Mister Beacon

This week on Mr. Beacon, we talk to Micha Benoliel, CEO of Nodle, a connectivity provider for the Internet of Things. Nodle has an impressive 4.3 million active nodes, and 78 million IoT devices connected to date. Nodle has built and continues to grow a network, based on Bluetooth Low Energy, that connects devices and collects their data. They have a unique approach of leveraging smartphone infrastructure to create availability for the network, crowdsourcing connectivity as Micha puts it. In this episode, we talk about the evolution of the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi standards, as well as dive into how blockchain can enable this network and data to scale while offering protection and privacy to its contributors.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week we talk to the Wiliot engineers behind the first sticker sized battery free Bluetooth tag about how it works and the approach to its design. Wiliot envisions a world of smarter "Things" that can sell themselves and offer functionality not possible before. Apparel and pharmaceutical packaging become connected to the cloud. The Internet of Things can scale and offer real value as we understand where products are, who is using them and when they need to be replenished. Manufacturing, supply chain and inventory can be optimized. Makers of products and retailers can flourish in the face of disruption from online shopping. Anything we wear, touch or use can include sensing and connectivity, thanks to battery-free devices with an infinite lifetime.Wiliot is a semiconductor company whose mission is to connect people with products with cloud connected sticker sized Battery Free Bluetooth tags. The company was founded by the leadership of the Gigabit Wi-Fi pioneer Wilocity, a group of wireless engineers

Headquartered near Barcelona, Accent Systems’ main business is designing and developing tailored Bluetooth enabled IoT devices, from concept to an end-to-end solution. Accent Systems has worked with well-known brands such as Samsonite and Volkswagen, enabling them to offer unique services to their consumers through beacons technology. In this episode of Mr. Beacon, we talk to the CEO and Founder, Jordi Casamada about the evolution of the company over the past 11 years as well as the evolution in the beacon market: including his opinion on the retirement of Android’s Nearby and how it will affect the future. We also discuss an area where Accent Systems has pioneered, using Narrow Band IoT to connect Bluetooth devices directly to the IoT.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week on Mr. Beacon we talk to Justin Zastrow, CEO, and Ira Hayes, CTO, of Smart Armor.Smart Armor builds controlled access points, in other words Bluetooth locking systems. The company was born out of creating a solution for locking medicine cabinets and measuring adherence to medication. Now they are finding many different applications where securing drawers and cabinets, and using your phone as the “key” using the Smart Armor Smart Cube is very useful. You can find their cube in Best Buy today, and soon it Home Depot and Costco!  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There doesn’t seem like a more perfect use of wayfinding services using Bluetooth beacons than in the largest shopping and entertainment complex in the United States – Mall of America. Janette Smrcka, Information Technology Director at Mall of America, took on the challenge of enabling users to locate and navigate effectively across 520 stores on 5 levels, spanning 4.3 miles, over 5.6 million square feet. In this Episode of Mr. Beacon, we talk with Janette about what beacons and “blue dot” provider they are using, why they are using beacons over Wi-Fi, and how they deal with scaling in such a complex and large structure. We even get the inside scoop of where she sees the technology adding more value in the future.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With 300 million square feet, covering 35 countries, 100,000 beacons, and 200,000 connections per day, the French company Pole Star definitely deserves its recognition in the Beacosystem. In this episode, we talk with the Deputy General Manager & CTO of Pole Star, Jean-Baptiste Prost about use cases in their four main verticals. Polestar promises an enhanced user experience, engagement with visitors, and insight into how your spaced in used. Polestar can make any venue “smart” with indoor location, geofencing, and analytics. Watch this week’s interview to hear about the evolution of Polestar and the beacon market, and where the future is heading.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

One of the essential ingredients to the infrastructure of many systems is a gateway - a device that connects ‘things’ to the cloud. In many cases, these ‘things’ are Bluetooth beacons! Rigado, one of the leaders in this space, produces a ‘edge-as-a-service’ infrastructure - wireless gateways and an edge computing platform. This infrastructure is used for Commercial IoT solutions, like asset tracking and in smart buildings. On this episode of Mr. Beacon, Rigado’s CTO, Justin Rigling, gives us insight into which kind of applications gateways are essential, as well as an overview of their products and services.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the August 24th, Estimote launched a first for the IoT industry, an LTE beacon. It leverages cellular LTE, GPS, and Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity. This small device, fully programmable using JavaScript, was built on the idea of enabling asset tracking in both indoor and outdoor environments. Jakub Krzych, Estimote’s CEO, gives us a first look at this revolutionary product, how it works with the Estimote cloud, and their vision of empowering developers to “use the physical world as their canvas”.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Meet the leading designer and maker of Bluetooth beacons in Italy, BlueUp. Partnered with Quuppa for next generation angle-of-arrival location, and supporting iBeacon and Eddystone, BlueUp offers beacons of all shapes and sizes, gateways, along with software and cloud services. As the number of beacons grow and they gain more and more visibility, new applications constantly appear and are even changing the way we talk about “beacons” or “tags”. This week we talk with Alessio Cucini, who has seen the evolution of the beacon market since launching BlueUp in 2014. Optimistic about the direction of the beacon market, Alessio discusses the shift in applications and terminology, iBeacon versus Eddystone, and encryption versus static IDs.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Asif Khan, Founder and President of the Location Based Marketing Association (LBMA), defines location based marketing as the intersection of people, places, and media. Asif through the LBMA shares the best of what is possible and inspires companies to think differently about the technology available to them. On this episode of Mr. Beacon, we talk pilots, surveys, trends, and end with a 3 layer cake that reveals what is essential to an effective location based marketing solution.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

