The Mr. Beacon Ambient IoT Podcast

This week on Mr. Beacon, we welcome back Dominque Guinard, CTO of Evrything, this time in his capacity as co-chair of the GS1 Digital Link Standard. The GSI Digital Link is defined as a “standard for web-enabling barcodes promises to enhance the shopping experience for consumers around the globe, while strengthening brand loyalty, improving supply chain traceability and efficiencies and bringing m...

Imagine a full solution, created with such ease of set up that businesses big and small alike could have a proximity marketing campaign set up in minutes - This has been Mobstac’s guiding principle. This week on Mr. Beacon, Ravi Pratap, CTO & co-founder of Mobstac, talks to us about why he believes that Bluetooth beacon applications are led by software. Ravi explains that proximity m...

This week we welcome Bob Friday, CTO of Mist, back to The Mr. Beacon Podcast! On this episode, Bob gives us an updated on how Mist are using machine learning in the realm of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth networks. We discuss some of the recent Mist deployments at Disney’s Swan and Dolphin Resort and The Veterans Department, and discuss the state of the Bluetooth ecosystem and where it is going. Find out why...

This week on Mr. Beacon, we talk to Micha Benoliel, CEO of Nodle, a connectivity provider for the Internet of Things. Nodle has an impressive 4.3 million active nodes, and 78 million IoT devices connected to date. Nodle has built and continues to grow a network, based on Bluetooth Low Energy, that connects devices and collects their data. They have a unique approach of leveraging smartphone infras...

This week we talk to the Wiliot engineers behind the first sticker sized battery free Bluetooth tag about how it works and the approach to its design.  Wiliot envisions a world of smarter "Things" that can sell themselves and offer functionality not possible before. Apparel and pharmaceutical packaging become connected to the cloud. The Internet of Things can scale and offer real value as we...

Headquartered near Barcelona, Accent Systems’ main business is designing and developing tailored Bluetooth enabled IoT devices, from concept to an end-to-end solution. Accent Systems has worked with well-known brands such as Samsonite and Volkswagen, enabling them to offer unique services to their consumers through beacons technology. In this episode of Mr. Beacon, we talk to the CEO and Founder,...

This week on Mr. Beacon we talk to Justin Zastrow, CEO, and Ira Hayes, CTO, of Smart Armor. Smart Armor builds controlled access points, in other words Bluetooth locking systems. The company was born out of creating a solution for locking medicine cabinets and measuring adherence to medication. Now they are finding many different applications where securing drawers and cabinets, and using your pho...

There doesn’t seem like a more perfect use of wayfinding services using Bluetooth beacons than in the largest shopping and entertainment complex in the United States – Mall of America. Janette Smrcka, Information Technology Director at Mall of America, took on the challenge of enabling users to locate and navigate effectively across 520 stores on 5 levels, spanning 4.3 miles, over 5.6 million squa...

With 300 million square feet, covering 35 countries, 100,000 beacons, and 200,000 connections per day, the French company Pole Star definitely deserves its recognition in the Beacosystem. In this episode, we talk with the Deputy General Manager & CTO of Pole Star, Jean-Baptiste Prost about use cases in their four main verticals. Polestar promises an enhanced user experience, engagement with vi...

One of the essential ingredients to the infrastructure of many systems is a gateway - a device that connects ‘things’ to the cloud. In many cases, these ‘things’ are Bluetooth beacons! Rigado, one of the leaders in this space, produces a ‘edge-as-a-service’ infrastructure - wireless gateways and an edge computing platform. This infrastructure is used for Commercial IoT solutions, like asset tracki...

On the August 24th, Estimote launched a first for the IoT industry, an LTE beacon. It leverages cellular LTE, GPS, and Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity. This small device, fully programmable using JavaScript, was built on the idea of enabling asset tracking in both indoor and outdoor environments. Jakub Krzych, Estimote’s CEO, gives us a first look at this revolutionary product, how it works with...

Meet the leading designer and maker of Bluetooth beacons in Italy, BlueUp. Partnered with Quuppa for next generation angle-of-arrival location, and supporting iBeacon and Eddystone, BlueUp offers beacons of all shapes and sizes, gateways, along with software and cloud services. As the number of beacons grow and they gain more and more visibility, new applications constantly appear and are even cha...

