Can anyone with a little more knowledge about either iBeacons or WiFi MAC Address triangulation explain how active or passive one needs to be in order to participate or opt-out of such activities? From what I understand, the iBeacons can only interact with your phone if you have a specific app installed, e.g., if you have the 49ers app installed on your phone and you have Bluetooth enabled, it listens in the background for iBeacon broadcasts and might show you the corresponding push notification that it has downloaded when you get within range of iBeacon x. At the same time, the venue can determine your location accurately down to the spacing of the beacons. What happens if you have Bluetooth enabled (but not visible) but not a venue sponsored app? Are iBeacons (or similar Bluetooth beacons) capable of mapping these users? I presume that no push notifications could occur in this case.<p>As for WiFi triangulation, my limited understanding is that it relies on users walking around with WiFi kept on. Can push notifications occur even if the user doesn't connect to the venue's WiFi but has a sponsored app? Is a phone's active search for familiar SSIDs enough for venue hotspots to observe the movement of MAC addresses/phones? What about a phone without a sponsored app and WiFi enabled but not connected? (I think this is the 'sunsetted' tech mentioned in the article.)<p>Thanks.
I wish they'd use them to find an exit from the stadium that doesn't take two hours.. I know all new things have growing pains but all of the tech and logistics at Levi's has left me very disappointed thus far.
I'm not commenting on the technology, but the organization itself.<p>They did a terrible job with that stadium. Want to know a terrible way to spend a Sunday? Staring directly into the sun watching a football game and succumbing to splitting headaches for 24 hours. They spent over $1B, they should've made the stadium a dome in that Santa Clara weather (like the stadium in Arizona) instead of positioning 75% of the crowd directly at the sun!<p>All the apps, beacons, and concession stand technology in the world won't keep fans in those seats during the game.
Major challenge here (at a guess) is activation. The majority of the advertising/activation will come in-situ at the stadium. But 100,000 people trying to download an app over a cell network in that kind of proximity is going to be trouble. I can't even access Twitter at Stamford Bridge in London (40,000 people).
Considering the scale of impact this kind of technology has the potential to have, I'm surprised at how little news there is out there on it. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out when the public figures out just how ubiquitous this little toys are going to be ...
This is innovation? Why would anyone waste their time developing this?<p>You know how you find beer and dogs at a stadium? Go walk the concourse! Follow the smell! Flag down a vendor!<p>What an utter waste of time and money.