In the latest firmware BlueMark Innovations have launched support for Bluetooth detection. All BlueMark sensors including BlueMark zero support this new feature by upgrading the firmware and adding a Bluetooth USB dongle. Bluetooth detection is a great add-on to WiFi analytics or can run stand-alone.
Bluetooth Classic detection is important for (motorized) traffic applications. Although popular smartphones like Android and iOS can’t be detected, most car kits or GPS navigation can be sensed. Bluetooth Classic is an active sensing method, meaning that the sensor will transmit packets to ask for nearby Bluetooth devices. As WiFi uses the same frequency, there may be some performance degradation in WiFi sensing.
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is used mostly to set up a wireless connection between smartphone and accessory like wireless earphones, smartwatch. Detection of BLE devices is different compared to Bluetooth Classic and is completely passive. Passive means that the detection only listens for incoming BLE packets similar to WiFi sensing. Most BLE devices transmit every second or more a packet. Besides smartphone accessories, also newer car kits have BLE support and can be detected.
The final application is the detection of Apple iBeacons (and Google Eddystone beacons). An iBeacon is a special kind of BLE device. Although iBeacons are mostly fixed installations e.g. for instance in a shop, it allows asset tracking. Currently there are a lot of cost-effective battery powered iBeacons available in different form factor such as tags, credit cards. Provide your visitors iBeacons or attach them to your assets to allow tracking.
