Gamificate your event app with iBeacons
The team at EventGrid started in January worked on integrating iBeacon technology to their event app.
This exciting new feature is an extension of the geofencing capability that Apple enabled in last year’s Passbook, which allows for a previously installed pass or downloaded ticket or loyalty card to popup on the lock screen when you cross the geofence threshold of a defined GPS location. Using BLE, you define more targeted “micro-locations” to trigger an alert, in some cases requiring that you be in the presence of an iBeacon in order to validate a Passbook entry.
Using Bluetooth Low Energy(BLE), iBeacon creates beacon around regions so your app can be alerted when users enter them. They are small wireless sensors placed around that transmit data to your iphone using BLE. Essentially, rather than using satellite signals to locate a device anywhere on Earth as GPS does, BLE can enable a mobile user to navigate and interact with specific regions geofenced by low cost signal emitters that can be placed anywhere, including indoors, and even on moving targets. Additionally, it appears that iOS devices can also act as an iBeacon.
For example, imagine you are walking into a venue with an iPhone 5s (which comes already equipped with iOS7 and iBeacon), and you are approaching a geofenced sensor region near the event venue to which you have already purchased tickets. Instead of having to wait in line and redeem tickets, iBeacon can transmit customized mobile versions of your event ticket or coupons that are closer to your current location. In addition, it can prompt a customer to check out promotions or view personalized messages and recommendations based on current location or previous history with a ticketing company or venue.
In the age of contextual targeting and location, iBeacon’s technology will provide the information you need where and when it is needed, at your utmost convenience!
Here’s How It Works:
From your smart phone, you’ll be able to connect to a nearest iBeacon location and get its hard coded GPS position in order to navigate towards and use the signal to move to closer and therefore redeem your iBeacon purchases. iBeacon supports both “enter” and “exit” for events, so it can send different notifications while entering into the venue range and correspondingly, exiting out of the range. Imagine having a venue auto check-in plus getting any and all relevant information via voice or text when you get closer to the event venue.
Think of the iBeacon app as a tiny radio you can put almost anywhere. When your iPhone or other iOS device gets within range (which equals only a few dozen feet or so), it detects the iBeacon and can estimate how far away it is and pick up your info. Each iBeacon has its own identifier, too, so if your iPhone is within range of more than one iBeacon, it can help you tell them apart.
Simply stick our tiny sensors in any physical place and your users will benefit from personalized micro-location based notifications and corresponding actions when they walk in to your venue or interact with your events.
