The use of indoor tracking system (ITS) in large facilities has become a growing trend lately, as it is capturing the interests of enterprises. With ITS under your disposal, the scope of productive marketing gets doubled and simultaneously comforts the modern age visitors who are on board.
By far, the impact of indoor tracking technology is effective in both technical and scientific ways for all sorts of large venues. However, not everyone is providing the decision-makers with information from a technological (indoor positioning and location tracking) perspective.
For all such people, this blog post will be of help in understanding technologies used for indoor positioning and location tracking.
Contemporary Indoor Positioning Technologies
The evolution of Smartphones in a recent couple of years has resulted in a wide range of mobile applications including indoor tracking and positioning apps. Indoor tracking apps have the caliber to transform mediocre businesses into highly efficient, productive and streamlined ones.
The existing indoor positioning technologies rely on real-time measurements such as parameters, angles, distance, etc.
With the help of electromagnetic radio, infrared signals and ultrasound signals, these apps function and fix several points with the venue.
Technologies used today to operate indoor positioning apps
- Wi-Fi
- RFID
- BLUETOOTH (BEACONS)
- ULTRA-WIDEBAND (UWB)
Wi-Fi
The most common and easy to access technology is Wi-Fi, yet, very effective and adaptable to commonly used devices such as Smartphones, tablets, Wi-Fi tags, etc. The accuracy of this technology varies from 15 meters to depending on the venue accessibility.
The benefits of Wi-Fi is that it can track all the devices that are Wi-Fi enabled and can monitor visitor behavior as well. However, there are few challenges while using Wi-Fi which may not occur with others.
RFID
This is another form of wireless communication using radio waves to identify, locate and monitor objects and visitors at large facilities. RFID has a very high accuracy rate, immune to interferences and most importantly it doesn’t require battery. However, this will work only for large tracts of area, as small spaces won’t be able to optimally use this for their good but eventually spend the same amount for no good reason.
BLUETOOTH (BEACONS)
This is the smallest and cheapest among all, also known as Bluetooth Smart. Not as accurate as the rest f them but is very flexible, cost-effective and highly portable.
ULTRA-WIDEBAND (UWB)
It contains the shortest range which is less than 30cm, however, better than beacons and Wi-Fi. With high accuracy, UWB has the credibility to position objects up to 100 times per second.
Role of Indoor Tracking System and its impact on Large Facilities
Large facilities’ biggest concern has always been the engagement of the visitor and the optimal exploration of the venue. Indoor tracking system using the above technologies has been serving with the same using
Indoor Tracking Apps
Applications have made the lives more easy and flexible for modern-day visitors, especially in large facilities where instant responses are the key to positive feedback. Similarly, indoor tracking apps have positively impacted the visitors in large facilities with the effective and need of the hour benefits such as:
- Indoor Location Tracking
- Indoor Positioning
- Proximity Marketing
- Real-time Wayfinding
The perks of using these apps are that navigating throughout a large facility becomes very easy and effortless. Demonstrating such apps in large facilities such as airports, hospitals, stadiums, convention centers, etc. can undoubtedly change the dynamics of the venue in a positive way.
Future of Indoor Tracking Apps
With an increasing number of people investing in indoor tracking apps today, predictions are on a high for indoor tracking apps. However, the expectations of the performance of these apps are also on rise with expecting highly efficient apps, ready to combat challenges ones, and streamlined business strategy apps as well.
Experiments are going in various parts of the world on several aspects relating to an indoor tracking system. Aspects such as
- Integrating fingerprint scanner to the mobile apps
- Sensors
- Algorithms
It is said in a report that indoor tracking system will be the topmost priority by several mobile operators such as Google, Apple, HERE Maps, etc. by 2023. To help visitors in large venues and leverage services with augmented reality and NUI (Network User Interface), indoor tracking apps will change the way visitors experience and explore large facilities.
Not any solution/system or technology can act as armor for all the challenges unless it is indoor tracking system.
However, facility heads need to contemplate on what it is that they really want to achieve, their onsite conditions and most importantly their budget and then recruit the most efficient solution for better business.