RadioBeacon

It’s a utility to “help” your mobile phone or tablet “guess” what you want when you come to a certain place and/or approach a certain object.

It can help you as a client to quickly access services associated with your current spatial context (particular location ranging from meters to hundreds of meters) from a Wi-Fi enabled mobile device.

It can help you as a service provider to associate a Wi-Fi hotspot with a web page (as appropriate in a given context, e.g., wait list/menu at a restaurant’s entrance, menu/order form when inside and sitting at a table, flight registration page when at a counter in an airport, advertisement when passing an outlet’s doors in a shopping mall, problem reporting form when a printer jammed your paper, snack checklist when you came to a coffee corner to wait while the printer is being fixed).

Consider the following example:

Almost every public building is equipped with Wi-Fi hotspots nowadays.

When you come inside, say, an airport, first thing you want to know is the most current flight schedule, your registration stand and departure gate and a piece of advice on what’s the quickest way to get through. The airport management may have already thought about it for you and associated their Wi-Fi hotspots (which are nearest to the entrance) with a web page that will summarize all the above information for you. All you need do to get to that web page is just come inside, and press a button that launches our RadioBeacon software on your phone.

After you have successfully found a registration counter, you do not need to stay in line, just press that same button on your phone and get forwarded to a registration page – note the difference that you receive the flight registration service right at the physical spot where you can check in your luggage and have airline employees at your assistance.

Now when you’re registered and have passed safely through the security checks, you may walk along the line of restaurants and cafeterias and press the familiar button once again when you feel you like a particular place or sort of food – and get forwarded to a menu/order/reservation page of that particular café the same very moment. And again the difference is in that you actually saw the food, checked if the place was clean and cozy, and only then pressed the button and walked away to think over the menu or to wait for a callback when your order is ready.