Beacon Technology Research Articles

A BLE-Based Pedestrian Navigation System for Car Searching in Indoor Parking Garages.

The continuous global increase in the number of cars has led to an increase in parking issues, particularly with respect to the search for available parking spaces and finding cars. In this paper, we propose a navigation system for car owners to find their cars in indoor parking garages. The proposed system comprises a car-searching mobile app and a positioning-assisting subsystem. The app guides car owners to their cars based on a “turn-by-turn” navigation strategy, and has the ability to correct the user’s heading orientation. The subsystem uses beacon technology for indoor positioning, supporting self-guidance of the car-searching mobile app. This study also designed a local coordinate system to support the identification of the locations of parking spaces and beacon devices. We used Android as the platform to implement the proposed car-searching mobile app, and used Bytereal HiBeacon devices to implement the proposed positioning-assisting subsystem. We also deployed the system in a parking lot in our campus for testing. The experimental results verified that the proposed system not only works well, but also provides the car owner with the correct route guidance information.

A home security system for seniors based on the beacon technology

SummaryMany elderly people have a hard time adapting to information technology (IT); for instance, many wearable devices have such rich functions that render them highly power‐consuming, creating operational difficulties for the elderly. The wearable devices must constantly be recharged, which is also an issue for disabled elderly people. Hence, this study utilizes transmitter and receiver of the beacon to learn about the habits of elderly people in their residence while monitoring their heart rate to track their physical condition; when and if they press the medical alarm, help can be sent on their way. This study uses the beacon device to position the location of elderly people in their residence. We have developed a wearable wristband that transmits data through the beacon. The only button on the wristband is a medical alarm; other functions include home positioning and heart rate monitoring, which operate automatically to relieve the elderly people from information technology adaptation issues. This paper will also develop an integrative monitoring platform that aims at detecting whether an elderly person has pressed the medical alarm as well as analyzing whether their heart rate is regular. Given that elderly people stay mostly within the range of their residence, the platform will conduct statistical analysis on schedule of the elderly person of being in and out of the house; if they have left their house for too long or have displayed irregular behavior in leaving or entering the house, then their family will be notified. The proposed method has added privacy and access authority control to prevent malicious parties from tracking the schedule or the residence of elderly people from being invaded. This study has also completed application development and conducted privacy efficacy analysis.

A Study on the Management of Drug Logistics Using Beacon Technology

A Study on the Management of Drug Logistics Using Beacon Technology

Pathways of cellular internalisation of liposomes delivered siRNA and effects on siRNA engagement with target mRNA and silencing in cancer cells

Design of an efficient delivery system is a generally recognised bottleneck in translation of siRNA technology into clinic. Despite research efforts, cellular processes that determine efficiency of siRNA silencing achieved by different delivery formulations remain unclear. Here, we investigated the mechanism(s) of cellular internalisation of a model siRNA-loaded liposome system in a correlation to the engagement of delivered siRNA with its target and consequent silencing by adopting siRNA molecular beacon technology. Probing of cellular internalisation pathways by a panel of pharmacological inhibitors indicated that clathrin-mediated (dynamin-dependent) endocytosis, macropinocytosis (dynamine independent), and cell membrane cholesterol dependent process(es) (clathrin and caveolea-independent) all play a role in the siRNA-liposomes internalization. The inhibition of either of these entry routes was, in general, mirrored by a reduction in the level of siRNA engagement with its target mRNA, as well as in a reduction of the target gene silencing. A dramatic increase in siRNA engagement with its target RNA was observed on disruption of endosomal membrane (by chloroquine), accompanied with an increased silencing. The work thus illustrates that employing molecular beacon siRNA technology one can start to assess the target RNA engagement – a stage between initial cellular internalization and final gene silencing of siRNA delivery systems.

A Study on User Behavior Analysis of Integrate Beacon Technology into Library Information Services

With the popularity of mobile devices, location services have been deep into everyone’s life, and the positioning of data collection is an important goal of data analysis. However, the current applications mainly focus on outdoor device such as WIFI positioning technology was discussed the most often and also got a lot of well research results. This paper mainly discusses the application of Beacon technology in the information service of the library, and understands the user for the acceptance of new technology. Beacon technology is a combination of user and space environment of intelligent technology, beacon is a low-power Bluetooth sensor technology, the library can use this equipment to understand the use of library physical space and collections. The library can be combined with a smart mobile device via Beacon technology, allows users to receive the latest library information, users can also search on the smart mobile devices on various collections. Users can also direct the user to the bookshelf where the destination book is located, depending on the search needs entered by the user. This study discusses the user’s intention to use Beacon in combination with the technology acceptance model and the innovation diffusion theory.

