BLE Beacons Guide and Inform University of Oklahoma Students

The University of Oklahoma (OU) has installed a network of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons to help students navigate their way around the campus library, as well as exhibits of its large collection of manuscripts and first-edition books written by the Italian Renaissance scientist Galileo. Since students are engaged with their smartphones most of the time, the university created an app to encourage them to venture through the library and explore its resources. The app relies on BLE technology to display a student’s location as a glowing blue dot on an indoor map. Learn how the system encourages library users to interact with librarians, and how it might be used in the future.