The Next Version of the Bluetooth® Core Specification has been adopted!

2 years of work with contributions from 47 working group members representing 22 member companies. That’s what it took to create the latest version of the Bluetooth Core Specification—Bluetooth 5, which was officially adopted on 6 December 2016.

With up to 4x the range, 2x the speed and 8x the broadcasting message capacity, the enhancements of Bluetooth 5 focus on increasing functionality for the Internet of Things (IoT). The improvements to advertising extensions allow more efficient use of broadcasting channels on the increasingly crowded 2.4 Ghz band, enabling richer connectionless solutions. For mobile phone developers creating the next generation of devices, the update to slot availability masks can detect and prevent interference on neighboring bands to improve coexistence and interoperability in a global environment. On top of all this, building products with Bluetooth 5 will support even better interoperability, as the team has incorporated over 440 performance fixes and enhancements.

“Bluetooth is revolutionizing how people experience the IoT. Bluetooth 5 continues to drive this revolution by delivering reliable IoT connections and mobilizing the adoption of beacons, which in turn will decrease connection barriers and enable a seamless IoT experience. This means whole-home and building coverage, as well as new use cases for outdoor, industrial, and commercials applications will be a reality. With the launch of Bluetooth 5, we continue to evolve to meet the needs of IoT developers and consumers while staying true to what Bluetooth is at its core; the global wireless standard, secure, connectivity.” Mark Powell, executive director, Bluetooth SIG.

Bluetooth 5 will transform the way people experience the IoT, making it more relevant, beneficial, and effortless. We can’t wait to see what you’ll create for the future of the IoT.

Learn more about Bluetooth 5

Consumer Awareness and Preference of Bluetooth® Technology at All-Time High

Bluetooth ready to deliver on consumer interest for IoT and beyond

A recent survey conducted by Lux Insights, Inc. puts consumer awareness of Bluetooth wireless technology at 92 percent globally, with 62 percent of respondents reporting a purchasing preference for Bluetooth enabled products, noting Bluetooth is reliable, easy to use, and makes life easier. The proliferation and success of Bluetooth captured the imagination of the consumer, leading to increased demand for unique wireless applications, most notably home automation, location-based services, personal monitoring and tracking, and remote access control. Industry analyst ABI Research projects that over three billion Bluetooth enabled products will ship this year alone.

“Bluetooth delivers a connection that just works for consumers globally, whether they are listening to music or tracking their steps. This has led to a shift in expectations of what connectivity can be,” said Errett Kroeter, vice president of marketing for the Bluetooth SIG. “Consumers are looking to experience that same convenience and connectivity in all aspects of their lives and we are consciously building the technology to deliver these effortless connections.”

Demand for IoT connectivity is focused in areas where consumers need additional control and insight. Respondents reported the highest interest in location awareness applications (solutions that aid first responders in emergency situations or aid navigation in public spaces and buildings), home automation (controlling lighting, locks, temperature from inside and outside of the home), and personal monitoring (securing monitoring and sending sensitive health and wellness data).

Kroeter added, “The Bluetooth technology roadmap specifically addresses consumer interest in new applications for wireless technology. Better still, many of the applications they are most interested in are available today. Bluetooth enabled beacons currently allow for city navigation in multiple locations; Bluetooth hubs can sync connected home devices and give users control through an internet gateway; Bluetooth moved the sports and fitness market from niche to mainstream in less than two years. All of these exemplify our vision of creating an unthinkably connected world that makes life simpler and establishing an IoT that is accessible to everyone.”

Additional key findings:

On average, consumers now own almost four Bluetooth enabled products (increased from 2.7 in 2012)
Bluetooth awareness has increased six percent since 2012 (92 percent in 2016, 87 percent in 2012)
Bluetooth usage has increased 32 percent since 2012 (78 percent in 2016, 59 percent in 2012)
Nearly two thirds of consumers prefer Bluetooth in their new technology purchases

Regional breakdown of survey findings will be covered athttp://blog.bluetooth.com. For additional information on Bluetooth technology, visit www.bluetooth.com.