Synthesis and Characterization of a Magnetically Active 19F Molecular Beacon.

Gene expression is used extensively to describe cellular characteristics and behaviors; however, most methods of assessing gene expression are unsuitable for living samples, requiring destructive processes such as fixation or lysis. Recently, molecular beacons have become a viable tool for live-cell imaging of mRNA molecules in situ. Historically, beacon-mediated imaging has been limited to fluorescence-based approaches. We propose the design and synthesis of a novel molecular beacon for magnetic resonance detection of any desired target nucleotide sequence. The biologically compatible synthesis incorporates commonly used bioconjugation reactions in aqueous conditions and is accessible for laboratories without extensive synthesis capabilities. The resulting beacon uses fluorine (19F) as a reporter, which is broadened, or turned "off", via paramagnetic relaxation enhancement from a stabilized nitroxide radical spin label when the beacon is not bound to its nucleic acid target. Therefore, the 19F NMR signal of the beacon is quenched in its hairpin conformation when the spin label and the 19F substituent are held in proximity, but the signal is recovered upon beacon hybridization to its specific complementary nucleotide sequence by physical separation of the radical from the 19F reporter. This study establishes a path for magnetic resonance-based assessment of specific mRNA expression, providing new possibilities for applying molecular beacon technology in living systems.

Identification and imaging of miR-155 in the early screening of lung cancer by targeted delivery of octreotide-conjugated chitosan-molecular beacon nanoparticles

Lung cancer is still the most common cancer globally. Early screening remains the key to improve the prognosis of patients. There is currently a lack of specific and sensitive methods for early screening of lung cancer. In recent years, studies have found that microRNA plays an important role in the occurrence and development of lung cancer and become a biological target in the early diagnosis of lung cancer. In this study, lung cancer cells, subcutaneous xenografts of lung cancer in nude mice, and Lox-Stop-lox K-ras G12D transgenic mice were used as models. The transgenic mice displayed the dynamic processes from normal lung tissue to atypical hyperplasia, adenomas, carcinoma in situ and lung adenocarcinoma. It was found that miR-155 and somatostatin receptor 2 (SSTR2) were expressed in all the disease stages of transgenic mice. Through molecular beacon (MB) technology and nanotechnology, chitosan-molecular beacon (CS-MB) nanoparticles and targeted octreotide (OCT) were conjugated and synthesized. The octreotide-conjugated chitosan-molecular beacon nanoparticles (CS-MB-OCT) can specifically bind to SSTR2 expressed by the lung cancer cells to achieve the goal of identification of lung cancer cells and imaging miR-155 in vivo and in vitro. Fluorescence imaging at different disease stages of lung cancer in Lox-Stop-lox K-ras G12D transgenic mice was performed, and could dynamically monitor the occurrence and development of lung cancer by different fluorescence intensity ranges. The current research, in turn, provides new idea, new method, and new technology for the early screening of lung cancer.

Clustered Crowd GPS for Privacy Valuing Active Localization

With the proliferation of mobile devices having BLE capability and the introduction of Beacon technology, crowdsourcing-based approaches have recently emerged as a promising solution for localization of lost objects or individuals (e.g., children or elders). By attaching affordable Beacon tags to them, objects of care could be tracked and localized by user devices in the proximity. While crowd GPS service has gained popularity recently, it has not extended beyond passive mode in which localization is achieved in the background without intruding the mobility of users. In this paper, we study the localization of lost objects through the crowd GPS service in an active manner. We propose clustering users in a Beacon tag network based on the benefits they can receive from each other in terms of the localization of their lost items. A new metric is developed to quantify this benefit and the users that can provide most of the total possible benefits to each other are then grouped together so that they can provide active localization service for only the users most beneficial to them. The clustering of users is achieved based on both a greedy heuristic based algorithm and a genetic algorithm. Extensive simulation results are conducted utilizing both synthetic data and real location based social network datasets. The results show the effective partitioning of the users under different user counts and groups while valuing the privacy of users at its maximum by limiting the number of interactions between users.

Space Occupancy through BLE Dynamic Broadcasting

Internet of Things (IoT) merges different technologies to provide the needed infrastructure for an adequate inter‐device connection and data exchange, with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) being one of the latest acquisitions. The use of BLE beacons offers a straightforward approach to broadcast information to any device being in the coverage zone and able to process such signal. Instead of this static solution, in this paper, we face an alternative approach that, combining both Wi‐Fi and BLE beacon technologies, is able to dynamically adapt the information being broadcast depending on the particular devices in the coverage area. Taking advantage of the beacon device communications, we propose to monitor the space occupancy throughout the study area (typically inside a building) by following the beacon device data exchange. This information would be later used to improve space analysis. As a proof of concept, we have conducted an experiment inside a faculty to check the potentiality of the proposal, obtaining promising results.

