State of the Art, Trends and Future of Bluetooth Low Energy, Near Field Communication and Visible Light Communication in the Development of Smart Cities

The current social impact of new technologies has produced major changes in all areas of society, creating the concept of a smart city supported by an electronic infrastructure, telecommunications and information technology. This paper presents a review of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Near Field Communication (NFC) and Visible Light Communication (VLC) and their use and influence within different areas of the development of the smart city. The document also presents a review of Big Data Solutions for the management of information and the extraction of knowledge in an environment where things are connected by an “Internet of Things” (IoT) network. Lastly, we present how these technologies can be combined together to benefit the development of the smart city

A review of smartphones based indoor positioning: challenges and applications

The continual proliferation of mobile devices has encouraged much effort in using the smartphones for indoor positioning. This article is dedicated to review the most recent and interesting smartphones based indoor navigation systems, ranging from electromagnetic to inertia to visible light ones, with an emphasis on their unique challenges and potential real-world applications. A taxonomy of smartphones sensors will be introduced, which serves as the basis to categorise different positioning systems for reviewing. A set of criteria to be used for the evaluation purpose will be devised. For each sensor category, the most recent, interesting and practical systems will be examined, with detailed discussion on the open research questions for the academics, and the practicality for the potential clients

Smart Parking System Based on Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons with Particle Filtering

Urban centers and dense populations are expanding, hence, there is a growing demand for novel applications to aid in planning and optimization. In this work, a smart parking system that operates both indoor and outdoor is introduced. The system is based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and uses particle filtering to improve its accuracy. Through simple BLE connectivity with smartphones, an intuitive parking system is designed and deployed. The proposed system pairs each spot with a unique BLE beacon, providing users with guidance to free parking spaces and a secure and automated payment scheme based on real-time usage of the parking space. Three sets of experiments were conducted to examine different aspects of the system. A particle filter is implemented in order to increase the system performance and improve the credence of the results. Through extensive experimentation in both indoor and outdoor parking spaces, the system was able to correctly predict which spot the user has parked in, as well as estimate the distance of the user from the beacon

Architecture for museums location-based content delivery using augmented reality and beacons

The digital transformation applied to museum's context is somehow usual nowadays, presenting many benefits to the visitors. However, most of the applications provide static and basic information that is not appealing nor promotes the involvement of the visitor in the tour. This paper proposes an architecture of a location-based content delivery inside a museum, based on a dynamic approach that promotes the visitor to immerse in the tour's story. The solution was created as a response to a real case study for the Foz C?a museum in Portugal. The proposed solution uses beacons, for the indoor location of visitors, and augmented reality for providing contents based on what the user is seeing, following a narrative that captures his attention at all times and providing artifact's details that the naked eye can not see. A comparative study was made to determine the properties and compare two augmented reality tools: Immersal AR and EasyAR. The precision of beacons detection, under different conditions and configurations, was also presented as preliminary results of this work.5311-8814-F0ED | Sara Maria da Cruz Maia de Oliveira PaivaN/

Digital places: location-based digital practices in higher education using Bluetooth Beacons

The physical campus is a shared space that enables staff and students, industry and the public, to collaborate in the acquisition, construction and consolidation of knowledge. However, its position as the primary place for learning is being challenged by blended modes of study that range from learning experiences from fully online to more traditional campus-based approaches. Bluetooth beacons offer the potential to combine the strengths of both the digital world and the traditional university campus by augmenting physical spaces to enhance learning opportunities, and the student experience more generally. This simple technology offers new possibilities to extend and enrich opportunities for learning by exploiting the near-ubiquitous nature of personal technology. This paper provides a high-level overview of Bluetooth beacon technology, along with an indication of some of the ways in which it is developing, and ways that it could be used to support learning in higher education

Wireless communication, identification and sensing technologies enabling integrated logistics: a study in the harbor environment

In the last decade, integrated logistics has become an important challenge in the development of wireless communication, identification and sensing technology, due to the growing complexity of logistics processes and the increasing demand for adapting systems to new requirements. The advancement of wireless technology provides a wide range of options for the maritime container terminals. Electronic devices employed in container terminals reduce the manual effort, facilitating timely information flow and enhancing control and quality of service and decision made. In this paper, we examine the technology that can be used to support integration in harbor's logistics. In the literature, most systems have been developed to address specific needs of particular harbors, but a systematic study is missing. The purpose is to provide an overview to the reader about which technology of integrated logistics can be implemented and what remains to be addressed in the future

A Classification Framework for Beacon Applications

Beacons have received considerable attention in recent years, which is partially due to the fact that they serve as a flexible and versatile replacement for RFIDs in many applications. However, beacons are mostly considered from a purely technical perspective. This paper provides a conceptual view on application scenarios for beacons and introduces a novel framework for characterizing these. The framework consists of four dimensions: device movement, action trigger, purpose type, and connectivity requirements. Based on these, three archetypical scenarios are described. Finally, event-condition-action rules and online algorithms are used to formalize the backend of a beacon architecture

Feasibility study of the new Bluetooth 5.1 location functions and the development of a business plan based on the application of this technology as a form of indoor positioning.

The objective of this final Master's thesis is to carry out a feasibility study, both at a technical and commercial level, of the new Bluetooth Direction Finding technology based on the novelties provided by the Bluetooth 5.1 version. The specifications of the Bluetooth 5.1 version improve location services with a direction finding feature that makes it possible to detect the direction of a Bluetooth signal. Using this new function, the idea of the project is to make a study of this function at the technical level and in addition to developing a possible business plan based on this technology with the idea of indoor positioning or even item finding. Including a study of the ecosystem of competent RTLS systems implemented in the market at the national level. In addition to doing a review of the state of the art of IoT and in particular of RTLS technologies and the evolution that this can bring to current logistics. Taking into account that logistics is a key area in the Industry 4.0 environment and that the application of an RTLS system on it can result in an optimization of processes and time