Bluetooth Low Energy: The Gold Standard For Indoor Locating

Locating a mobile phone user typically relies on the satellite-based Global Positioning System. Indoors, however, where the required line-of-sight with at least three satellites is obstructed, alternative technologies based on light, sound, or radio waves may be more suitable. In recent years, a technology called “BLE” (Bluetooth-Low-Energy) has become the de-facto standard in indoor locating.

The so-called “BLE beacons” are battery-powered, pocket-sized devices that would be mounted in critical areas to broadcast a unique ID signal within a configurable range of up to 100 meters. Virtually all modern mobile phones and wearables can pick up these signals, based on which an application is installed on the said device that could determine the area associated with the identified beacon and therefore its current location.

Applications designed to manage a mobile workforce can benefit tremendously from BLE-based indoor locating. Functions like finding the employee currently closest to a target location or ensuring that a task is executed at its designated location, already disrupt established organizational procedures.

Workers operating in hazardous environments with an increased likelihood (and impact) of man-down scenarios can gain an extra level of emergency protection. For instance, a sound mobile workforce management system can detect that a mobile device currently located within the range of a BLE beacon has not moved e.g. 30 seconds, and send a call-to-action alert to those colleagues authorized requesting them to access the respective area, check the situation and potentially save a life.

For just a few dollars per beacon, cost-effective wearables, and cloud-based systems offering monthly user licenses, indoor locating can easily be leveraged by small-sized businesses as well as large enterprises to increase operational efficiency while reducing potential liabilities.