Zebra BLE Beacon's

Zebra Bluetooth Beacons are built upon Bluetooth low energy technology and operate in conjunction with commercial Android/iOS devices or custom devices to form the foundation of easily deployable proximity-based location solutions.

There are many different location technologies on the market today. Bluetooth is a proximity-based location technology that integrates easily with mobile device-based applications or with server-based location solutions. It’s a low-cost, active RFID technology that allows for extremely fast installation, even in fairly complex environments, like warehouses, factories, and hospitals. Zebra Bluetooth Beacons feature a variety of physical and digital configurations to provide presence and proximity based location data as part of solutions like Zebra MotionWorks. When general location information (down to a small zone or room) is all that is needed to solve your business problem, Bluetooth is the ideal technology and a tremendous value.

The low power consumption of Bluetooth low energy technology is the catalyst for battery-powered devices that can be used to create innovative solutions for industries including manufacturing, transportation and logistics, healthcare and retail. Location data from the edge of the network provides valuable information about how your operation is actually performing. These battery-operated active beacons can run for multiple years at minimal cost.

Zebra Bluetooth Beacon-based solutions generally include a combination of fixed and/or mobile beacons combined with some type of application receiving and acting upon the beacon information. The system can be a stand-alone application or a customised solution that uses these beacons, or used in conjunction with Zebra MotionWorks solutions. The bridge device (that hears the beacons) can be almost any type of Android or iOS mobile computer or smartphone, or a custom device that has a Bluetooth low energy radio and is running the Zebra SDK or a third-party application. As part of a location solution like Zebra MotionWorks, the application must also have the ability to communicate with the analytics software (i.e. through Wi-Fi, LTE, 4G etc.).

Zebra has a software development kit (SDK) to help customers and partners create location solutions based on Zebra Bluetooth Beacons, and to enable easy integration of Zebra Bluetooth Beacons with the location features of iOS and Android smart phones as well as Zebra’s portfolio of ruggedized mobile computing devices. The SDK has the library, driver and application programming interface (API) that can form the foundation supporting custom application development. Additionally, Zebra provides a toolboxapplication to simplify the staging and configuration of beacons. This application allows the selection of transmit power, transmitter interval, and other operating parameters. Configuration and beacon firmware updates are performed over-the-air without a physical connection with the beacon.