Bluetooth Beacon, NFC and the Connected Home

I remember growing up we had a television that could switch on using just sounds, we found it hilarious that in addition to the device supplied, a hand clap or even someone with a high pitch voice cold do the trick. Those TVs might still be around but time has moved on, we now have many more options including proximity.

Now, you have your home appliances react base on how close you are to it; that is if you have your phone or some other tag. According to Toshiba they have developed a Beacon reference design based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and NFC (Near Field Communication) technology.

Beacon is not new; base on NFC it has been around being use all over the globe in manufacturing, retail and other commercial solutions.  However, it is not very popular in the home, but this is about to change.

According to Research & Markets, the overall location market, including beacon is estimated to grow from 597 million in 2014 to 3.9 billion by 2019; a good reason to encourage new solutions and services.

Toshiba said the new reference design (TC35670) with the combination of Bluetooth and NFC will have many home use. The platform offers a high degree of configurability, allowing developers to develop new and enhanced solution for the connected home or even for those with certain disability.

Range on the beacon can be between 1m to 50m or even up to 100m in some cases.  Beacon removes the need for some press button solution in some cases such as your gate or garage door.