Achieve Presence Detection Using Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons

Presence detection is an important concept in the Internet of Things (IoT) world and it has a lot of potential applications. For example, presence detectors can be used to detect and track the presence of people in a building to enable smart safety and security solutions or to detect and track the presence of equipment in a factory or inventory in a warehouse.

In this blog post, we will look at one way to achieve presence detection using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacons. We will discuss how to create a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacon setup, configure the beacons and then create an application to detect and track presence using the beacons.

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacons

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacons are small and cost-effective devices that are equipped with a BLE radio and a dedicated application processor. They are designed to broadcast or receive small pieces of data over a short distance. The BLE radio in the beacons can be configured to act as a transmitter or receiver.

BLE Beacons can be used to detect and track the presence of people or objects in a short distance and in smart applications, they are used as proximity detectors.

Creating a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacon Setup

The first step in creating a BLE Beacon setup is to purchase one or more BLE-enabled devices such as beacons, tags, or BLE-enabled smartphones. Depending on the application, you may need multiple beacons or a combination of beacons and tags.

Once you have all the required devices, install and configure them according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Depending on the type of device and the application, you may need to configure the beacons to transmit a unique ID, broadcast a certain type of advertisement, or enable access to a certain service.

Creating an Application to Detect and Track Presence

The next step is to create an application to detect and track presence using the BLE Beacon setup. The application should have logic to detect the presence of a beacon or tag and it should be able to store the information about the presence in a database.

The application can be written in any language or framework that supports BLE connectivity. Here's an example of an application written in JavaScript that uses the Web Bluetooth API to detect the presence of a Beacon:

async function detectPresence() {
  let device;

  try {
    // Request and connect to the BLE Beacon
    navigator.bluetooth.requestDevice({
      filters: [{ services: ['bluetooth_le_service'] }]
    })
    .then(device => {
      device = device;

      // Connect to the Beacon
      return device.gatt.connect();
    })
    .then(server => {
      // Receive notifications from the Beacon
      return server.getPrimaryService('bluetooth_le_service').then(service => {
        return service.getCharacteristic('presence_detector_characteristic');
      });
    })
    .then(characteristic => {
      // Store presence detection information in the database
      return characteristic.startNotifications().then(char => {
        char.addEventListener('characteristicvaluechanged', storePresenceData);
      });
    });
  }
  catch(err) {
    console.log('Error: ', err);
  }
  finally {
    if (device && device.gatt.connected) {
      device.gatt.disconnect();
    }
  }
}

The application can be deployed on any server or computer connected to the same network as the BLE Beacon. Once the application is up and running, it will detect the presence of the beacon and track it in the database.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we looked at how to use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacons to detect and track presence in the Internet of Things. We saw how to set up the BLE Beacon setup and create an application to detect and track presence using the BLE beacons. With this setup you can detect the presence of people or objects in the vicinity and use that data to create smart applications.