WAYS TO USE

beacons

15 2015
in

discovery

One of the simplest ways to use iBeacon is on displays, at point-of-sale and at information
points to provide those nearby with content relating to where they are. You can control how
content is displayed by date, time and even the weather. Dierent content can be shown
depending how close someone is to the beacon and by how long theyve been near to it,
whether theyve been there before and if theyre are moving away.

In its simplest form iBeacon technology can be

used to transmit content from one device to
another. It works like AirDrop but is persistent
the sharing persists from one app to another until
transmission is stopped.

sharing

selling

& customer
service

Place an iBeacon on a mannequin, sofa, pair of shoes or even a house to

let potential buyers to nd out more about a product when near to them.
Beacons are being adopted in retail to help shoppers make more
informed buying decisions and to navigate their way around stores.
Beacons are also being used by retailers alongside customer data
proling to up-sell and cross-sell, and also to provide a more personalised
customer service.

inuencing behaviour
Whether its to make a purchase, learn about something or go
somewhere, beacons are being used to inuence the behaviour of
those nearby and this is especially eective when they are used in
clusters. For example, by triggering dierent information at various
beacon points in a museum you can potentially alter the visitors path
to include a new display or perhaps a survey or donation point.

monitoring
& tracking

Potentially you can monitor anything such as proximity

to a beacon, dwell time, path from one beacon to
another, and then use this information to learn out
about your places, spaces, customers, visitors,
patients, students etc. In Healthcare, beacons can be
used to track a number of things like medicine
dispensing, hospital ward entry sanitation and to allow
doctors to quickly and securely access the correct
patent records.

counting

Every beacon interaction can be counted which means they can be used standalone or in
groups to collect numerical data and ow proling. Examples are cars entering a car park,
shoppers in a till queue, people entering/leaving a building, patients in a waiting area, and
attendees at a conference. Whether your motivation for counting is sales, safety or something
entirely dierent, beacons can play a useful and important role in measuring numbers.

education

There is great potential for

using beacons in schools and
universities. You can turn a
teachers device into a beacon
to automatically transmit the
right content to students
devices when the teacher
walks into a room. Teachers
can also create their own
beacon self-discovery
displays for students to explore with their
devices. Integration with back-end
solutions like Google Apps for Education
and iTunesU ensure that beacons t in with
existing education platforms, therefore
oering real value.

automation

Beacons can be used to automate mechanical

processes; turning on the lights, adjusting the
heating, vending a coee or paying for parking,
and also manual processes such as airport
check-in or entering a building. In most
situations where the if this, then that rule can
be applied, beacons can be used to make
things to happen magically where youre
nearby.

polling & surveys

For many things like surveys, place and timing is a major factor
for success. Beacons give you the power for in the moment
feedback from the right people exactly when you need it. For
example, you can use a beacon to conduct a survey at the exit of
your museum, or take a real-time poll at a live conference.

payments
Beacons can be used to trigger in the moment real-time
payments and therefore enable sales to be closed when the
time is right. Oering seamless on-the-spot payments will
please customers who are in a hurry and some retailers like
Apple, are moving completely away from tills in the corner
retail layouts in favour of more dynamic and self-service
payment processes which align perfectly with beacon
technology.

11

wearables

http://www.apple.com/uk/watch/apple-watch-sport/

The growth of wearables is great for beacons as devices like smart watches are pushing the
widespread adoption of Low Energy Bluetooth in everyday use. So whether its a watch, a
tness band or a smart item of clothing, connecting the wearable to devices and services that
are nearby has very exciting potential. You could, for example, receive app notications on
your watch when its nearby a beacon, or link your physical activity that day to automatically
customise your workout plan, which is beacon-triggered when you enter the gym.

groups

12

Any group of people who get together can use beacons to get more out of that time and
place. You could take a beacon with you to a meeting and instantly share your contact details,
agenda and presentation with anyone in that room, without email and without codes. Another
example is at a networking event, where a room can identify who is in it and encourage
interactions by making introductions automatically based on shared interests or company
sectors.

13

market

segmentation

The great thing about beacons is that you

can layer content on them and control who
sees what. In a museum, for example, you
can deliver dierent content for rst time
visitors, regular visitors, patrons, school
children etc. All these dierent sets of
content are all triggered by the same set of
beacons, but the user experience is dened
by each users app and their own unique use
of it.

security

14

Beacons can add an extra layer to many

security systems to make them much more
resilient. E.g. if John is carrying a beacon
and passes a face recognition camera, the
system no longer asks Whose face is
this? but rather Is this Johns face?, which
performs a much deeper recognition test.
Personal beacons can also be useful for
determining access to information or log
access to areas in a building.

15
fun

iBeacon app content doesnt have to be a just a coupon or a special oer,

far from it! Apps can be used to deliver videos, images, games, puzzles and
quizzes, that are pertinent to a specic location. You could give a beacon as
a gift, which automatically opens some content in an app on a specic date
such as voucher on a birthday. One of the rst uses for beacons and still one
of the best is for treasure hunts, where users reveal clues by visiting
beacons in a specic order.

these are just a few examples

how will you use beacons

2015?
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