Smart Beacons will enable Internet of Things!

Beacon, according to general definition, is a device responsible for attracting attention to specific location. It provides information about the context that indicates set of actions possible to perform.

Harbour lighthouse is one of the form you can think of. Showing mariners location of the harbour initially they been powered by fire. Each epochs of civilisation evolution gave us deeper knowledge of the world around us. That led to massive improvements. Thanks to people like Aimé Argand or John Richardson Wigham flame based light become much stronger and constant during 18/19th century. Electricity popularised in 20th century improved light quality even further. Then paradigm shift happened. Invention of computers and satellites made GPS primary location technology. Beacons in form of lighthouses become obsolete relict of the past. But all that inventions could not happened without them, and value they gave us at this point of history.

Thanks to the same paradigm shift Beacons idea was reborn. Technological inventions and miniaturisation allowed them to move indoors. Thanks to Bluetooth LE and iBeacon standard Smart Beacons were born and become lighthouses for smartphones. Fulfilling the role of providing us relevant context but on the completely new level. They came closer to the wider audience letting us sense what’s around. I see Smart Beacons becoming essential part of our life. Further advancements in Bluetooth technology like long range or meshing will make them much more powerful.

The history will repeat itself again. But with much faster pace! Another great paradigm shift is ahead. Research in mechanisms of our brain operations will let us directly sense context. We won’t need smartphones anymore. We will get rid of all devices attached to our body too. Everyday things become smarter and enabled to communicate. Internet of things will arise. Beacons in form of Bluetooth devices will become obsolete relict of the past.

Beacons are essential for this paradigm shift to happen though. Strong value proposition is pushing capital and resources towards further improvements. Help us create new versions of communication technologies and optimise power consumption levels. Invent new business and security models. They give us a prototype version of contexts network, showing challenges and edge cases we need to work out.

They will help us prototype the future!