Location, Location, Location: How Wi-Fi Developments Will Spell The End Of Getting Lost In Ikea

Ben Boswell, director of UK & Ireland for WWT, authored a blog for the Huffington Post UK about the advancements in Wi-Fi technologies and how they will effect daily consumer experience.

Posted by the Huffington Post UK on June 14, 2017:

It may seem strange now, but there was a time when Wi-Fi was merely considered as a quirky alternative to wired internet connections. Yet the convenience - the new found freedom of surfing the net without wires - was enough to quickly cement Wi-Fi's status as an essential part of everyday life.

With the explosion of the so-called 'Internet of Things', Wi-Fi is driving another massive shift in our perception of how we interact with the physical world. As we connect more objects - anything from our watches to our home thermostats - to the internet, our relationship with the physical world around us is informed by the possibilities of the online world.

One particular set of possibilities is offered by the evolution of Wi-Fi-based location services. In the past, location services relied on triangulation between different Wi-Fi access-points. The result was broad mapping of movement, which while providing very interesting analytics data, could not deliver granular accuracy, particularly in tight spaces.

New options such as Virtual Bluetooth Low Energy (vBLE) beacons allow for super-accurate location services which can be delivered with ease and minimal infrastructure cost. By allowing organisations to set up virtual beacons, it is increasingly possible to use location based services to improve customer experience and ultimately, create a finely personalised service.

View the full article.