New Bluetooth Direction
Finding Feature Will Enhance
Location Services Solutions

Locations services is a rapidly growing solution area for Bluetooth^® technology, expected to reach close to 400 million products per year by 2022. The widespread adoption and success of current Bluetooth Location Services offerings have helped spark market demand for more precise location services capabilities. To meet this demand for even greater performance, the Bluetooth member community added a new direction finding capability that brings a time-tested method for determining signal direction to proven, trusted Bluetooth technology.

“Bluetooth has emerged as the technology of choice for location services, allowing companies to build robust, reliable solutions for the wide variety of organizations that require accurate location to power their businesses,” said Fabio Belloni, chief customer officer and co-founder of Quuppa. “Today’s introduction of a standard approach to Bluetooth direction finding promises to open up even more opportunities for us, our partners, and our customers.”

“Bluetooth has emerged as the technology of choice for location services.”

Enhancing Support for Location Services

This new feature holds the potential to significantly enhance the performance of Bluetooth^® Location Services solutions. Bluetooth Direction Finding will enable Bluetooth devices to determine the direction of a Bluetooth signal, enabling the development of Bluetooth proximity solutions that can understand device direction, and Bluetooth positioning systems that can achieve down to centimeter-level location accuracy. Examples of key application areas include item finding and point of interest solutions, as well as real-time location and indoor positioning systems.

Item Finding Solutions: The direction finding feature will allow devices to provide directional information, meaning a user can not only see how far away an object is, but can also determine the item’s direction, making it even easier to find misplaced keys, wallets, or other personal items of value.

Point of Interest (PoI) Information Solutions: Directional information can also be leveraged to more accurately target specific point of interest information solutions. With Bluetooth^® Direction Finding, instead of scrolling through a list of artworks nearby while touring a museum, a visitor can simply point their phone at a specific exhibit to receive relevant information on an exact piece of art.

Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS): The ability to provide down to centimeter-level accuracy enables an asset tracking system in a factory to monitor the location and flow of materials with greater precision or better alert workers if they go into unsafe areas on the floor.

Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS): Bluetooth Direction Finding supports even greater positioning accuracy for wayfinding systems in hospitals, shopping malls, or airports to improve the navigation experience or require the deployment of fewer locator beacons.