Bluetooth Direction Finding Technology Overview

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Bluetooth Direction Finding Technology Overview [Copy link]

Bluetooth technology has been used for many years to support a variety of location services, such as proximity solutions such as landmark (PoI) information and item tracking, as well as positioning systems that support real-time location systems (RTLS) and indoor positioning systems (IPS). The direction-finding feature introduced earlier this year is expected to greatly improve Bluetooth location services. Neither the Find Me profile in Bluetooth devices, which helps users find lost items with specific Bluetooth tags, nor the proximity profile, which helps users keep important items close to them and find them when they are far away, is as well known as Bluetooth Beacon. Bluetooth Beacon is a very successful application of Bluetooth technology. It is used in a variety of scenarios to provide location and proximity services in airports, galleries, train stations, stadiums, retail stores and other places. The need for precise positioning and direction-finding capabilities Many applications require more precise positioning data and direction to an object than current Beacons can provide. Although Beacons have been serving us for many years, they are not able to meet higher-level needs. High-precision indoor positioning One of the benefits of this technology is that it can more accurately determine the user's location in complex indoor environments such as airports, thereby creating more reliable and user-friendly indoor navigation systems and more accurate proximity solutions. High-precision asset tracking Asset tracking has many scenarios, including enterprise asset tracking in an office environment and tracking which stage of the manufacturing process a product component is in. For tracking in these use cases, accurate positioning capabilities are often required.

Continuous direction finding Today, there are many devices on the market that use Bluetooth to track lost items. Smartphone applications can estimate the distance to the lost item based on signal strength. However, if there is no direction information available, multiple attempts are required when using such devices to track the lost item, making it difficult to find the lost item quickly and accurately. By using direction finding that continuously updates the direction of a lost item, it is possible to create a solution that leads the user directly to the lost item without multiple attempts. Directional Search If the paintings in a gallery have direction finding tags, with Directional Search, when a visitor points their phone at the painting they are interested in, the application on the phone will filter the signals from all other paintings in the room, select the painting the phone is pointing at and provide information about that painting. In addition, Directional Search can also search for items in a specified direction through special features. Bluetooth High Precision Direction Finding The latest version of the Bluetooth core specification introduces new features that support high-precision direction finding. Because the controller specification has been upgraded, dedicated hardware with built-in antenna arrays can be used to help calculate the direction of the received radio signal. The Host Controller Interface (HCI) has also been modified to make the data obtained by the controller available to the high-level stack where the direction calculation occurs. Bluetooth direction finding can now be used to create proximity location systems with better than meter accuracy for applications such as indoor positioning, wayfinding, asset tracking, item tracking, and directional search.

Bluetooth direction finding uses proven engineering techniques to determine signal direction and standardizes related interfaces, interactions, and important internal operational interactions. Precise direction finding is now compatible with all manufacturers and will be widely used to create a new generation of advanced Bluetooth location services.