Tools to determine exact location when using ibeacons

Question

We are working with a Retail client who would like to know if using multiple iBeacons throughout the store would help track a customer\'s exact location when they are inside the

Answer 1

Bluetooth Low Energy (4.0) alone is not a robust indoor location and mapping technology, it will most likely become part of the fabric of indoor location technologies, in much the same way wi-fi signals are used to add fidelity to GPS signals in cities. Currently iBeacon can really only be used for fairly nebulous nodes indoors, like 'the shoe department' (assuming a large store)

I expect via the 'iBeacon' service (or something alternatively-named), Apple are working on high-resolution indoor location for app developers. You need look no further than their purchase of WifiSLAM, in mid 2013, for evidence. As yet, iBeacon and any other solely BLE technology is not going to give you precise indoor location. (Perhaps if you blanket the store with beacons, and combine a probabilistic model with a physical model, you could do it, but not with any practically-implementable beacon strategy.)

Also of note, is the discussion around Nokia's next-gen BLE HAIP (High-Accuracy Indoor Positioning) version http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/08/23/new-alliance-helps-you-find-needle-in-a-haystack/

Basically accurate indoor positioning doesn't exist in the wild yet, but it's about to...