A BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) beacon is a small, low-power wireless hardware device that periodically broadcasts standardized Bluetooth signals, typically containing a unique identifier, which nearby receiver devices such as smartphones or dedicated scanners can detect to estimate proximity or location. In the context of occupancy sensing and crowd management, BLE beacons are valued for their low energy consumption, low cost, and ability to enable fine-grained indoor positioning and people counting without requiring active user participation beyond carrying a BLE-enabled device. Key variants include iBeacon (Apple's protocol) and Eddystone (Google's open format), which differ in their data packet structures and supported use cases but share the same underlying BLE radio technology.
Source Papers
- Occupancy Prediction in IoT-Enabled Smart Buildings: Technologies, Methods, and Future Directions ↗ — Occupancy Prediction in IoT-Enabled Smart Buildings: Technol
- Physics of Human Crowds ↗ — Physics of Human Crowds
- Sensing Technologies for Crowd Management, Adaptation, and Information Dissemination in Public Transportation Systems: A Review ↗ — Sensing Technologies for Crowd Management, Adaptation, and I