Book via Bluetooth Beacon technology is developed by Xentral Methods . Xentral Methods is also the ICT company behind e-Sentral eBookstore, South East Asia's biggest repository for local ebooks. This Malaysian company has developed a full fledge ebook ecosystem spreading from e-Studio authoring tool, to Digital Rights Management Server, Digital Library Lending System, eReader Applications, and now distribution via Bluetooth Beacon. Xentral Methods is also a member of IDPF and has won multiple awards for their ICT achievements regionally.
THE TECHNOLOGY
Bluetooth beacon is a passive marker responding with bluetooh 4.0 devices. What it does is it allows marking of geo-location with specific diameter (15meters/30meters/etc) to server side that corresponds with the mobile app.
It is highly popular amongst fashion retailers in promoting discounts and location of aisle for products. In this case, digital content packaged as newsstand material (e-paper, digimag, ebooks, music etc) can be made available to users in the perimeter of the beacon.
The potential revenue comes from selling the newsstand package or ebook catalogue to enterprises such as cafes, restaurants, banks etc, and not the beacon device itself. Beacon chips are cheap and getting cheaper.
The user experiences a push notification when they are in the beacon vicinity to indicate that there are digital contents available for download and read, and to be used in the perimeter. Once they are out of the perimeter, they are denied access to the content. This is the innovation that has been brought in to ebook industry by Xentral Methods.
CASE STUDY : KUALA LUMPUR INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
To promote the full function of ebook via Bluetooth beacon capabilities, what better place to do it than in an internationally renowned airport. Kuala Lumpur International Airport, one of the pioneers of modern airports, caters more than 40million passengers a year,
and is also a unique airport that offers something for everyone whether it is for business, entertainment or relaxation. The airport is part of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) where new technology is actively pursued.
Since its opening in 1998, KLIA has won numerous awards from international organisations such as Skytrax and International Air Transport Association. With its continuous effort to provide excellent services to passengers, the airport has emerged as one of the top airports in the world.
Introduction
For those of you who fly regularly you will now have a new jet-setting lifestyle to add on during waiting time and transit at airport or even in flights. A new facility in KLIA prepares a medium for passengers to download electronic books for rental so that they can read during waiting time or even during flights.
This smart facility which works on principles of geo-fencing location targeted technology operates via a Bluetooth beacon signal that communicates with the passenger's smart phone application allowing them to access a special virtual library of ebooks for borrowing.
This facility which consists of 40 ebook beacons strategically placed at locations of KLIA is the first of its kind in the world. Currently, travelers in KLIA have a choice of more than 400 ebook titles at anytime ranging from all sorts of categories in English, Malay and Mandarin, and a maximum of two titles to borrow at anytime for two days. Once the ebook is downloaded, the passenger can use the eBook without the need of Internet.
This eBooks rental via Bluetooth beacon facility is a partnership effort between Malaysia Airports and e-Sentral (Xentral Methods).
Implementation
The eBook beacons were designed to have a radius of 90meters of signal, which is most optimal for battery life whilst covering umpteen amount of space. There are 40 beacons place in total spreading all departure terminals. The beacons send Bluetooth signals to mark e-Sentral application which walks into the area. Each application which is in the Bluetooth vicinity will then be granted with a special eBook shelf list and are allowed to borrow two eBooks from the list.
The eBooks are lend out for two days and automatically self delete after expiry. The beacon coverage and hotspots are indicated by flags and instruction notices in the airport. Every departure hall is also equipped with an ebook kiosk which prepares tablets for passengers to use. At the kiosk, if the passenger chooses to take away the eBook, they will then check out the eBook via the beacon into their own device.
eBook Beacon at KLIA
Following the installation, the whole system goes live. Since then, we also implemented the beacon signals in restaurants and food & beverage outlet.
Passengers' Experience
To experience the special shelf list of eBooks, the passenger will need to download e-Sentral eReader Application at the respective operating systems' store. The beacon technology supports mobile devices with Bluetooth 4.0 running on Apple iOS 8 and above or Android 4.3 and above. Due to the fact that Windows 8.0 Phone and Desktop does not support application programming interface (API) for Bluetooth 4.0, the option e-Sentral eReader prepares for Windows Phone users is an integrated QR Code scanner which will also bring them to the eBook List.
