GuidingAll: A Smart Proactive iBeacon System with Crowdsourced Sensing Based on IoT Technologies

This paper designs and implements a smart proactive iBeacon system, called GuidingAll, using smartphones to detect abnormal events, guide mobile users, and find moving targets through Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. The GuidingAll system consists of the smartphone APP, guiding server, fixed iBeacon, and our designed smart iBeacon. The smartphone APP is used for real-time guiding and crowdsourced sensing through fixed iBeacons and nearby smartphones. The guiding server is employed for fastest path planning and moving target localization based on the sensing data reported by participating smartphones. The fixed iBeacons are deployed to provide indoor positioning information to smartphones with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) scanning, whereas the smart iBeacon is designed to enable proactive event detection and target BLE broadcasting through integrated sensors and associated iBeacon, respectively. In particular, mobile users with smartphones can form crowdsourced sensing networks in places with fixed iBeacons, and GuidingAll can continuously monitor and cooperatively find a specific moving target equipped with the smart iBeacon. An Android-based prototype with fixed and smart iBeacons is implemented to verify the feasibility and correctness of our GuidingAll system.