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BEACONS

Bettering building users experience

Have you heard about ibeacons and the way they will change real-estate users experiences?. If not, be sure you will do it very soon.

Using this relatively new technology, some real-estate operators are starting to offer much better experiences to building users. They are improving their building value, and taking advantage from their competitors. At the end, everybody will copy them, but they will have the benefit of being “there” first.

Here I expose an introduction on what an ibeacon is, and on what can be done at real-estate industry using them, as it is the amazing opportunity of having a GPS that works indoor. And I will try to do it from the real-estate business point of view, not from the IT one.

First: an ibeacon is a small and cheap device. As small as a common car key, and as cheap as 15-90 $ each one. Its technology is only a year old. Is for that its use is not generalized yet. It is wireless and autonomous, with a small battery that lasts for two years.

What an ibeacon does?. Very simple. It only send a signal with a very short information on it, just saying “I´m the ibeacon number x”. The signal is sent using a new protocol, you will hear about a lot in the future, named bluetooth low-energy (BLE).

The signal sent by an ibeacon can be received in a circle of 10-30 meters from the ibeacon. And the very important thing is that almost all the new smartphones can read it.

But, with so few information on the signal and so short radius of communication, why is the technology important for the real-estate business?.  There are some different answers to that question, but one of them is based on the fact that GPS doesn´t work when you are into a building. Using ibeacons you can create an indoor GPS, and much more.

Just imagine that there is an ibeacon located, for example, up on the entrance of a shop in a mall. Now imagine you approach that shop, and imagine that you have in your telephone the app of the mall. Your smartphone will read the signal from the ibeacon saying it is the ibeacon number x. As the app at your smartphone knows where this ibeacon is located, the app will know that you are a few meters close to that shop. Then, you and the app can start a communication based on proximity to that shop. For example, the app (not the ibeacon) can send to you messages with the discounts they have right now.

Now think on a lot of ibeacons located on that mall. The mall´s operator (and its app) will know where every ibeacon is located. As soon as you get close to every one of them, the app will send you different information, that can be adapted to your profile on that app. For example, if you have said in your profile that you like tvs, the app will only send you information about tvs close to where you are.

Doing that, the app knows approximately where you are. But, if there are three ibeacons you can receive signal from at every place in the mall, the app can triangulate, and will know exactly where you are. At that point, you will have a GPS for moving into the mall.

With that GPS you could ask the app, for example, where the toilet is, and please, guide there to me. Think on how many times you have found lost on a big building trying to get to an specific shop, or whatever...

Even more, as the building has wifi, you can use internet. That means that, following with the example of your interest on tvs, when you access the mall you ask for a guide to get to the tv shop. Once you are close to it, you receive information on the big offers they have precisely today. And you can follow a link to a web page where you have all the characteristics on those offered tvs.

There are plenty of services that can be offered to building users with this technology. And they depend on the building owner imagination. He can offer almost everything at his app. And he also will obtain very useful information on users satisfaction and desires.

Just as examples, in order to start letting your imagination fly, take a look at the followings:

• At any building. You can guide blind people with oral messages. They ask for the way to one place, and the app tell them: turn right, go ahead, stop,… Or you can guide wheelchairs users showing them the route without steps.
• At a parking. You can ask “where my car is?, please guide me there”.
• At a hospital. You can ask for the way to room xx, or to doctor´s xx desk, where you have an appointment.
• Also at a hospital. Having an emergency at room xx, the app will know the nurse who is closer right now, and will send her a message for going quickly to that room.
• At a museum. You can ask for the way to the Gioconda, and once in front of it, you can ask for explanations on it (written or oral), and you can ask for that explanations in your language.
• At an airport. Just at the entrance, you can ask for your flight´s gate, and for the way to it, and for information on delays,..
• At an office building, the company renting it will know where their employees and visitors are at any time, being able to implement lots of actions based on this information.
• And you can receive information as, for example, “at your right hand there is a pub where they are now offering a happy hour”.

As it can be seen, the possibilities are huge. And, remember, the ibeacon only allow the building´s app to know where you are. All the services are offered by the building´s app, and are received on your smartphone.

One of the, yet, very few buildings that have implemented this technology is the San Francisco airport. You can see information on it here

This technology will not change any brick, but can completely change the way everybody will experience their time inside buildings.

I´m excited with it, and for that, I have started my collaboration with a new company involved on developments of this technology for buildings. If interested, please visit Aroundwise.com