Bluetooth Buses in Bucharest Will Guide the Blind

Five hundred buses in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, will soon receive Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons. The beacons will serve to guide blind passengers on and off buses, without the need for any assistance. So far, forty of the BLE beacons have been installed already, with the rest expected to be in place by the end of August.

How does the system work?

A visually impaired user would set up the app on his or her phone before leaving home. The phone application would then allow the user to follow whichever bus lines he or she needs to complete the trip. Each bus in this system has a unique ID in the form of an iBeacon, which alerts the phone of the visually impaired person as to the fact that the bus is arriving. The alert is sent when the iBeacon-equipped bus is 50-60 meters away from the station. Once the bus actually arrives, it will also be informed by iBeacon of the fact that there’s a blind passenger in the station. The bus will begin to beep repeatedly so as to inform the app user of its location even if there’s multiple buses in the station at the time. The beeping stops once the passenger has boarded.

BLE system will simplify travel for tens of thousands of blind in Romania.

Now, thanks to the system, tens of thousands of blind people will be able to easily access any area of Bucharest. They will be able to board, leave, and also transfer buses with ease, since the mobile app will help users find connecting buses easily. By the start of September, the whole Bluetooth system will be up and running, and available for free to anyone in Bucharest.

Who came up with and funded this program?

The program is the result of a project known as Smart Public Transport (SPT). It was organized by Onyx Beacon, provider of the bluetooth beacon technology, RATB (Bucharest’s public transportation agency), and visually impaired project coordinator Tandem Association. The SPT is one of eight projects that received funding by aVodafone Romania Foundation called “Mobile for Good.” The Mobile for Good program is meant to promote the use of mobile technology for social causes.

Onset’s Bluetooth Smart Data Logger Protects the Magna Carta

Onset, a world leader in data loggers for building performance monitoring, today announced that the HOBO MX1101, the company’s first data logger that measures and transmits temperature and relative humidity data wirelessly to mobile devices via Bluetooth Smart technology, is helping to protect a copy of the Magna Carta.

Originally issued by England’s King John in June 1215 to prevent civil war between the king and his barons, the Magna Carta is a world-famous symbol of justice, fairness, and human rights. Having inspired and encouraged movements for freedom and constitutional government for hundreds of years, the four remaining copies have been awarded ‘Memory of the World’ status by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The best-surviving copy of the Magna Carta, currently on exhibition in Britain’s Salisbury Cathedral to commemorate the document’s 800-year anniversary, is stored in a glass display case along with an Onset HOBO MX1101 Bluetooth Temperature/Relative Humidity data logger.

“Preserving the text is of paramount importance,” said Emily Naish, Archivist at Salisbury Cathedral. “Excessive humidity can cause parchment to buckle as it tries to revert to its natural shape. The parchment can expand while the ink remains static, causing ink to lift from the text. As the room in which the Magna Carta is displayed has large glass windows, it is prone to these kinds of damaging fluctuations in humidity.”

Because the display case is sealed and protected by alarm systems, there was no way to constantly monitor temperature and humidity without going through the time-consuming and complicated process of switching off the alarms and accessing the case.

To address this issue, the Cathedral’s exhibition team installed the HOBO MX1101 data logger, purchased through Onset’s UK distributor, Tempcon Instrumentation Limited. The self-contained wireless data logger, which works with Onset’s free HOBOmobile™ app for logger setup and data management, enables staff to use a smart phone or tablet to access the environmental data at any time from a distance up to 100 feet, without having to open the display case – making the HOBO MX1101 the perfect choice for use in the restricted-access conditions of the Cathedral.

“The HOBO MX1101 is an ideal solution for us to protect such an important historical artifact as the Magna Carta,” said Naish. “It’s great that I can check the current conditions at a glance, and have the ability to access historical data without interfering with the exhibit.”

To learn more about the HOBO MX1101 Temperature/ Relative Humidity data logger, visithttp://www.onsetcomp.com/mx.

Indoor Positioning System (IPS)

Locate Your Staff Indoors or Underground using existing Two-Way Radios

GPS technology has made outdoor positioning highly successful, but due to the signal attenuation caused by the construction materials of buildings and the lack of mobile signals underground, indoor positioning systems cannot rely on GPS technology.

