He does not eat, does not drink, and it comes and lives – Poles created a beacon that does not … – Gazeta.pl

beacons are small five-zloty-sized device that can communicate with our mobile devices and allow you to interact with objects or services available at these premises. They can also show us the way in the closed facilities where satellite navigation does not work.

So far, the biggest flaw of this kind of technology was the issue related to the power supply. Beacons require battery power, resulting in the need for periodic maintenance of these devices.

Polish manufacturer has managed to solve this problem. In the next generation AirBeacon received power from a single source that emits electromagnetic waves of low intensity. And this is to allow for periodic recharging from an external source (eg. Transformer, router) present in the vicinity, using electromagnetic induction.

The phenomenon of electromagnetic induction is known from 1831 when it was discovered by Michael Faraday and is currently the primary method of generating electricity and the basis of the work of many electrical devices, eg. alternators, generators, power plants, generators and transformers. However, as a method of charging electrical devices all the time is still poorly developed.

Michal Polak, CTO and co-founder Ifinity explains:

This solution eliminates the process of replacing batteries, minimizes the need for periodic maintenance beacon, installation and reduces the failure rate in effect improves the accuracy of the system mikrolokalizacji. New products also characterized by a much smaller size.
Due to their properties, they can be installed in hard to reach places. Despite our very good experience in implementations of services based on past generations beacon, our customers indicated the need for periodic battery replacement as a restriction.
In agreement with our partners we have developed a prototype transmitter that requires no internal power supply. Test phase is currently underway and production planning. We anticipate that AirBeacons will go to the first customers already in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The company predicts that solutions based on AirBeacons find widespread use in large facilities where there is a need to implement the beacon on a massive scale. AirBeacons have a chance to spread mikronawigacja services such as shopping malls, navigation of vehicles in car parks and public spaces, electronic price labels in supermarkets, records of equipment in hospitals and storage areas.

This is another novelty on the Polish beacon. Just a few days ago we reported fact that another company – Estimote – reduced their devices to the size of a sticker that can be placed on any surface .