Towards a Beacon-based Situational Prioritization Framework for Process-Aware Information Systems

The ongoing digitalization of enterprise computing solutions and the creation of ubiquitous workspaces offer new advantages for many business domains. However, it is cost- and work-intensive to create these new kinds of workspaces by adopting interconnecting things and migrating applications into the cloud. On the other, enterprises increasingly strive for the potential of the new workspace opportunities to support their operational processes in the best way. For this purpose, we present an approach to enhance the integration of human resources into business processes by gathering environmental information and reacting to situational changes of workers. More specifically, we present a framework based on beacon technology to determine a situational priority for work items with the goal to properly support the worker in his or her decision-making process. We regard such framework as important aspect for many business domains in order to cope with the demands emerging in the light of work management that requires ubiquitous access to all enterprise resources in the best possible way.

Early Steps in Automated Behavior Mapping via Indoor Sensors

Behavior mapping (BM) is a spatial data collection technique in which the locational and behavioral information of a user is noted on a plan layout of the studied environment. Among many indoor positioning technologies, we chose Wi-Fi, BLE beacon and ultra-wide band (UWB) sensor technologies for their popularity and investigated their applicability in BM. We tested three technologies for error ranges and found an average error of 1.39 m for Wi-Fi in a 36 m2 test area (6 m × 6 m), 0.86 m for the BLE beacon in a 37.44 m2 test area (9.6 m × 3.9 m) and 0.24 m for ultra-wide band sensors in a 36 m2 test area (6 m × 6 m). We simulated the applicability of these error ranges for real-time locations by using a behavioral dataset collected from an active learning classroom. We used two UWB tags simultaneously by incorporating a custom-designed ceiling system in a new 39.76 m2 test area (7.35 m × 5.41 m). We considered 26 observation points and collected data for 180 s for each point (total 4680) with an average error of 0.2072 m for 23 points inside the test area. Finally, we demonstrated the use of ultra-wide band sensor technology for BM.

Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from paraffin-embedded tissues by GeneXpert MTB/RIF

GeneXpert MTB/RIF (Xpert) assay, a rapid and automated system based on real-time PCR and molecular beacon technology, proved to be a sensitive and specific tool capable of detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis and rifampin resistance in clinical specimens. In this study we provide a Xpert-dedicated successful protocol for processing paraffin-embedded tissue and assess the feasibility of the Xpert assay-based tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis on these specimens, thus proving the Xpert assay as a valuable TB diagnostic tool in supporting conventional histopathological methods.

Path Navigation using Bluetooth Low Energy-Beacon

Beacons turn the physical world into a new digital channel. They bring digital content and engagement closer to the point of purchase. Beacon technology transmits small packets of data using Bluetooth Low Energy. When a customer’s phone “hears” the beacon it knows how close it is and we can then send a message, a notice, a piece of media or other information. Beacons are low-power transmitters equipped with Bluetooth Low Energy or BLE. Bluetooth Low Energy help mobile devices to detect Proximity and determine micro-location. Advantages of Bluetooth low energy devices are it works up to 100 meters, doesn’t drain the phone battery.In this paper problems with beacon are described and path navigation using Bluetooth Low Keywords: Beacon , Internet of Things – Beacons The New Revolution, Bluetooth Low Energy, Path Navigation, Background Monitoring, Ranging Beacons, Proximity, Tracking

Detection and discrimination of maintenance and de novo CpG methylation events using MethylBreak

Understanding the principles governing the establishment and maintenance activities of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) can help in the development of predictive biomarkers associated with genetic disorders and diseases. A detection system was developed that distinguishes and quantifies methylation events using methylation-sensitive endonucleases and molecular beacon technology. MethylBreak (MB) is a 22-mer oligonucleotide with one hemimethylated and two unmethylated CpG sites, which are also recognition sites for Sau96I and SacII, and is attached to a fluorophore and a quencher. Maintenance methylation was quantified by fluorescence emission due to the digestion of SacII when the hemimethylated CpG site is methylated, which inhibits Sau96I cleavage. The signal difference between SacII digestion of both MB substrate and maintenance methylated MB corresponds to de novo methylation event. Our technology successfully discriminated and measured both methylation activities at different concentrations of MB and achieved a high correlation coefficient of R2=0.997. Additionally, MB was effectively applied to normal and cancer cell lines and in the analysis of enzymatic kinetics and RNA inhibition of recombinant human DNMT1.

