Airport testing beacon system for blind travelers and how that translates to hospitals

Each beacon will connect to a smartphone app to pop up with information when a user gets within range. For the visually impaired, the system uses Apple’s Voiceover technology to read out points of interest as they come on screen, though an early version of the app also gives people visual cues for how to navigate to locations from a directory that can be sorted. That means you could tell it to help you find the nearest power outlet to juice your gear, or the nearest coffee shops to recharge your body.

The real challenge is adoption rates: People need to be educated on keeping bluetooth ON, especially since the Bluetooth Low Energy technology, available in all new smartphones, doesn’t consume much power.

Eventually, this technology could be used in hospitals, possibly as a contender to RFID chips. Bluetooth LE has more applications, since it is also supported by Apple, who famously ignored NFC technology completely. RFID tags are less expensive, but you’ll need more of them since they don’t have the same range capability as Bluetooth LE. I expect that we’ll see hospitals using both in the future: RFID tagging of equipment for logistics, and Bluetooth LE for everything else.