The Functions of Bluetooth Indoor Positioning and Tracking Solutions

Bluetooth technology advancements in recent years have enabled more effective and accurate low-cost indoor positioning and location services. Today's positioning technology extends beyond detecting the closest beacon to the device to calculating the distance and direction with centimeter-level accuracy.

FREMONT, CA: Bluetooth indoor locating and tracking technology is low-cost, energy-efficient, and simple to deploy. This enables users to discover and monitor things and people quickly and obtain directions and other critical information within buildings and facilities like airports and shopping malls.

Typically, location data can open up more options. For instance, location services technologies can be connected with others, such as IoT and analytics, to trigger specific actions based on the location of a user or object. Typical use cases include providing customers personalized messaging, running an HVAC system, and sending customized marketing material.

Bluetooth's advantages include its low cost, excellent energy efficiency, independence from the network, low interference, and ease of deployment and integration into the bluetooth ecosystem.

The operation of Bluetooth location services

Indoor location is accomplished by using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons that are fixed on objects, walls, ceilings, and other surfaces and transmit radio signals at specified intervals. Devices located within the emission zone can then detect the signs, assisting in determining whether the two (emitter and receiver) are within range of one another.

While a single beacon is adequate to confirm an object's presence, it cannot determine its precise location. Generally, location accuracy rises as the number of beacons grows. After establishing that two objects are in close proximity, the bluetooth location services can determine the distance between them using the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI).

Typically, BLE beacons lack built-in location intelligence and rely on standard protocols to identify what they send. For instance, standard protocols such as iBeacon and Eddystone convey the unique identifiers of the beacons; they also transmit power and other identifiable information.

A typical deployment entails storing the beacons' physical coordinates in an external database or mobile application. This guarantees that the values transmitted by the beacons are transformed into real-world coordinates. It is feasible to estimate a device's approximate location by comparing signal values, beacon coordinates, and the RSSI.

RSSI is a metric that indicates the strength of the beacon's signal. When the distance is excellent, the value is low; the value is greater when the space is short. Specific systems employ trilateration to improve their accuracy. As the name implies, trilateration takes a minimum of three beacons to determine the precise position.