{"id":203,"date":"2015-11-12T10:14:58","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T10:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/librarylabs\/?p=203"},"modified":"2015-11-12T10:14:58","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T10:14:58","slug":"opening-doors-with-bluetooth-beacons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/librarylabs\/2015\/11\/12\/opening-doors-with-bluetooth-beacons\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening Doors with Bluetooth Beacons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Location-based intelligence is a growing area of importance in the academic library environment (as identified in the most recent NMC Horizon Report<\/a>) and we\u2019ve been exploring how Bluetooth beacons can be used to deliver information and content to users based on their location in the library space.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year we used the technology with Google Glass to create an immersive visitor experience as part of the Something Blue exhibition<\/a>: beacons were placed next to several exhibits in the gallery space and when users came within proximity, a video was activated on the Glass headset.\"GG1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

More recently, we\u2019ve started to explore ways in which beacons can be used to provide tours of the library building itself. There are several potential use cases for this, such as a tour for new undergraduates showing them where key services are located, or a tour of the paintings on display in the main library for art enthusiasts, but we decided to create a tour of the building for the general public in order to tie in with Doors Open Day 2015<\/a>. Our library was designed by the British architect Sir Basil Spence and A-listed in 2006: its history is of real interest to our visitors.<\/p>\n

Working with colleagues from across Information Services, we developed a tour app (available from the\u00a0Apple App Store<\/a> and Google Play<\/a>) which uses beacons to tell the story of the library building and service.\"Doors<\/a>Beacons were set up at seven locations and users who had installed the app on their phone were sent a notification whenever they came into proximity of one \u2013 tapping the notification provided the user with a short, 1-2 minute long, video about the area they were in, such as this general introduction to the building:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/vimeo.com\/145490614<\/p>\n

We had originally hoped to use beacons to create a form of \u2018internal GPS\u2019 to show the user their location in the library space (much like the blue \u2018you are here\u2019 dot on Google Maps) but we found that their inaccuracy over three metres made it impossible to trilaterate location accurately enough.<\/p>\n

\"Doors-Open-Day-App-4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Around 50 people downloaded the tour over the weekend and the feedback was extremely positive. We learned some important lessons from this application, which will inform future uses of technology in this way.<\/p>\n