Beacons are small Bluetooth transmitters that continuously emit a signal which other devices can receive. You can compare it with a lighthouse that is continuously emitting light. And the sailors get to know about them when they come in range. Similarly, an app that is ready to receive a beacon signal will process the signal as soon as the phone comes in the range of the beacon signal.
Generally, the duration between two beacon signals is one-tenth of a second. This can be reduced or increased as per need. Just like duration, the range of the beacon signal can be set too.
How beacons are used
Suppose, you own a shop. And you’ve bought a beacon device and use it to notify people in the range of 800 meters of the shop about various offers and discounts. All the user has to do is to download your shop’s app. Now, whenever a person will be in the range of your beacon, he will get notified about various offers and discounts that you’ve already entered in the program.
Information emitted by Beacon
In the above example, the beacon won’t be transmitting the offer information. It just sends a code, generally an ID. The app that recognizes this code will function according to the program. In the above example, the app may contain a program to check the database for any new offers. And if there are any, to notify the user.
You can even integrate Google’s services using the Google beacon platform. Learn more about it here.
Everything you want to know about beacon is at kontakt.io