ThinkInside is working with some of the most successful retailers and manufacturers in the world. Making physical space “smart” is their vision. CEO Iacopo Carreras discusses how his platform captures large volumes of very precise location data, which is used for operational advantage and to unlock insights into behavior. Problems with flow, layout, engagement, and sales can all be uncovered when looking at the complete buyers’ journey in the store, starting form when they pick up their basket, till after their purchase is made. The benefits extend beyond category management, product placement, and asset optimization. With Bluetooth technology integrated into the infrastructure of the building, wayfinding, interactive shopping lists, and proximity marketing all become available to anyone with a smartphone.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We all can relate to the feeling of an uncomfortable wristband, one that was fastened too tight, continuously scratching our wrists, or even too loose and falling off altogether. Personal identification, whether it be in healthcare, hospitality, or recreation, has yet to see many improvements either for the user or provider. Idion aims to change this by creating a skin-applied, hypoallergenic, and flexible personal identifier and platform using radio frequency technology. Michael Gilvary, co-founder and COO, partnered with Dr. Peter Costantino, Chair of Head and Neck Surgery at Northwell to design this revolutionary solution. For patients/users, Idion can provide a comfortable, safe method of identification with an additional value-add of aiding the user with relevant and personalized information, education, and services like navigation. For healthcare providers, this skin-applied solution offers a way of overcoming the significant problems associated with misidentification in hospitals and can provide ways o

From sporting goods to luxury items to cosmetics, there a massive problem with counterfeiting. This 1.7 billion dollar problem is a weighty pain point in most verticals. The health and safety consequences are serious, and misrepresentation of the brand image and quality is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of negative ramifications. On this week’s episode, we talk to Ross Mandel, CEO of VerifyItNow, about the business he built around finding a solution to this problem. We discuss the growth of VerifyitNow from brand protection to asset tracking to a lost and found platform, and the opportunities and limitations of the technology behind it - NFC, Bluetooth, and Google Nearby. Watch as Ross illustrates how you can “product your brand, reduce loss, increase customer confidence, and build brand loyalty” with their anti-counterfeit and verification system.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A UK based nonprofit has created the first internationally recognized standard for accessible audio navigation - helping visually impaired people travel independently, removing barriers to employment and interacting with friends and family. With the number of visually impaired estimated to be 295 million and increasing, Wayfindr saw a lack of accessibility solutions and a lack of consistency which was impacting young people in particular. In order to fix the fragmentation created by different offerings, they created an open standard for indoor navigation (ITU-T F.921). This enables venues, such as a metro station, to create detailed audio navigation instruction with help from Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons. We talk to Tiernan Kenny, Head of Communications, Public Affairs, and Standards at Wayfindr about the advantages and limitations of different indoor location metrics, how their standard can help the visually impaired and beyond, and why all venues should be implementing audio wayfinding today. 

This week on Mr. Beacon we are talking to a pioneer in the beacon space, Nathan Dunn, CEO of BlueCats. BlueCats has seen the progression of the real time location services industry first hand, starting with Ultra Wide Band technology followed by a integration of Bluetooth beacons and then the advent of iBeacon. The value of real time visibility was first realized in retail, focusing on how people were led to purchase decisions. BlueCat’s solutions have since spread over many verticals such as sports, industrial warehousing and outdoor asset tracking, as well as hospitality. Backed with years of experience, Nathan discusses the challenges RTLS has faced as it evolved as well as giving us insight into what qualifies a project to be better suited for UWB or for beacons.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Grizzly Analytics is recognized as one of the world’s leading analysts focused on location technologies and IoT, based on their technical expertise and hands on approach to evaluating vendor claims.On this episode of Mr. Beacon, we talk with Bruce Krulwich, Grizzly’s founder, about the current landscape of location technologies, how the different offerings are evolving, and expectations of the future. We talk Bluetooth beacons, Ultra Wide Band, Ultrasound, SLAM, Machine Vision, and more.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Gavin Neate has made several careers out of helping others. After ten years of service in The Royal Air Force, he spent 18 years as a Guide Dog Mobility Instructor. Then he founded Neatebox, building on his knowledge and experience of working with those who are visually impaired. Since starting Neatebox, he has launched two products using beacon technology, ‘Button’ and ‘Welcome’. Both aim to help in the day to day life of the 13 million people with disabilities”. In this episode, we talk to Gavin, see the apps in action, find out about their impact, how they work, how to get involved … and as always, what kind of music he likes.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With the European Union’s new data protection law going into effect imminently, it's driving a flurry of changes from businesses based inside and outside the EU, racing to comply and avoid new levels of financial penalties. Jarno Vanto, a cybersecurity lawyer and partner at the law firm Polsinelli, gives us insight on what The General Data Protection Regulation entails, who it applies to, and the implications of not complying. Here is what you need to know before May 25, 2018.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Connecthings is in the business of enabling public transport solutions for Smart Cities using a combination of Beacons, NFC and QR Code technologies. We talk to their CEO, Laetitia Gazel Anthoine, about how her company has achieved success in an area where few have survived.For more interviews and articles from the author of Beacon Technologies see https://www.mister-beacon.com/interviews  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If your pipes could speak, what would they tell you? If your bottle of whiskey could ask questions, what would it ask you? FeelIt’s advancements in sensor technology are enabling objects to become “smarter” - reaching new levels of self-awareness. CEO and co-founder, Gady Konvalina describes the Nanotechnology-based sensors they have created with the ability to sense structural formation, movement, and weight. With the help of beacons and cloud services, these sensors can give pipes the ability to tell manufacturers when they are going to leak or can send a smartphone alert when the whiskey is low, asking if you would like to reorder. Catch a full discussion about this disruptive technology and a demo of the sensors on this week’s episode of Mr. Beacon.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.