Review of StickNFind wireless sensors. So as not to lose anything

Stick-n-Find is a relatively young company from Florida (USA), calling itself a world leader in the development and production of Bluetooth low energy (BLE) technologies, and in particular miniature search beacons and software for them. The company was founded in 2004, but there is information on the Internet that its serious progress with beacons began a little more than two years ago, when a fundraising campaign ended on the popular crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, and ended very successfully, with more than minimum budget at $70,000 more than 10 times.

So what does it offer? Stick-n-Find? The point comes down to placement on personal items whose location needs to be controlled (keys, documents, bags, remote controls, etc.) of those same miniature beacons and installation of App Store or Google Play applications of the same name on a smartphone. Further, such a beacon-smartphone combination allows you to control the distance to the beacons and use different types notifications on your smartphone.

Briefly, the theory looks like this; details are in the review below.

Appearance, specifications

Search beacons Stick-n-Find supplied in sets of 2, 4, 6, 10 or 20 pcs., colors are also different. In addition to them, in a small box there is a certain number of plastic keychains shaped like picks for musical instruments.

The search beacon is a Bluetooth device in a miniature plastic case, similar to a coin or a “pill” from an intercom. The dimensions of the device are 24x4 mm, weight is about 5 g.

On one side of the beacon (let it be the obverse), behind the cutouts in the plastic, the metal elements of the antenna are visible; the reverse of the “tablet” is equipped with a proprietary 3M VHB adhesive layer, the adhesive properties of which, by the way, increase over time (according to the instructions, 60% adhesion is provided in 1 hour, in 12 hours 80%, in 24 hours – 100%).

The edge of the lighthouse body is composite, like a sandwich - rings made of opaque plastic cover the middle transparent ring, thanks to which, among other things, it is possible to implement LED backlighting in the “tablet”.

All components are powered by a CR2016 battery, the manufacturer guarantees from 7 to 12 months battery life devices from one battery (the run-up depends on the selected beacon initialization mode). Replacing the battery seems, subjectively, to be a rather labor-intensive process, if there is no goal, of course, to destroy the already not very durable plastic case.

The main technical characteristics of the search beacon are given in the table:

*– Some differences between the characteristics of BLE and classic Bluetooth:

In operation, software functionality

To work in conjunction with beacons it was used Lenovo smartphone P90 s latest version Android OS. On Google Play when searching by name Stick-n-Find two applications are detected: Stick-n-Find Android And Stick-n-Find BeaconMaker – The first one is downloaded and installed.

In the instructions already indicated above, the manufacturer warns that the beacons are in sleep mode on the long journey to the user, and therefore to activate them you need to knock them several times on a hard surface - the beacon will respond with sound and lighting. Despite the efforts, nothing happened with the knocking - disconnecting and connecting the battery helped.

Application Stick - n - Find Android Russified, it is a shell with five tabs: Start, Radar, Map, Alerts, Settings.

To get the full experience of working with beacons, you should create and activate an account. This will make it possible to register beacons and some additional features. Basic functions, however, are available without “accounting”.

Connecting beacons starts with a button Sync new stickers in the tab Begin or Settings. An important point - during connection blue stripe to the right of the beacon name does not mean “progress bar”, but the signal level. You just need to “tap” and the beacon is connected. Each beacon can be given an individual name: “keys”, “ Notebook" and so on.

After synchronization, the beacon name becomes available via the button Where's my sticker? tabs Begin. Tap activates the search; if successful, the application moves to the next tab.

Radar– main application tab. It is with it that the main interaction with beacons is tied: you can estimate the distance (not direction!) to the beacon, activate its search (the device responds LED backlight and melody), estimate the temperature, switch to another beacon.

Here the first blots were revealed. Thus, switching between beacons often took up to 15-30 seconds, when you want to do it instantly. In addition, the temperature readings in these instances did not correspond to reality and were updated according to at will whenever you want.

More important point– a button is available on the tab Register sticker(of course, it must be activated Account and have Internet access).

After registering, click on the button Managing registered stickers tabs Begin(another minus is throwing back and forth between tabs) the name of the beacon and some additional functions also become available.

What the developer has thought out well is the links scattered across the application tabs with explanations of a particular function.

Tab Map turned out to be the most useless: despite the “dancing with tambourines” - registration of beacons, updating various services and configuring the smartphone settings, it was still not possible to see the display of beacons on the map.

