TITLE:
BeaLib: A Beacon Enabled Smart Library System
AUTHORS:
Monica Laxman Uttarwar, Arun kumar, Peter H. J. Chong
KEYWORDS:
Bluetooth Low Energy, Beacons, Proximity Sensor, Indoor Navigation, Global Positioning System
JOURNAL NAME:
Wireless Sensor Network,
Vol.9 No.8,
August
22,
2017
ABSTRACT: Nowadays, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) receivers are used for outdoor
navigation, which are the part of recent smartphones and tablet devices. However,
GPS is not suitable for indoor navigations due to its signal limitations which
are blocked by ceiling and walls. Indoor navigation can be achieved through a
mobile phone using a recent technology that utilizes Bluetooth, namely beacons.
Beacons are small transmitters, run on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology,
used as a point of reference for mobile devices and they can detect a Bluetooth
enabled device once it enters its transmission range. In this paper, we
present BeaLib: a beacon assisted indoor navigation technique for smart libraries.
The proposed indoor navigation technique can also be used for other applications
such as offices, retails, airports, hospitality, and education. For experimentation,
beacons are placed in a library and a Bluetooth enabled smartphone
is used to install a digital library application (App) which communicates
with the beacons. The result shows that when the smartphone comes in
the range of a beacon, it shows the information related to the book on the smartphone
screen.