NFL brings iOS-compatible beacon tech to New York for Super Bowl
It was reported on Friday that the NFL has rolled out a micro-location beacon network in New York's Times Square and MetLife Stadium, with the transmitters set to serve up personalized ads to football fans during the Super Bowl.
A Qualcomm Gimbal beacon being installed in Times Square for Super Bowl Sunday. | Source: The New York Times
Speaking with The New York Times, the National Football League's general manager of mobile Manish Jha explained that the beacon installation is an experiment to help gauge the effectiveness of micro-location ads.
"The power of this is it really is able to connect the real world, the brick-and-mortar world, with the virtual world with a level of granularity that hasn't existed before," Jha said. He added that the NFL will not connect personal and location data with the Super Bowl test, thereby protecting end-user privacy as the league figures out how to best leverage beacon tech.
Apple sparked interest in micro-location, or context aware, technology with iBeacon, a framework built on the Bluetooth Low Energy protocol. The location-aware iBeacons feature two-way communication, meaning the devices can advertise personalized specials to end users while tracking customer traffic information for store owners.
iBeacon has seen test applications at Macy's and all U.S. Apple Store locations.
Other companies have jumped on board with their own systems that work in a nearly identical fashion and are usually compatible with iOS and Google's Android.
While not specifically mentioned in the article, photographs illustrating the NFL's beacon rollout show Qualcomm's Gimbal product line is being deployed. The company's inexpensive hardware, which can be purchased for as little as $5 per transmitter, is compatible with iOS, but is more limited in scope when compared to iBeacon.
Whereas Apple's protocol can theoretically leverage iPhones and iPads as transceiver beacons, Gimbal units can only be used on the content server and collection side. Currently two Gimbal models are available, the $10 Series 20 and the $5 Series 10. From the publication's photos, it appears the NFL chose to go with the more powerful Series 20 device.
The NFL is not alone in its hyper-personalized advertising effort. Earlier this week, it was reported that Major League Baseball will be rolling out thousands of Qualcomm beacons in 20 stadiums ahead of this year's season.
Those attending the Super Bowl -- or who will be in the area -- on Sunday can access the beacon network through the NFL Mobile iOS app.
A Qualcomm Gimbal beacon being installed in Times Square for Super Bowl Sunday. | Source: The New York Times
Speaking with The New York Times, the National Football League's general manager of mobile Manish Jha explained that the beacon installation is an experiment to help gauge the effectiveness of micro-location ads.
"The power of this is it really is able to connect the real world, the brick-and-mortar world, with the virtual world with a level of granularity that hasn't existed before," Jha said. He added that the NFL will not connect personal and location data with the Super Bowl test, thereby protecting end-user privacy as the league figures out how to best leverage beacon tech.
Apple sparked interest in micro-location, or context aware, technology with iBeacon, a framework built on the Bluetooth Low Energy protocol. The location-aware iBeacons feature two-way communication, meaning the devices can advertise personalized specials to end users while tracking customer traffic information for store owners.
iBeacon has seen test applications at Macy's and all U.S. Apple Store locations.
Other companies have jumped on board with their own systems that work in a nearly identical fashion and are usually compatible with iOS and Google's Android.
While not specifically mentioned in the article, photographs illustrating the NFL's beacon rollout show Qualcomm's Gimbal product line is being deployed. The company's inexpensive hardware, which can be purchased for as little as $5 per transmitter, is compatible with iOS, but is more limited in scope when compared to iBeacon.
Whereas Apple's protocol can theoretically leverage iPhones and iPads as transceiver beacons, Gimbal units can only be used on the content server and collection side. Currently two Gimbal models are available, the $10 Series 20 and the $5 Series 10. From the publication's photos, it appears the NFL chose to go with the more powerful Series 20 device.
The NFL is not alone in its hyper-personalized advertising effort. Earlier this week, it was reported that Major League Baseball will be rolling out thousands of Qualcomm beacons in 20 stadiums ahead of this year's season.
Those attending the Super Bowl -- or who will be in the area -- on Sunday can access the beacon network through the NFL Mobile iOS app.
Comments
So It Is Written so It Shall Be Done...
New, Interactive, Effective location based advertisings are upon us folks...
...and again Apple devices are leading the charge.
Those attending the Super Bowl -- or who will be in the area -- on Sunday can access the beacon network through the NFL Mobile iOS app.