Tab Alerts. Here, for each connected beacon, two types of alerts are available:

- Leash– activation of an alarm signal on a smartphone when moving away from the beacon;

- In the zone– activation of an alarm signal on a smartphone when approaching the beacon.

The limiting value in both cases is the BLE range – 45 m in theory, 5-15 meters in practice. Subjective note to developers - reduce the minimum shutdown time threshold leash.

Tab Settings nothing special stands out.

The only remarkable thing is the button Help/FAQ With detailed description device, operating principles and volumetric section Troubleshooting(it all comes down to issues of lack of or uncertain communication). The last fact upsets and pleases at the same time - for the quality and feedback.

Conclusion

The conclusion after several days of use is this: funny; on the one hand, it seems practical, but it adds fuss - either always carry all the beacons with you, or don’t forget to turn off irrelevant notifications.

P.S. second application Stick - n - Find BeaconMaker V Google Play Perhaps it will appeal to specialists - there are some options for configuring beacons.

Inversion is a great thing! Invent one thing, and then take it and turn it inside out, you will get an equally interesting result. At first I did this with one thing, and only then I saw that in TRIZ (the theory of solving inventive problems) there is such a technique as “inversion or reverse analogy”. Live and learn.

But this is all theory, and practice puts everything in its place...

Bluetooth Low Energy beacons or iBeacons are no longer something out of the ordinary. They can be found at train stations, airports, museums and shopping centers. As a radio engineer, I participated in the design of beacons and, in particular, antennas for them. This thing is interesting at first, but then it becomes boring. There is nothing to stand out, you can’t invent anything particularly new. And then it dawned on me!

Here are small code fragments with the logic of the direction finder:

We get levels from both antennas. The resulting levels need to be averaged, and then the difference must be calculated. In fact, it is not the difference between the signals, but their ratio. But if measured in decibels, there will be a difference.

Writing levels to the buffer

public boolean handleInfo(WFPacket data) ( if (data.apName.equals(ssid) && data.mac.equals(mac)) ( int idx = data.antIdx; if (0<= idx && idx <= 1) { mLevels.get(idx).addLast(data.power); while (mLevels.get(idx).size() >avgCount) ( mLevels.get(idx).removeFirst(); ) needRecalc = true;

print();

) else ( Log.d(TAG, "LevelCalculator.HandleInfo() Bad rcvIdx: " + data.antIdx); ) ) else ( return false; ) return needRecalc;< 2; idx++) { double sum = 0d; for (Double x: mLevels.get(idx)) { sum += x; } int count = mLevels.get(idx).size(); if (count != 0) { sum /= count; } avgLevels = sum; } avgDiff = Math.pow(10.0, (avgLevels - avgLevels) * 0.1 + 2.5); //Переводим обратно из децибелов needRecalc = false; } return avgDiff; }

)

Averaging and calculating the difference

public double getAvg() ( if (needRecalc) ( for (int idx = 0; idx< mThreshold) { // Если разница в уровнях больше порога, то мы как раз направлены на источник сигнала addBearing(); numUpdates++; } lastUpdateTime = System.currentTimeMillis(); } //Далее идёт обновление GUI }

Handling the "difference". If the levels on both antennas differ “strongly,” then we are directed to the source with some accuracy (plus or minus a bast shoe). What this “strong” is equal to is currently determined experimentally by scientific poking.

private void updateLevelDiff(double levelDiff)

private void updateLevelDiff(double levelDiff) ( long deltaTime = System.currentTimeMillis() - lastUpdateTime; int progress = (int) Math.floor(100.0 * levelDiff); // Scaling for nice screen display // Save bearing if (deltaTime > TIME_PERIOD) ( // We don't want to save bearings too often if (progress Now let's INVERT! Let an iBeacon with one number be emitted to one antenna, and another with another number. Then on the mobile device you can measure the levels of both beacons and, by the difference, determine how close it is to the focus of the beacon antennas. This results in positioning in the direction of wave arrival.

IN Bluetooth standard version 5 even announced a similar method of high-precision positioning - Angle of Departure. They have not yet reached an exact description of this method, they promise in future versions. In a refined form, the work can be illustrated with videos:.

once And two

The lighthouse itself looks like this:

And here are the renderings of the interior:

Handsome, isn't it?! Inside is an antenna, like in a WiFi direction finder, and a Bluetooth SoC nRF51822. But everything was in vain...