An IoT-Based Solution for Control and Monitoring of Additive Manufacturing Processes

Day-by-day, industries are looking for digitizing their manufacturing processes, as well as introducing control and monitoring systems along the shop floor. Internet functionalities and data-based services have been introduced on processes in order to innovate the production based on the Industry 4.0 paradigm. This new concept, also named advanced manufacturing, digital factory or industrial Internet brings benefits for production processes and machines towards a complete value chain transformation with all, or most, information stored on cloud based services. This work presents a proof of concept system additive manufacturing machines management, where an Internet integration of beacon technology on manufacturing environment allows the communication of production data extracted from the machines with mobile devices in a fast and intuitive way. Information can be obtained through applications installed on mobile devices, providing real time indexes of productivity to managers or operators when they simply approach to the machines. The proposed solution aims to show the application of this technology in the manufacturing environment, where IoT (Internet of Things) linked to systems integration and cloud architecture, presents the benefits of the Industry 4.0 concepts. Finally, the gains in productivity and innovation obtained with the concepts of advanced manufacturing have been presented, to add value in term of growth and competitiveness for the companies in their manufacturing processes.

Beacon-based context-aware architecture for crowd sensing public transportation scheduling and user habits

Abstract: Crowd sourcing and sensing are relatively recent paradigms that, enabled by the pervasiveness of mobile devices, allow users to transparently contribute in complex problem solving. Their effectiveness depends on people voluntarism, and this could limit their adoption. Recent technologies for automating context-awareness could give a significant impulse to spread crowdsourcing paradigms. In this paper, we propose a distributed software system that exploits mobile devices to improve public transportation efficiency. It takes advantage of the large number of deployed personal mobile devices and uses them as both mule sensors, in cooperation with beacon technology for geofecing, and clients for getting information about bus positions and estimated arrival times. The paper discusses the prototype architecture, its basic application for getting dynamic bus information, and the long-term scope in supporting transportation companies and municipalities, reducing costs, improving bus lines, urban mobility and planning.

Feasibility and Efficacy of BLE Beacon IoT Devices in Inventory Management at the Shop Floor

<p>Inventory Management is a key area for customer service and cost optimization in any manufacturing setup. As companies turn global and have thousands of components and hundreds of warehouses the inventory becomes a nightmare and a lot of time is spend in tracking inventory and ensuring right shipments. Traditional systems of robotic arms for inventory pick and drop have been based on premises of marking areas of the warehouse and tracking it. However with the advent of IoT all this is set to change as inventory objects become more self-aware and self-broadcasting. This paper technically suggests an approach of managing inventory using low energy blue tooth beacons and also does a statistical case research on two groups of the same organization one before the pilot run where traditional barcode scanners are used to track inventory and other one where the pilot trial BLE beacon technology was used. Statistically the IoT-beacon users are much more efficient and accurate and save lot of time and costs in the short run itself.</p>

Feasibility and Efficacy of BLE Beacon IoT Devices in Inventory Management at the Shop Floor

<p>Inventory Management is a key area for customer service and cost optimization in any manufacturing setup. As companies turn global and have thousands of components and hundreds of warehouses the inventory becomes a nightmare and a lot of time is spend in tracking inventory and ensuring right shipments. Traditional systems of robotic arms for inventory pick and drop have been based on premises of marking areas of the warehouse and tracking it. However with the advent of IoT all this is set to change as inventory objects become more self-aware and self-broadcasting. This paper technically suggests an approach of managing inventory using low energy blue tooth beacons and also does a statistical case research on two groups of the same organization one before the pilot run where traditional barcode scanners are used to track inventory and other one where the pilot trial BLE beacon technology was used. Statistically the IoT-beacon users are much more efficient and accurate and save lot of time and costs in the short run itself.</p>

아두이노와 비콘을 활용한 자동 전원 관리 시스템의 구현

In this study, the system to manage the power automatically was implemented by using Arduino, Raspberry pi, and Beacon technologies. Before the research, pre-research was carried out with the analysis on the existing power management systems in the market in order to find a solution to reduce burdens from standby power and power waste with the increase of electric charges. The system is designed to be able to deliver and receive data through IEEE 802.15.4 wireless protocol, by using Xbee module. Arduino was tested to verify whether it is able to control SSR(Solid State Relay), and it was found that there is no problem. Meanwhile, it was also tested whether it is possible to organize a star topology network through Arduino and Raspberry Pi, and it was confirmed that normal wireless communication is possible through IEEE 802.15.4 wireless protocol. It is designed that the signal from Android smartphone application is to be delivered to Raspberry Pi and then, to be delivered to Arduino through Xbee so that Arduino could control SSR. In addition to this, wireless protocol required to control Arduino with Raspberry Pi is also designed and applied to this research.

An Indoor Guidance System Combining Near Field Communication and Bluetooth Low Energy Beacon Technologies

An Indoor Guidance System Combining Near Field Communication and Bluetooth Low Energy Beacon Technologies