A system of applications for the integration of BLE Beacons in museums

There is great potential for BLE beacon technology to be incorporated into museum exhibits to provide more enriching content to visitors and gather feedback to improve the museum overall. I developed a system of three applications to accomplish these goals: one for museum staff to easily deploy and update beacons, another for visitors to engage with the supplemental material transmitted by beacons at various exhibits, and a third for museum staff to understand visitors' interactions and feedback provided by the beacons. I implemented two versions of the system according to two different beacon protocols: Eddystone-UID, which broadcasts to a dedicated mobile app; and Eddystone-URL, which broadcasts to mobile browsers via the Physical Web. Each system was tested in a real-world context through experiments hosted by the MIT Museum. I analyzed the success and potential of such systems based on observations, participant responses, and data gathered via the system during the experiments. The reliability of BLE connections remains an issue, and beacon content only appealed to a small subset of visitors; however, those who interacted with the system valued the experience highly and the MIT Museum expressed interest in providing a richer experience for these visitors.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Asmus, Kristin Nicole

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Harold Abelson.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112820

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/112820