Just so I have a better understanding of this technology, can someone here answer a question?
Will those who want to take advantage of what iBeacons offer need to download an app for every participating store or organization? In other words, will I need to download an NFL, MLB, Apple and Macy's (etc.) app in order to participate in their particular use of their iBeacon technology?
Edit add-on: And will the app launch automatically when in close proximity to the iBeacon?
I believe so. The reasoning is, a lot of people don't want to get blasted with promos when walking into a store without first agreeing.
Yes and no. It's possible for, say, Acme's General Sports app to have partners with NFL, MLB, etc. to get permission to add all the iBeacon data to a single app but so far it's too nascent that I doubt that occurred and it's possible it might now occur.
A possible downside of iBeacons is that one could obtain iBeacon location and unique ID info and add that to an app that will spam you. The difference is that unlike an email account you can delete any abusive app quickly and painlessly which means this possibility highly improbable for any legitimate app maker.
PS: I'm not sure how well known this is but it should be noted there is nothing keeping any other mobile OS or app vendor from incorporating all current iBeacon device access to their systems. Apple's iBeacons, while their invention is just a branding at this point. The BLE data can be accessed by any device that has BT 4.0 which does limit it in scope to only high-end devices with very little developer effort and no need for any iBeacon device to be changed to accommodate non-IOS devices. Apple could potentially add proprietary protocols that would effectively lock out other devices but as of right now it's just standard BLE that will trigger an app event.
Wrong!
An iBeacon app on customer device can only "listen" for iBeacons and receive content/notifications using the iBeacon protocol.
An iBeacon is analogous to a radio transmitter broadcasting into the airwaves.
An iBeacon app on customer device is analogous to a radio receiver listening for and receiving the radio signals.
If the app is only listening, there is no way that the customer or device can be detected or tracked!
Another way to think about it...
If your GPS receiver can [listen for and] locate 3 GPS Satellite Transmitter signals -- then your receiver can determine where you are -- the GPS Satellite Transmitters don't know that you are listening or where you are (or that you even exist)... An iBeacon is analogous to a local area GPS Transmitter.
I believe so. The reasoning is, a lot of people don't want to get blasted with promos when walking into a store without first agreeing.
Yes and no.
So it's possible that there could be one generic app tied to BLE (produced by Apple) that would be initially downloaded to be the central springboard app, so to speak, steering people to another app--or gives them notification that-- iBeacon technology is being used. Then, that generic app would provide a link to that specific app for one to download, therefore making it a user option to download the app and participate in the benefit afforded through the iBeacons at that (or any) given location or venue.
OR
Will we eventually be getting an iOS software update that allows a pop-up, similar to the WIFI window that pops-up listing all of the wifi networks available, so we can just touch and choose an app in that way, which, once again, makes it a user option to participate.
Am I thinking this out correctly?
Wrong!
An iBeacon app on customer device can only "listen" for iBeacons and receive content/notifications using the iBeacon protocol.
An iBeacon is analogous to a radio transmitter broadcasting into the airwaves.
An iBeacon app on customer device is analogous to a radio receiver listening for and receiving the radio signals.
If the app is only listening, there is no way that the customer or device can be detected or tracked!
Another way to think about it...
If your GPS receiver can [listen for and] locate 3 GPS Satellite Transmitter signals -- then your receiver can determine where you are -- the GPS Satellite Transmitters don't know that you are listening or where you are (or that you even exist)... An iBeacon is analogous to a local area GPS Transmitter.
False!
I can read the documented version too. You'd have to be embarrassingly naive to believe that unwitting customers and devices can't be detected or tracked.
If your GPS receiver can [listen for and] locate 3 GPS Satellite Transmitter signals -- then your receiver can determine where you are -- the GPS Satellite Transmitters don't know that you are listening or where you are (or that you even exist)... An iBeacon is analogous to a local area GPS Transmitter.
It does support 2 way communication and the vendor writes the app.
It would be foolish not to not to track how often you visit the store and what departments.
1) Please point me to the Apple iBeacon documentation which shows how an iDevice app can be tracked if it is only listening for iBeacons.
2) Certainly an iDevice app can transmit using:
3) If an iDevice app is transmitting any of the above it can be detected and tracked
4) If an iDevice app is transmitting none of the above, only listening, it cannot be detected or tracked.
