trial designed to assess social behaviour. Beacons were placed by the participants or caregivers in separate rooms in the household and a smartwatch used to detect the beacons as the participant moved from room to room. A smartphone app was used to map each beacon with each room.

A key aspect of the study is that it was conducted with no participant training and without the supervision of a technical person.

The study also provides a comparison with prior work and a comparison of locating technologies:

The researchers provide some good practice guidelines for using beacons for indoor locating:

  • Set the beacons to have the same transmission power to allow the signals to be comparable
  • Beacons should be placed in an open area in each room that is close to the activity centre of the room to minimize interference
  • Beacons should ideally have line of sight and face toward the participant and not considerably higher than the receiving smartwatch

The study achieved an accuracy of 97.2% proving that beacons have the potential to provide deep insights into in-home behaviour. This provides more objective data than would be the case with commonly used questionnaire-based studies.

PubNub Android Tutorials

We recently came across a great resource on PubNub that shows how to use Android to detect beacons and also transmit as a beacon.

The tutorial is in three parts that 1) Describes beacon advertising and how to scan for beacons 2) How to filter detected beacons 3) Setting up Android as an emitter.

There’s also a related PubNub article by the same author on how to Create a Tessel Beacon with a BLE Module.

Indoor Navigation Using Bluetooth LE

There’s a new article from the Icontech International Journal of Surveys, Engineering, Technology on Indoor Position Routing (IPR) and Data Monitor Using Bluetooth Low Energy Technology by researchers at the Hasan Kalyoncu University, Institute of Science, Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Gaziantep, Turkey.

This article is different because it considers navigation as opposed to just locating. It explains the advantages of Bluetooth LE over WiFi and also compares with RFID:

Trilateration, Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and Decibel-milliwatts (dBmW) are explained and how these fit into locating position.

The article describes a system created for navigation that uses iBeacon sensor nodes, an Android device and app.

Read Determining Location Using Bluetooth Beacons

Read Using Beacons, iBeacons for Real-time Locating Systems (RTLS)

What Can Block Beacon Signals?

We often get questions asking what kinds of things can block Bluetooth signals and enquiries about the relative blocking of different materials.

Metal obstructions or metal-based surfaces such as metal-reinforced concrete cause the most blocking followed by other dense building materials such as plaster and concrete. Next comes water that you might not think would be a problem but, as people are made up of 60% water, bodies blocking Bluetooth signals can be a significant factor. Least blocking are glass (but not bulletproof), wood and plastics.

Blocking can be caused by wireless noise as well and physical obstructions. This includes electrical noise from other electrical equipment as well as interference from devices using the same 2.4GHz frequency. WiFi on 2.4GHz causes negligible interference.

In extreme cases, a very large number of Bluetooth devices can cause interference with each other because only one can advertise at a time without there being collisions and hence lost data. The maximum number of Bluetooth devices depends on how long and how often the Bluetooth devices transmit. It also depends on whether devices are just advertising or additionally using GATT connections. Bluetooth also has adaptive frequency hopping that helps reduce packet interference.

We have a deeper analysis of interference in the post on Bluetooth LE on the Factory Floor.

Bluetooth Low Energy Packet Formats

In most cases, it’s possible to use beacons without knowing the exact data format of the advertising. It’s usually possible to specify only a few values such as iBeacon UUID, major and minor and the devices and listening apps work together. In some instances it’s necessary to know Bluetooth LE packets formats, for example, to implement your own code.

The Bluetooth packet formats are defined by the Bluetooth specifications but specifications aren’t always the fastest and easiest to understand. There’s a new presentation on SlideShare on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Packet formats.

Winfred Lu from STMicroelectronics describes Link layer, advertising, data channel and physical channel packets.

Read about Using Bluetooth Low Energy (LE)

Tracking Hand Power Tools Using Bluetooth Beacons

DEWALT have a new Bluetooth beacon, the DCE042, that provides tracking of hand power tools.

It works with the Tool Connect System, on web or mobile, to track, assign, and manage tools to save time, improve productivity and reduce costs due to lost tools.

Several years ago we provided consultancy for a similar system developed by AddMobile (since been acquired by Infobric Group). The use of beacons in construction poses challenges related to the internal physical construction of beacons beyond them having to be rugged and IPX rated. Care also needs to be taken to design systems for efficient battery use so that device battery management doesn’t become a burden for users.

Learn More About Beaconzone Consulting

Beacons for Restaurant Order Apps

A growing number of restaurant ordering apps, such as Voolsy, use Bluetooth beacons to determine location.

Voolsy detects restaurants through iBeacons, lets customers explore digital menu, customize their order and place it with just a few taps across thousands of locations. Voolsy reduces your waiting time to get attention of waiter from minutes to seconds

Voolsy supports both ordering and payment for retail locations such as restaurants, food courts or cinemas using beacons. It also provides Voolsy cashback and other exclusive offers from partnered restaurants.

Why Doesn’t the Manufacturer’s Configuration App Connect?

When in typical use, it’s not necessary to connect to a beacon. A beacon just advertises and is detected by a smartphone or Bluetooth gateway. However, to initially set up a beacon you usually connect via a smartphone app. The app might not connect for a number of reasons. Here are some tips:

  • Most beacons need to be put into ‘connectable’ mode. For example, for most AnkhMaway beacons this means tapping them sharply on a table until they ring – they remain connectable for 45 secs and once connected remain so until you have configured the beacon. For Axaet and Meeblue beacons they stay connectable for a few minutes after turning them on.
  • Make sure you are connecting to the correct beacon. This is especially important if you are seeing multiple Bluetooth devices in the list. For example, we had one customer who hadn’t removed the plastic battery slip and had been trying to connect to some other Bluetooth beacon/device.
  • Connecting, via what is a wireless interface, might not work first time. While most connections do happen first time, there can be radio interference and radio signal reflections that can cause the connection to fail. Some configuration apps re-try if the first connect fails while others don’t. Make sure you have tried a few times before concluding a particular scenario doesn’t work.
  • Some phones have a faulty Bluetooth beacon stack. That’s the Bluetooth software built into your phone. While you might be able to view the beacon, connecting to it to change settings uses more advanced functionality that’s sometimes faulty. Over time, we have discovered about 5% of our customers have such problems, more so on Android. It’s a much more common problem than a faulty beacon. You can isolate this possibility by trying a different phone and/or different phone OS type.
  • Don’t try connecting from more than one phone at a time. When connected, that phone has exclusive access to the beacon and other phones won’t be able to see the beacon and connect.
  • Make sure you are using the correct password to connect. It’s not the password on the sticker which is the web site technical area password.
  • Try rebooting your phone to reset the internal Bluetooth software.
  • Try resetting the beacon by removing and replacing the battery (where possible). This isn’t the same as turning off via a button press which usually only puts the beacon into hibernation and doesn’t restart the device.
  • Some configuration apps have known bugs. Read the BeaconZone technical area for your particular beacon manufacturer where we document known problems and workarounds.
  • The beacon could be faulty. This is actually a very rare occurrence and you should initially be considering other more likely possibilities (above). You can isolate this possibility if you have another similar beacon. Please contact us for replacement if you conclude you have a faulty beacon.