AppleInsider Staff
The Consumer Electronics Association on Thursday announced it will be holding a special iBeacon-based scavenger hunt during the 2014 International CES expo, introducing attendees and exhibitors to Apple's new location-aware technology.
With the scavenger hunt, CEA is encouraging attendees to roam around and explore CES rather than congregate at booths erected by big-name companies. Powering the immersive game will be iBeacon hardware developed by mobile proximity services firm Radius Networks, which uses low-energy Bluetooth technology from Texas Instruments.
"This promotional scavenger hunt demonstrates our commitment to leveraging the latest in emerging technologies, making CES the most interactive and engaging technology event of the year," said CEA's senior vice president of communications and strategic relationships Jeff Joseph. "This promotion is a fun and novel way to introduce attendees to iBeacon technology and encourage participants to visit important exhibits across the show floor."
The hunt will also be one of the first commercial iBeacon implementations to include Android devices, as the official CES app is available in both the iOS App Store and Google Play. Those who wish to participate can download the free app, which provides further details and instructions. The first three verified players to collect all iBeacon badges will be awarded a "special prize," while a limited number of runner-up gifts will be available throughout the week.
Briefly mentioned during the opening keynote to Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, iBeacon technology was first introduced as a new feature in iOS 7.
Using the Bluetooth 4.0, or Bluetooth Low Energy, protocol, iBeacon is an intelligent micro-location platform that can be deployed in a variety of environments to aid in navigation and interactive geofencing. Low-energy transmitters facilitate two-way communication with supported mobile devices that come within 100 feet, allowing for accurate indoor navigation, automated retail services and customers statistics aggregation, among other functions.
In December, Apple started using iBeacon tech in its U.S. brick-and-mortar stores, offering users information on products and pricing while collecting data on customer movement and browsing patterns. AppleInsider was able to take a first-hand look at the Apple Store rollout, finding the technology somewhat limited in its current iteration, but full of potential.
Aside from Apple, other businesses are testing out iBeacon's capabilities, including pilot programs from Macy's and Major League Baseball.
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11 Comments
Nice.
You can't run these kind of competitions with tech geeks. Someone will just build a really awesome antenna that can find all the beacons at once without having to roam around.
You can't run these kind of competitions with tech geeks. Someone will just build a really awesome antenna that can find all the beacons at once without having to roam around.
But unless they can build it with in a few moments of CES turning the iBeacons on I don't see how they'd be able to do it before somebody finds all of them.
[quote name="ascii" url="/t/161425/apples-ibeacon-tech-to-be-highlighted-in-ces-scavenger-hunt#post_2452699"]You can't run these kind of competitions with tech geeks. Someone will just build a really awesome antenna that can find all the beacons at once without having to roam around.[/quote] Is that possible with Low-Energy BT? What about 3 or more people installing an iOS app that will triangulate the locations or perhaps have hits record various GPS locations with signal strengths so a centralized server could plot likely locations as they peruse booths (assuming the iBeacons will be turned on at random times after the event has started).
But unless they can build it with in a few moments of CES turning the iBeacons on I don't see how they'd be able to do it before somebody finds all of them.
I was assuming the CES app would record if it found itself in range of a given iBeacon, and once it recorded all of them it would declare you a winner.
With a powerful enough antenna hooked up to your BT, it would find itself in range of all the iBeacons at once and you would win the competition instantaneously. And you could build the antenna beforehand because Bluetooth LE is an open spec. But I'm sure there are other geeks out there who could think up an even better way.