Then the story goes into a fakap, which is that it works on Nexus smartphone 5 and finding another gadget that works at least the same way turned out to be not very easy. No, they are Samsung Galaxy S7, Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, and that's where the list ends for now. It was not possible to find any more “good” gadgets from friends and acquaintances. Among the “bad” ones we can mention the Samsung S4 mini.

Of course, the beacon was checked. It emits packets to two antennas in turn with a minimum interval. A small interval is needed so that the measurements refer to points in time that are not far apart from each other. Otherwise it will be impossible to correlate them with each other.

There is some hope that the situation may be better on iOS. At least it’s more homogeneous across the spectrum of mobile devices.

There is also hope that there will be a specialist who will understand what the problem is and suggest a solution.

And now I’m very sorry that this idea doesn’t work.

In 2013 Apple company introduced iBeacon, a technology for transmitting Bluetooth signals between compact beacons and compatible devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops. The idea was picked up by Google and the Eddystone technology was announced. Nowadays, beacons are used in various industries, including retail.

In this article, we figured out what iBeacon and beacons are, what advantages these technologies provide and how they can be used in stores.

What is iBeacon

iBeacon is a protocol for transmitting a Bluetooth signal between a location beacon and any device (smartphone, tablet) that is compatible with Bluetooth Low Energy. The principle of operation of iBeacon is simple: through equal intervals time, beacons send a Bluetooth signal to devices within their range.

Here's what Bluetooth beacons look like from the inside. Source: estimote.com

When compatible device receives a signal, the application activates in advance specific action: welcomes visitors, offers Additional information about a product or service, tells a story. Beacons are used in museums, stadiums, exhibition centers and shops.

Beacons are installed at the entrance to the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona. With their help mobile app Barcelona Football Club welcomes visitors, launches Special offers and offers to buy tickets for a tour of the Camp Nou Museum.

Camp Nou Stadium, Barcelona

The BMW World complex operates as a showroom for cars and new technologies. There are beacons located around the exhibits that provide additional information. right time and in the right place: videos, images and text.

BMW World Complex, Munich

How to use iBeacon in retail

Beacons can bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds. With their help, you can set up indoor navigation, track customer behavior, entertain customers in queues and organize promotions - examples of using iBeacon can be very different. Let's look at some of them.

Beacons in the store. Source: estimote.com

For more information

Tell us about the product. When a customer approaches a product, the app on his smartphone displays additional information about the item he is interested in: characteristics, contextual photos, videos, or reviews from other customers. Unlike a sales assistant, an application is an impersonal source of information that the buyer will trust.

Track buyer behavior across all channels. The geolocation capabilities of beacons will help you learn about the customer’s behavior in a physical store: what he pays attention to and what products he is interested in. Based on this information, the retailer makes a relevant offer to the client in other sales channels.

For example, a client chooses a coffee machine. Using a mobile application and beacons, he receives additional information about the product. He puts the models that are interesting to him in the basket and leaves. In the evening, the client enters the online store and if his account is linked to his account in the mobile application, the retailer reminds him of the products that interested him in the offline store. The customer will see that he is being taken care of, and the store will receive additional sales.

Send push notifications. Thanks to beacons, push notifications will not be mindless messages into the void, but useful and timely reminders. For example, when a client comes to the store, a notification will inform him that he has bonuses that he can spend right now on buying a camera or a phone case.

For fast delivery of orders

Let's imagine a customer comes to a store or pick-up point to pick up an item ordered online. In order for the order delivery operator to find the right product, the buyer must dictate the order or phone number. This usually does not require much operator time or effort. But not when there were a dozen customers in line for delivery.
In such cases, beacons will speed up the operator’s work: they will transmit information about the arriving client and his order, and the buyer will only have to pay for the goods at the checkout (if there was no prepayment) and pick it up. As a result, queues are reduced and cash registers are unloaded.

To help sellers

Expand the knowledge base of sellers. The retailer places beacons near the products. When a sales assistant comes within range of the beacons, they transmit a signal and the device displays information about goods, stock balances, and, ideally, related services and recommendations. As soon as the seller leaves the range of the beacon, access to information on the device is blocked.

Improve service. Beacons can interact with an application on the buyer's and seller's device. If users' discount cards are linked to a mobile application, then a beacon at the store entrance notifies the sales assistant about the approach of a potential buyer. When a client enters a store, the sales assistant already knows about his purchase history and can, based on this, suggest the necessary products or participation in loyalty programs.