Iknaia has developed an Indoor Positioning System (IPS) that will help you locate your staff using Bluetooth technology embedded into two-way radios and other Bluetooth enabled devices. These devices can be tracked using their Bluetooth ID, to give real-time location information on the whereabouts of your staff, anytime, anywhere.

Julia McNally, Founder of Iknaia explains, “Using Iknaia Beacons we can track and monitor workers and assets as they move around a construction site, tunnel or mine, but we can now add registered devices to our platform using their ‘always discoverable’ Bluetooth option. Clients who have already invested in two-way radios and other devices to communicate to their workers, need not invest in further tracking Beacons.”

Iknaia uses Bluetooth Smart or (Bluetooth 4.0) technology to continuously scan for any Bluetooth enabled device that repeatedly broadcasts its presence to nearby Bluetooth Detectors. The server then calculates the position and reports its whereabouts in real-time onto a web management console.

McNally continues, “This is a flexible and standardised technology allowing the ability to add any Bluetooth enabled device to be ‘discovered’. So Smartphones, Tablets, Laptops, Two-Way Radios and DECT phones can be configured to work with our platform. Using Bluetooth wireless connectivity also won’t affect or interfere with any radio or mobile network performance”.

The benefits and opportunities provided by using Iknaia IPS are extensive, inexpensive and ever expanding.

You can contact the team at Iknaia for a free demonstration by emailing them at info@iknaia.co.uk

UriBeacon: More Disruptive than iBeacon?

In October 2014 Google created UriBeacon, an open specification to connect Bluetooth Low power beacons to the web, an experiment they called the Physical Web.

UriBeacon could well be bigger than iBeacon in its disruptive role, providing a bridge between the physical and digital worlds.

For enterprises that can afford a web site but can’t afford a mobile app, UriBeacon brings the benefit of digital to physical convergence.

We should expect tools like WordPress and Adobe Creative Suite to extend the web publishing system to cater for UriBeacon. These offerings are in a position to tie Physical Web into the digital web publishing tools with which millions of content producers are already familiar.

GPS Business News’ Steve Statler explores why that is, how UriBeacons work and what to expect when you start browsing the Physical Web. via Google’s UriBeacon: More Disruptive than iBeacon?.

Use Bluetooth 4.0 to keep track of your Devices and Your Business Assets

One of the challenges that business owners face is tracking inventory or assets. But with the advent of Bluetooth 4.0 you can track inventory or assets with ease and at a reasonably low cost.

These Bluetooth tracking devices can attach to almost anything such as Smartphones, tablets, laptops, briefcases and even storage keys.

Once you’ve paired the tracker with your iPhone or Android phone, these devices work by sounding an alarm when the tracker and your Laptop get separated from each other. This can be helpful if someone tries to walk off with your briefcase. But you can also set up ‘safe’ zones, such as your home or office, so your phone doesn’t start beeping every time you wandered away from your wallet. However if you did lose your wallet in the office you can open the app and press a button to make the tracker start beeping so you can then locate it.

There are several companies that provide inexpensive options to help you find your smartphone or laptop just by using a smartphone app. The cloud is more than just digital assets storage or the moving or corporate data – it can be a tool for protecting, securing and monitoring physical assets too. The Internet of Things (IoT) is connecting people to the cloud in unique and powerful ways. Enterprise versions of some of these devices will empower businesses and help them to keep track of all their assets.

Hipkey (www.hippih.com/hipkey) For those with no inventory, but a few assets to monitor, HipKey is a good Bluetooth tracking device – keeping your tracked item connected to your iPhone. The device is aimed at consumers, but if you have a small number of devices or people and are also iPhone users, this one is fast and easy and will locate assets up to 50m. At $89.99 it is a little expensive if you have multiple items to secure. It’s currently only available with IOS app.