Now, Apple has a curated App store and has pretty strict rules on Location Services, which includes iBeacons. An iDevice, a Mac or a specialty device can be setup as a sniffer to detect if a submitted app is transmitting when it claims it is not -- and, likely, that would cause the app to be rejected.
I suppose that is possible for an iDevice app to only listen for iBeacons, log those it finds -- then later have the iDevice call home and upload the logs, after-the-fact (and after the user has left the store) using WiFi... But that would be of lesser value, and if caught, that would, likely, cause the app to be removed from the App Store.
It is far more likely that your iDevice is using WiFi or Cell to access the Internet while shopping -- those actions can be detected and you can be located and tracked. But that can happen now -- and has no correlation to whether iBeacons are deployed or not!
Using iBeacon protocol, you can only listen for iBeacons and receive the following information (suggested/probable uses):
An app can listen for up to 20 proximityUUIDs (AIR)... These get pushed down to the cell radio (for efficiency). I believe that any iDevice can listen for a maximum 20 proximityUUIDs -- regardless of how many are listened for in each app.
The suggested usage is that when you approach an iBeacon, the app detects it and displays (or notifies) an offer...
There is no 2-way communication involved -- the content is displayed from within the app.
There are other, lower-level Core Bluetooth protocols -- other than iBeacons. These can involve 2-way communication, Typically these are use for things like exercise/heart monitors, temperature/thermostats, etc. These, typically involve: advertising; connection establishment; one-to-one connection between 2 devices to exchange minimal data (about 29 bytes per packet). In order preserve the batteries of the devices, the apps on both ends will stop advertising/listening when 2 devices are connected.
It would be impractical for an iBeacon to be used this way -- as it would only serve 1 customer at a time and still drain the batteries of both devices. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are much better ways to exchange data (and to detect and track you) using WiFi or Cell radio in the store.
So, yeah, you can backup your Ferrari at 100 mph in your driveway -- but it wouldn't be very useful and you'd consume tuneups as if they were M&Ms.
Yeah... Kinda'
Say you are going to San Jose, for a night out -- and you are interested in karaoke bars and mid-range Italian or French restaurants. If an app like Yelp supports iBeacons, you could:
* a problem occurs because Apple's Core Bluetooth doesn't return the actual UUIDs -- rather, it generates random UUIDs -- so the Yelp app cannot identify who/what belongs to the UUDIs.
As an alternative to the above scenario:
We are at the very early stage of Apple's iBeacon technology. I suspect that Apple is being very conservative, at first, to see how the tech is used and abused...
How would this be possible on a pure one-way information flow basis?
Can it be that as standard you are in "radio" mode I.e. Only listening in. But if you chose to opt in you can activate the "two way" exchange of information?
Yes, that can be done within the app -- if you allow it;
Here's one way it could work -- with one way communication only iBeacon to app
Later, you access the Nordstrom's web site and optionally identify yourself.
The next time the Nordstrom's app is updated on your iPhone, the token is analyzed and current offers, based on your previous interests, are stored on your iPhone -- more likely, this process takes place (at your option) when you launch the Nordstrom's app on your iPhone
This could work while you remain totally anonymous -- all Nordstrom's knows is that someone out there has these interests based on the passing of a token.
Or, you could decide that you trust Nordstrom's and allow them to identify you, track you, record your interests, make offers...
While you may be OK with Nordstrom's, you may not be OK with other establishments -- and not allow them to know who you are.
It is interesting that a recent Apple patent application will even allow you to purchase something in-store or online, anonymously, with a token -- instead of passing credit card and personal information...
Really Dick? Why would Nordstom's design their app for you to be anonymous? "Knowing you" is far too valuable. Sure they technically could do it, but ain't gonna happen IMO. But they will give you a couple of carrots like a special discount, one-off deal or shopping reward points in exchange for letting them know who you are, so it won't be a one-way street. You'll get something back.
John Anderton! you look like you could use a nice cold Bud!
Time to get another hot dog, John Anderton!
Hey John Anderton, The waiting time at urinal 16B is only 5 minutes. Be sure to visit the refreshment stand on your way back, John Anderton!
Ok thanks.
Sounds quite interesting.
But then sgainin curious to see how the commercial interests of companies will support this "anonymous path".
Why send a boy to do a man's job?
Here's a video by a company that Apple rececntly bought:
[VIDEO]