When beacons are not useful

The beacons themselves - simple devices and installing them in a store is easy. But without a mobile application that receives the signal and activates an action on the screen, beacons are useless. Beacon manufacturers like Estimote understand this and offer platforms for creating mobile applications that are ready to work with their beacons.

But creating an application is only part of the solution. It’s much more difficult to motivate customers to install it on their smartphone. However, installing the application is only the beginning of the difficulties, because in order to interact with the beacons, the client needs to turn on Bluetooth, take the smartphone out of his pocket, read the notification and go to the store. This changes consumer behavior and makes shopping more difficult.

The retailer’s task is to eliminate complexity and make the shopping experience pleasant and convenient. To do this, beacons can be used when the store already has working devices and software. They can receive messages from beacons and display on screens necessary information. At the same time, nothing is required from the buyer - he behaves as usual, and receives twice as much useful information about the product.

Here's how we implemented it based on . Beacons-stickers from Estimote, which are equipped with motion and heat sensors, are attached to the products. Next to the goods is an iPad with pre-installed . When a customer interacts with a product, a motion sensor is triggered and the sticker beacon transmits a signal to a tablet or nearby display. The screen displays information: product characteristics, related accessories or services, customer reviews, video reviews and contextual images. The buyer behaves as usual, but at the same time receives more information about the product he is interested in.

Here's how Bluetooth beacons work in our Interactive Promoter

Use cases may be different, because the type contextual information and you set the content yourself in the Facelet admin panel. Selling dresses - show the characteristics of the dress, received new collection- present it with an interactive presentation or promotional video. You don't change the customer's behavior - you just enhance their shopping experience by providing useful information in a convenient format.

The potential of beacons in retail is often misunderstood. But if you understand the principles of their operation and do not forget about the peculiarities of customer behavior in and outside the store, beacons and iBeacon technology can be truly effective.

Beacons can optimize the work of sales assistants and - if you have a ready-made technological base in your store - improve the presentation of goods.

Bluetooth beacons in stores are a way to stand out and improve the quality of service. For brands, using iBeacon in retail trade- this is an opportunity to present products in a new way, for omnichannel retailers - to make outlet interactive.

The buyer has a mobile device and Internet access, which means he can get information about the product and buy it right on the spot. This is the digital experience that customers hope to have in offline stores.

Bluetooth beacons help deliver digital experiences without the user noticing. With the help of beacons you can personalize an offer and strengthen the role of digital channels and create a loyal customer base.

"So. Where are the keys? Yeah, in your pocket. Laptop? Yes, in place. Phone! Yeah, one here, the other here. Keys! Exactly, where are the keys? Laptop charger! But where is it?" - this is approximately how my dialogue with myself is structured when leaving the house. In order not to lose various little things and not get upset about it, you may need a device with a typically American name.

The device is a Bluetooth beacon with a sticky back surface. Size plastic case similar to a five-ruble coin, but thicker. The beacon, which depending on the set can be from 2 to 10 (sets of 2, 4, 6 and 10 pieces), has everything necessary for further detection - a squeaky speaker that is impossible not to hear, an LED, an adhesive surface on the outside and bluetooth module inside.

Stick-n-Find Features:

Diameter: 24 mm
Thickness: 4 mm
Weight: 4.5 gr.
Connection: Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy
Radius of action: about 30 meters depending on the environment
Battery: CR2016, service life up to 1 year

To start using Stick-n-Find, you need to download application of the same name from or Google Play, in which you can perform all the necessary search activities and update the beacon software. Seriously, the first time the beacon and smartphone were connected, an update to this gadget occurred.

The application contains a radar - it will display all Bluetooth beacons around you that belong to you. For example, you lost your TV remote control within a radius of about 30 meters (you must admit, this happens very often). You just need to open the app on your smartphone and look at the radar to estimate the distance at which the object is located. By pressing the “Call him” button, you can make the beacon squeak in a bad voice and sparkle with an LED so that what you are looking for is found.

In general, speaking about the Stick-n-Find application, one cannot fail to note the fact that it is localized very selectively. On one screen there may be items in both English and Russian. Of course, this does not affect the functionality of the application and the beacon, but visually such a mess looks far from in the best possible way.

The beacons also come with plastic keychains that can be attached to keys or pets. Each beacon can be named to make it easier to understand what and where to look. Using a sticky surface, you can stick the beacon either directly on an object that tends to get lost, or on a plastic keychain, which you can then hang on your keys, cat, or something else.