Sticknfind (http://www.stick-n-find.co.uk) If your business needs to go beyond tracking a couple of items, you will probably want to invest in the StickNFind sticker. These are quarter-sized stickers that come in several colours, which you can attach to anything you want to track. StickNFind also has inventory managing “Enterprise Beacons” that will help you track larger numbers of items. These keep track of inventory in real-time, increasing security and decreasing inventory time. Turn your iOS or Android devices into radar so that you can find up to 20 StickNFind marked devices in a 30-meter radius. A pack of 2 costs £49.99.

Tileapp (www.thetileapp.com) The power in the Tile app, is that you can grant access to different phones, so it would allow you to have a team of people locating a lost item. This distributed network is key for Tile: other people can’t see your tiles without permission, but if they have the app running in the background and your tile is nearby, you’ll be able to see where it is. Tiles are cool looking devices, but don’t offer as many features as some of the newer trackers. You can’t set up safe zones and there is no two-way buzzer. Worst of all, you can’t change the battery, when it dies in a year you have to throw away the entire tracker and buy another one. Compatible with both IOS and Android 4.4 Kitkat or higher. Tiles will set you back at around £22.50 each.

Protag (www.theprotag.com), have three products in this market, the G1, Elite and the Duet. Both the G1 and Elite are credit card size cards that have the unique feature of a USB charging port, which prolongs its useage, whereas the Duet runs off a small coin battery. The Duet is more aimed at consumers and comes in multiple colours. Another handy and unique function that all of the Protag products have is two way buzzers, so if you end up losing your phone, you just press the button on the locator to sound an alert on your phone. The Protag G1 is priced at £20.97, the Duet £24.90, and the Elite £66.34.

Lassotag, (www.lassotag.com), is one of the least expensive, available to buy online at only $19.99. It comes in three colours and has a range of up to 50ft with a battery life of three to six months, the larger model called the LassoTag HD, has a rechargeable battery instead. There are some unique features, for example, the app shows you the tracker’s battery life and temperature. And you can personalise the sound your phone makes when you’re too far from the tracker – even record your own voice. But no geofence and no two way communication, plus there is an annual fee for some of the features. You can connect up to 6 Lassotags to your device. Only available on IOS.

Tintag, (www.thetintag.com), boast of being the first item tracking device with an ever- lasting battery. Whilst all the above devices either use a small coin battery which will need to be replaced every 3 months or so, the Tintag comes with a rechargeable battery. You charge it using the home base charger and after 6 hours charging it’s good for 4 months. TinTag also has an online community, (similar to Tile) so if someone finds your lost item and enters your Tintag unique id, a notification will immediately be sent to you, with the location of your item. Compatible with IOS and Android the Tintag is currently only available to purchase on the Indiegogo crowdfunding website : www.indiegogo.com/projects/tintag-the-first-rechargeable-item-tracker

TrackR, (www.trackR.com), offers ‘Crowd GPS’. None of these Bluetooth trackers have GPS, so you can’t look up their location on a map. But Tile, LassoTag and TrackR, all offer a cloud based service so that anytime someone with one of these devices walks past your lost thin, that person’s phone silently notices it and lets you know. Your phone lights up and sows the passerby’s location on a map. The concept is brilliant, but in practice they’ll need to sell a lot of the devices to make the service work properly. The TrackR has a sharp design that can also be engraved, works up to 100ft, compatible with IOS and Android as is available to pre-order on their website for $29.

Bluetooth Low Energy is better for your health!

Wearables like Google Glass, Samsung Gear Live and the Apple Watch are a growing tech category. But do they pose serious health risks?

These gadgets put wireless technology right on your body, increasing exposure to radio waves when we’re all already carrying wireless smartphones, laptops and tablets.

The good news is that most wearables use Bluetooth technology, which emits much lower levels of radiofrequency, or RF, than cellular-based smartphones and other devices that use Wi-Fi.

Bluetooth Low Energy, is a lower power technology than classic Bluetooth typically used in headsets, and operates at powers a lot lower than mobile phones.

The output power of some Bluetooth Low Energy trackers is so low, the FCC does not require them to be tested for Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), a measure of the rate at which energy is absorbed by the human body when exposed to RF radiation, including microwave radiation). Cellphones and laptops, on the other hand, must pass strict SAR testing requirements, since they operate at higher power levels.

