BeaLib: A Beacon Enabled Smart Library System

Abstract

Nowadays, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) receivers are used for outdoor navigation, which are the part of recent smartphones and tablet devices. However, GPS is not suitable for indoor navigations due to its signal limitations which are blocked by ceiling and walls. Indoor navigation can be achieved through a mobile phone using a recent technology that utilizes Bluetooth, namely beacons. Beacons are small transmitters, run on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, used as a point of reference for mobile devices and they can detect a Bluetooth enabled device once it enters its transmission range. In this paper, we present BeaLib: a beacon assisted indoor navigation technique for smart libraries. The proposed indoor navigation technique can also be used for other applications such as offices, retails, airports, hospitality, and education. For experimentation, beacons are placed in a library and a Bluetooth enabled smartphone is used to install a digital library application (App) which communicates with the beacons. The result shows that when the smartphone comes in the range of a beacon, it shows the information related to the book on the smartphone screen.