Categories
Technology

Using Beacon Technology to Enhance Communication

Presenters

  • Matt Willmore, University of Notre Dame
  • Kris Rogers, Indiana State University

Are Beacons the future of messaging? How can you incorporate them on your campus to enhance the university experience?

Indiana State University

  • We use three different types of beacons:  Radbeacon Dot, X2, USB
  • Shared a map of the areas they’re covering:  Career Center, Quad, Book Store, USU
  • Many of our partners downtown are working with us to strengthen relationships with our student body

Notre Dame University

  • You need a BlueTooth 4.0 standard device (same tech used for FitBit, AppleWatch, and increasing amount of consumer devices.
  • The largest housing Radius makes takes 4 AA batteries, and the vast majority of the size is taken up by the batteries.
  • Low-cost, low-power one-way transmitter; transmits between 1 and 10 times per second; every transmission is the same: “I’m a beacon with the UUID [X], major identifier [Y] and minor identifier [Z]
  • Can also do ranging, i.e. the phone can estimate how far away it is from the beacon.
  • UUID: Universally Unique Identifier; a generated alphanumeric string that you assign to beacons to uniquely identify them.
  • Major/minor identifiers: numbers to designate which beacon is transmitting.

CampaignKit is the brains behind the signaling and messaging

  • 3 elements:  places (beacons & geofences), content (the message), and campaigns

What do you need?

  • Kurogo app with Radius SDK installed
  • Beacons!
  • Active campaigns
  • Users need device with Bluetooth 4, app installed, bluetooth enabled, notifications enabled for your app

Beacon Placement

  • As close to traffic as possible while being out of the way
  • Under tables or where people tend to congregate
  • Consider weatherproof beacons for outdoor applications
  • We label our beacons, with a spreadsheet to track them all

Beacons at Notre Dame

  • Passive data collection (to find out how many people we could have reached in a given location over a give period of time)
  • Targeted notifications at retail locations:  food & bookstore

Future Opportunities

  • Athletic venues
  • Events like alumni reunion
  • Line monitoring (presence monitoring for line length)
  • Room availability
  • Indoor navigation

Q&A

  • Can you opt-out of specific messaging?  Not yet on the Kurogo platform.

By Paul Schantz

CSUN Director of Web & Technology Services, Student Affairs. husband, father, gamer, part time aviator, fitness enthusiast, Apple fan, and iguana wrangler.

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