Everyone should have heard the term Bluetooth, especially these days when information technology is on a rampant march of explosive growth. BLE beacon has been deployed in the market for several years, and it has become the preferred choice for proximity sensing. The low power consumption and simplicity of Bluetooth, coupled with its widespread application in smartphones, make the low-cost Bluetooth LE beacon a favorite in warehouses, offices, and other premises across a number of industries. This article will explain a new form of Bluetooth badge beacon – the BLE card beacon, a magic innovation!
What is a card beacon: an introduction
A card beacon is a type of Bluetooth beacon that takes on a different badge-like shape but has the same features and functionalities. In comparison with a regular Bluetooth beacon, the card beacon looks somewhat different in overall dimension. It comes in a much smaller form than the conventional one, but provides the same functions as the full-size Bluetooth beacon – sending out a signal to the outside world saying, “Here I am!”
BLE card beacon opens the door to a whole new world due to its completely new card form. The ultra-slim profile of the card beacon means it can go where no beacon has been before. Imagine all the scenarios in which we can use a card, then add the power of the BLE beacon, and you will begin to see the shock possibilities represented by the BLE card beacon. Currently, the intelligent beacon card is playing an important role in the market, providing businesses with revolutionary capabilities at a reasonable price.
What are the key features of card beacon
Card beacon is the result of innovative design and engineering and, of course, the product of the industrial Internet of Things. MOKOBlue H5 RFID Beacon is the latest BLE beacon card of MOKO, and proves to be a big hit across many industries. The super-compact Bluetooth Low Energy tag is compatible with Apple iBeacon and Google Eddystone, so there is no need to choose between the two formats. More features and benefits are shown below.
- Wearable design. H5 card beacon takes the familiar shape of a credit card, but it is slightly thicker than the standard credit card. Not only is it easy to wear, but it can also be perfectly carried around in your wallet, which is ideal for use as an ID card for employees and students.
- Panic button trigger and motion trigger. One of the highlights of the smart H5 beacon is that it supports button triggering and motion triggering. The panic button trigger makes it the best option for emergency help and exercise reminders, while the motion trigger means that once you start moving, it will start broadcasting again. This allows you to conserve battery power whenever you want.
- Supporting Bluetooth 5.0. H5 supports the latest version of Bluetooth wireless communication standard, let alone Bluetooth 4.2.
- Accelerometer and replaceable Battery. The H5 is a battery-powered beacon equipped with a 550mAh CR3032 battery, which can last up to 36 months. With a built-in accelerometer, it can be configured to automatically enter into sleep mode for battery saving. If you want the smart H5 card tag works longer, just replace the battery.
- Waterproof IP66. An IP66 enclosure is waterproof against falling drops of rain or snow, which indicates that the H5 badge beacon is impervious to weather elements and can be used flexibly in any indoor or outdoor location.
How do card beacons work
When mounted as a conventional beacon, the smartest beacon card fills the same role. Based on Bluetooth Low Energy broadcast protocol, card beacon broadcasts to the surrounding environment continuously and periodically. The broadcast content includes MAC address, RSSI value of signal strength, UUID and the data packet, etc. Once the mobile phone users enter the signal coverage range of the Bluetooth beacon, an automatic response mechanism will be formed in the Bluetooth-enabled smartphone.
If these BLE signals broadcast by the card beacons are detected by the Bluetooth gateway, the gateway will then send the collected data to the cloud for analysis and processing. Once processed, the end clients can access these data whenever they want through their smartphones or computers.
Seven best scenarios for leveraging BLE beacon card
Bluetooth technology has paved the way for the wider application of beacons, and card beacons have opened the doors to limitless opportunities with their versatility and convenience. You’ll agree on how card beacons are improving the productivity, efficiency, and security of businesses in a number of useful and creative ways. In the following section, we’ll discuss seven best practices for integrating the BLE badge beacon.
Events
Events are organized to create unforgettable experiences for attendees, whether it’s a conference, speeches, music festival, or even a baseball game. Card beacons can be of great use for visitor tracking, navigation, crowd management, and more. It allows you to do exactly the same thing you would with static locations, but for mobile objects. Networking events, for example, can gather professionals with similar interests by leveraging beacon cards. Matchmaking events also make use of badge beacons to let users know of prospects around, in a ‘people near you’ list format.
Workplace
Enterprises are constantly striving to provide their employees with a smarter, safer, and more productive working environment. Many businesses adopt staff ID card, but they cannot do more than just show the employee image and title. As we described above, if add the power of the beacon to the small card, then all the employees will be connected. Card beacon can help to record employee attendance and track where your employees are. In addition, it improves office security with automatic access and identification. The panic button trigger can also enhance employee safety in an emergency.
School
Student safety is one of the main concerns on school premises or during commuting. When integrated with BLE technology, the student ID card can now do things they could never do before, like live children tracking and automatic attendance. Once students enter the school with their BLE ID cards, they will be detected and identified by Bluetooth gateways, and their movement will be tracked. All of this information is accessible to parents and teachers via smartphone. Alerts will be triggered immediately if someone feels lost or in danger, and the security staff can take prompt action.
Retail
Retail stores used to adopt flimsy paper as loyalty cards, which may be easily lost and crumpled. As loyal customers have higher expectations, more and more retailers are turning to beacons to upgrade loyalty cards, offering product updates and promotions as soon as customers approach the store.
Card beacons, on the other hand, put more power on retailers as they can track the whereabouts and activities of customers. Regardless, the easy-to-ingrate loyalty beacon card enables real-time communication via smartphone apps, push notifications, and useful analytics.
Warehouse
In terms of warehouses, it’s important to know where your materials are and how they are moved. Though NFC and QR solutions seem great, it requires a lot of people interaction. In contrast, beacons with low prices and easy deployment are more popular with warehouse managers. All you need is to install a beacon on your valuable asset, and it will broadcast information to all kinds of smart devices. Moreover, warehouse workers wearing beacon cards can track their locations and trigger emergency assistance in the event of trouble.
Healthcare
The hospital is very busy, full of doctors, nurses, patients, and so on. Sometimes, it is difficult to track their locations. Smart card beacons come with great help for administrators to better manage access control. For important wards or file rooms, manual audit errors can be reduced by restricting access to only doctors wearing card beacons. Card beacons can also be used to track the locations of patients, especially the elderly and children.
Payment
Cashless payment is one of the most talked about highlights of card beacons. Without flipping through wallets or even waiting in line, wallet-ready beacon cards can speed up the payment process and get customers in and out faster. Parents no longer have to worry about giving their kids too much cash, they can simply top up the money to a beacon card from their smartphones so kids can purchase stationery or supplies in the school canteen or store by using their student ID card.
Boost your business with MOKOBlue card beacon
Given some of the best practices of card beacons, a small card beacon is truly a big invention, offering a bunch of benefits for asset tracking, panic button trigger, access control, cashless wallet, etc. In this advanced digital age, the credit card-sized card beacon offers more possibilities for your business. If you are considering adopting a BLE card beacon solution, our H5 RFID beacon is at a very competitive price. For more product information, please contact our Bluetooth IoT experts!
