Empowering Accessibility: BLE Beacon-Based IoT Localization

The Internet of Things (IoT) localization empowers smart infrastructures of buildings to deliver advanced services to users leveraging mobile devices. In this context, in order to enhance the mobility of people with disabilities on the university campus, a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon-based ind...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Patryk Pyt, Kacper Skrobacz, Piotr Jankowski-Mihułowicz, Mariusz Węglarski, Kazimierz Kamuda
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-09-01
Series:Electronics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/12/19/4012
Description
Summary:The Internet of Things (IoT) localization empowers smart infrastructures of buildings to deliver advanced services to users leveraging mobile devices. In this context, in order to enhance the mobility of people with disabilities on the university campus, a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon-based indoor system was developed. Particular emphasis was placed on selection of the beacon for the designed application, which was performed on the basis of the energy demand characteristics at the assumed power settings and time intervals of the emitted signal. The paper also focuses on various concepts of transmitter deployment inside buildings of the campus in order to demonstrate possible configurations in which the IoT localization will work correctly. Based on experimental determination of the signal strength reaching users’ mobile devices, the best arrangement of the system was proposed. However, the dependence of the calculated distance between the interrogated beacon and the mobile device as a function of the received signal strength is a non-deterministic function of many factors; thus, only an approximate position can be designated on the performed measurements. Nevertheless, the BLE beacon-based system, supported by additional localization algorithms integrated into the user’s mobile software, can be useful for the applications in question.
ISSN:2079-9292