The Stick-n-Find Bluetooth beacon uses a standard watch battery - a CR2016 battery. IN normal mode This battery will last about 12 months, its charge is displayed in the application. There you can also find out the temperature of the environment surrounding the Bluetooth beacon - this information is also displayed in the application on the screen with the radar.

You can also activate the “Leash” mode, which is very useful in everyday life. If you move away from an object with a Bluetooth beacon, the latter will begin to beep when the connection is lost. For example, if you forgot your wallet on a table in a cafe, then as you leave this establishment, your phone with the Stick-n-Find application will ring, notifying you that you are about to lose an important thing. In addition, there is a “Find Me” mode. It will be useful if the beacon is out of range. You will receive a notification that it is available again.

The habit of keeping an eye on your phone is slowly becoming an unconscious reflex. And if with iPhone search the built-in service can at least partially help Find My iPhone, then what about some small things? For example, keys. It’s easy to forget them somewhere in the car or just behind the sofa in your own apartment. And in such cases, the search will drag on for a long time. Unless, of course, you took care in advance and didn’t put a sensor on them StickNFind.

StickNFind- an outlet and salvation for forgetful people who constantly lose useful household “small things”. In short, it's a small plastic sensor that communicates with outside world By Bluetooth protocol. You attach it to some object, after which you can find the location of the sensor using a simple “locator” in the proprietary iPhone application.

StickNFind's kit is one of the most spartan, considering the size of the box. The box contains two sensors, two plastic mounts for carabiners and key holders, as well as one rather suspicious instruction. It is decorated sparingly and English language. Well, it’s okay, we figured it out ourselves in a couple of minutes, and now we’ll help the readers too.

The similarity of the shape to a five-ruble coin is simply amazing. The sensor is available in six colors, so I see no reason to pay attention to the plainness black version. But you can’t leave aside the transparent “layer”, just like in some kind of “cookie” with filling. This is where the LED is hidden, which I will talk about a little later. All this weighs only four and a half grams.

The sensor is not thick, but on the back panel of a smartphone it looks “tacky”: it’s not quite out of place, and it’s not so convenient to use - it sticks out, in general. But attaching it to keys and other household items is much more logical. Especially for this purpose, the kit includes two mounts for rings, carabiners and key holders.

StickNFind attaches to any item using an adhesive film placed on the underside. This film is, without exaggeration, deadly, and if you foolishly introduced it to the back iPhone panel 5, get ready to break your nails. With fabrics the situation is easier, and over time the amazing “stickiness” of this layer will certainly weaken.

To configure and search for StickNFind key fobs, download the branded application of the same name for iOS [App Store] or Android. To initiate initial setup, you need to activate the sensor - tap your fingers on it and wait for the piercing squeak of the built-in speaker. Yes, yes, in this little thing there was also a place for a beeper.

Activated sensors appear almost immediately in the application. Each of them can (and necessarily need to) assign unique name. For example, “Keys” for the sensor that you hung on the key holder. By the way, this is done very simply: hang the “tag” on the small plate included in the package, and then thread this plate into the ring along with the keys.

The synchronization process is fully automated. In some cases, the application will immediately begin updating the sensor firmware, requiring you to bring your smartphone as close to the tag as possible. Once registration and synchronization are complete, you can confidently stick the sensors where you want them - and forget about them. The manufacturer promises that StickNFind will work for at least a year without replacing the battery. And the battery there is of the “clock” category, that is, you can replace it yourself.

The search for a tag is carried out using the “locator” in the iPhone program. The further you move with your smartphone from the mark, the further it appears on the imaginary “radar”. The direct detection range is approximately 30 meters. Searching is like a game of hot and cold: you can only see the relative distance between you and the tag, but not its direction or clearly defined location. It sounds difficult in words. But in reality, you just turn in the right direction and move forward, checking the data in the application.

In addition, the sensor and the mobile application interact in several other interesting ways. For example, you can set the "Leash" function: as soon as you move too far away from the sensor long distance, a corresponding Push notification will be sent to the iPhone, and the “tag” itself will begin to play sound signal. And blink the LED, of course. You can also remotely activate the sensor’s sound signal and/or light indication.

The “leash” function alone is enough to recommend the sensors StickNFind to each. That is, everyone, including you. Or have you never lost anything? You can use several sensors at once, monitoring every important thing in the house. And now morning sleepy preparations will not be delayed by finding the key to the apartment. And a bearded taxi driver will not go to a pub with your wallet left behind after a good evening at the club. Useful thing!