Beacon Technologies: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Beacosystem

© Stephen Statler 2016

Stephen StatlerBeacon Technologies10.1007/978-1-4842-1889-1_1

1. Introduction

Stephen Statler^1 

(1)

San Diego, California, USA

 

Bluetooth beacons are changing the experience of using smartphones to travel, shop, work, and play. App developers can now link people’s movements through the physical world to events in the digital world of mobile apps, the web, and cloud services. As we walk around, we can trigger actions on our phones, point-of-sale terminals, digital displays, door locks, lighting, or any appliance with an Internet connection. Typing, pointing, and clicking drove our interaction with digital devices before the advent of the Bluetooth beacon; now our movements, location, and physical proximity to objects ...