Proximity vs True Location

At its core, technology that helps us understand where people and things are located inside buildings boils down to two basic concepts: either knowing when a user is in close proximity to a certain point, or being able to ascertain the user’s position regardless of his or her location within the building. The former relates to Proximity Systems and the latter to Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS).

Let’s take a closer look at each.

Proximity Systems

At the heart of proximity systems are beacons. Simply put, “beacons” used for positioning typically are Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) units acting as transmitters that broadcast their identifying information to nearby mobile devices, such as smartphones.

For those who simply want to understand where people and things have been at certain points in time, proximity is a good option. Beacons provide data about when a person or thing is within range of a certain point (the beacon location). That data can then be used, for instance, to target a shopper who is nearing a certain store with a marketing promotion.

Beacon benefits are limited to their proximity, however, and most who deploy beacons typically limit them to a handful of locations within a building. They are simple and quick to install, and their functional limitations are well understood.

While beacons can be used in larger buildings, particularly when the information sought is a simple notification in relatively few locations, if a greater connection with the user is desired or warranted, beacons will need to be mounted in many locations. In that case, it’s simply more efficient to use IPS.

Beacons, including Apple’s iBeacon version, can be a subset of the more robust IPS.

Indoor Positioning Systems

In contrast to the proximity-only approach, IPS incorporates beacons as part of a more substantive offering that makes possible applications such as wayfinding, friend-finding, enhanced marketing opportunities, detailed analytics and more.

A primary difference between beacon-only proximity solutions and IPS is that IPS systems work from several beacon signals at once, while also using the motion sensor and other sensors in the user’s mobile device.  By combining all of these elements, the IPS system accurately calculates the user’s position to within just inches and, with some IPS systems, understands what the user’s next steps will be, even in buildings with multiple floors.

With wayfinding, IPS systems work in the same manner as GPS for outside applications. Rather than bouncing signals off satellites, IPS exchanges signals between beacons and the sensors within smart devices, such as phones. Wayfinding helps a user maneuver a space, such as a shopping mall or hospital, both guiding the user and anticipating next movements based on the current trajectory. Friend-finding works in much the same way, allowing users to locate others in their social circles within indoor spaces.

IPS also helps provide marketing opportunities. For instance, shopkeepers or mall management can define arbitrary areas in the shopping mall where they want notifications or commercial advertisements. The locations are completely configurable through the server on the IPS system – no hardware movement required.

IPS also has the advantage of providing detailed, up-to-the-minute analytics, showing precisely how the users move around within the building and allowing decisions to be made based on those analytics.  For instance, a traditionally heavily traveled area within a mall might command higher rents than other lower-traffic zones, or slow traffic zones could be reconfigured to make them more conducive to foot traffic.

Unlike proximity beacons, which only show whether a user has been in a certain area, IPS allows for behavior analysis for customers, such as “What is this user doing?” with possible responses including, “Passing by this store,” “Looking in the window,” or “Entering the store.”

IPS works well in a variety of applications beyond shopping venues, and it’s gaining some good attention in healthcare settings where it’s important to help patients find their way so they can get to the appointments on time.  Another use for IPS in healthcare involves using a positioning beacon on medical equipment to help track is location for regular maintenance and so it can easily be located when it’s needed, which is particularly useful in emergency situations.

A key attribute for IPS is that the system’s owner can define what data to look for after it’s been gathered, and can examine traffic flows at any location, not just those where beacons have been placed. That is not possible with proximity beacons since the determination must be made about what data is desired so the beacons can be placed in the correct locations.