Asif Khan, Founder and President of the Location Based Marketing Association (LBMA), defines location based marketing as the intersection of people, places, and media. Asif through the LBMA shares the best of what is possible and inspires companies to think differently about the technology available to them. On this episode of Mr. Beacon, we talk pilots, surveys, trends, and end with a 3 layer cak...

ThinkInside is working with some of the most successful retailers and manufacturers in the world. Making physical space “smart” is their vision. CEO Iacopo Carreras discusses how his platform captures large volumes of very precise location data, which is used for operational advantage and to unlock insights into behavior. Problems with flow, layout, engagement, and sales can all be uncov...

We all can relate to the feeling of an uncomfortable wristband, one that was fastened too tight, continuously scratching our wrists, or even too loose and falling off altogether. Personal identification, whether it be in healthcare, hospitality, or recreation, has yet to see many improvements either for the user or provider. Idion aims to change this by creating a skin-applied, hypoallergenic, and...

From sporting goods to luxury items to cosmetics, there a massive problem with counterfeiting. This 1.7 billion dollar problem is a weighty pain point in most verticals. The health and safety consequences are serious, and misrepresentation of the brand image and quality is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of negative ramifications. On this week’s episode, we talk to Ross Mandel, CEO of Ve...

A UK based nonprofit has created the first internationally recognized standard for accessible audio navigation - helping visually impaired people travel independently, removing barriers to employment and interacting with friends and family. With the number of visually impaired estimated to be 295 million and increasing, Wayfindr saw a lack of accessibility solutions and a lack of consistency which...

This week on Mr. Beacon we are talking to a pioneer in the beacon space, Nathan Dunn, CEO of BlueCats. BlueCats has seen the progression of the real time location services industry first hand, starting with Ultra Wide Band technology followed by a integration of Bluetooth beacons and then the advent of iBeacon. The value of real time visibility was first realized in retail, focusing on how people...

Grizzly Analytics is recognized as one of the world’s leading analysts focused on location technologies and IoT, based on their technical expertise and hands on approach to evaluating vendor claims. On this episode of Mr. Beacon, we talk with Bruce Krulwich, Grizzly’s founder, about the current landscape of location technologies, how the different offerings are evolving, and expectations of the fu...

Gavin Neate has made several careers out of helping others. After ten years of service in The Royal Air Force, he spent 18 years as a Guide Dog Mobility Instructor. Then he founded Neatebox, building on his knowledge and experience of working with those who are visually impaired. Since starting Neatebox, he has launched two products using beacon technology, ‘Button’ and ‘Welcome’. Both aim to help...

With the European Union’s new data protection law going into effect imminently, it's driving a flurry of changes from businesses based inside and outside the EU, racing to comply and avoid new levels of financial penalties. Jarno Vanto, a cybersecurity lawyer and partner at the law firm Polsinelli, gives us insight on what The General Data Protection Regulation entails, who it applies to, and the...

Connecthings is in the business of enabling public transport solutions for Smart Cities using a combination of Beacons, NFC and QR Code technologies. We talk to their CEO, Laetitia Gazel Anthoine, about how her company has achieved success in an area where few have survived. For more interviews and articles from the author of Beacon Technologies see https://www.mister-beacon.com/interviews Ho...

If your pipes could speak, what would they tell you? If your bottle of whiskey could ask questions, what would it ask you? FeelIt’s advancements in sensor technology are enabling objects to become “smarter” - reaching new levels of self-awareness. CEO and co-founder, Gady Konvalina describes the Nanotechnology-based sensors they have created with the ability to sense structural formation, movement...

Most people these days are familiar with the Internet of Things, at least in concept – but when we speak of the web of things, we are speaking of an entirely different, though related issue. On this episode of Mr. Beacon, Stephen talks with Dominique Guinard, CTO of Evrythng, a company that helps brands create and establish digital links with their products. There are many reasons for this kind of...

RFID vs Bluetooth - It's a debate that will go on for some time as the technologies continue to improve and change. In this conversation with Mike Kastner we dive into the controversy to discover if there are any ways that we can understand the two technologies comparatively without feeling that we have to jettison either one. It's a lively conversation that focuses on the pros and cons of each te...