But many wearables don’t limit their radiation to Bluetooth. Products like Google Glass, Recon Instruments’ Recon Jet and Optinvent’s ORA use Wi-Fi, too. And that is sounding the alarm for some health professionals.

“Wi-Fi is very similar to cellphone radiation. You definitely don’t want to put these devices near your head or near your reproductive organs” for extended periods of time, said Joel M. Moskowitz, Ph.D., director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the UC Berkeley Prevention Research Center School of Public Health.

Source : Fox News

Retail Embraces iBeacon Technology

As more retailers embrace Beacon technology, could it be that this new technology is the future for these bricks and mortar retailers.

Back in August Macy’s announced it would roll out over 4,000 iBeacons to its 786 stores across the USA and a whole host of other retailers and brands have now joined them.

Crown Estates, who own a good chunk of London’s West End shops have developed a Beacon app and installed Beacons into many of its Regent Street Stores. Real estate developer Simon is deploying Beacons across its 240 malls and shopping centres across the USA, and Apple and Disney both announced it was deploying beacon technology at all its stores to help connect with their customers based on real-time data regarding each shopper’s location at those sites.

Whilst retailers are all racing to implement Beacon technology to engage with their customers – here are just a few of our thoughts before you consider using Beacons in Retail:

1) The customer has to download an application in order to interact with any Beacon placed in store. Is this one app? Or will they have to have one per store? There are some applications that will work with multiple stores, but in order to be able to push relevant content and promotion messages the application needs to be connected to some the in-store loyalty scheme. The big question here is, as a customer how many individual store apps would I want on my phone? Make yours stand out!

2) How do I get the app? Like with all traditional marketing, you have to make your customers aware that you have an application that could benefit them, you need to promote this to them in the same way you market all your other products. What are the benefits? There will be an education process to make your customers aware they can get discounts and incentives on their device.

3) I’ve downloaded the store’s application, I walk into the store – will my device automatically connect with a stores Beacons? No – you have to have your Bluetooth turned on and only then will your phone pick up the Beacons. A significant amount of in-store marketing will have to also be done to promote this.

4) My Bluetooth is on, I have the app, when I walk past the beacon what am I likely to receive? This very much depends on the retailer and how integrated their application is. At a basic level you may get a notification alerting you to a sale or discount on items in the store. However retailers with their own loyalty schemes and fully integrated customer databases, could actually send you out notifications about products that it knows you’ve bought in the past, offering you specific discounts on these items. This retailer will use your previous buying profile to maximise the chances of you spending more whilst in their store.

5) How many alerts will I receive? Now this is the question! A recent study by inMarket found that customer engagement decreases when platforms oversaturate. The study found that if a customer received more than one push notification from a Beacon platform in the same store, app usage among exiting users declines by 313 percent. The same goes if the notifications customers received were irrelevant; the app gets deleted.

6) Can a store track me as I walk around their store. Yes – if you have your Bluetooth turned on and you have the app on your phone. This is a great way for retailers to get a better understanding of their customers habits in store; what aisles they visit, how long they dwell, repeat visits etc. Using this information it can provide intelligence that will help with future store layouts. Of course if you turn your Bluetooth off – you can no longer be tracked. The incentive for the customer here is to provide them with store maps to help them locate items within your store a lot quicker.

7) Does it work on other devices other than Apple? Yes! Apple has definitely stolen the march here and even cornered the phrase ‘iBeacon’. But Beacon technology will also work across Android and Windows, depending on which Beacon vendor you decide to go with. (see also Android devices more optimised for Beacon Technology)

There are some great benefits why as a retailer you should invest in Beacon technology, some consumers will completely embrace it, others will turn off. But like any other retail marketing, try it, test it, learn from it. If its done right you’ll get a much better understanding of your consumer buying habits and see an increase in your sales.

Retailers trialling iBeacons right now:

Trinity Shopping Centre – Leeds, UK

House of Frazer, UK

Target, USA

American Eagle, USA