CES 2014 ‘Scavenger Hunt’ Built Using Apple’s iBeacons Technology

Ibeacons

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has announced the first promotional iBeacon-based scavenger hunt, with the winners being rewarded with prizes that include fitness bands, tablets, and much more.

Participants can download the CES Mobile App for iOS (and Android as well), explore all areas of the show, and collect badges for each iBeacon they encounter. Special instructions will be provided in app. The international show is scheduled for next week between January 7 and 10 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

To provide this promotional scavenger hunt, CES has partnered up with member companies such as Radius Networks Inc., which provides the iBeacons devices.

“This is one of the coolest proximity-aware apps we have worked on,” said Marc Wallace, CEO and cofounder of Radius Networks. “This is also one of the first, tangible applications that leverages iBeacon technology. And it is a great example of how iBeacon technology is not just about advertising as it is about bringing new and innovative solutions to the marketplace. We are very excited to be a part of it.”

“This scavenger hunt is yet another innovative use of Bluetooth low-energy beacons,” said Oyvind Birkenes, general manager, Wireless Connectivity Solutions, TI. “We are delighted that our Bluetooth low-energy SensorTag is being used to demonstrate one of the many inventive and beneficial use cases for beaconing technology.”

iBeacons were first introduced last year at Apple’s annual WWDC, and they are Bluetooth low-energy transmitters that can notify mobile devices when they come within 100 feet of the beacon. They can also be used to offer a variety of location-based information.

So far, we have seen only a couple of implementations of the iBeacons technology: Apple has it in its retail stores to provide additional product information to users with an installed App Store app. Another creative way to implement iBeacons was showcased by a London-based digital publishing company.

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