Nordic-powered Bluetooth LE device and gateway enable indoor tracking solutions

India-based Semiconsoul Technologies has launched a platform which enables a wide range of indoor industrial/enterprise tracking and monitoring solutions. The Nordic nRF52833 SoC-powered ‘LiNT’ (Location of Interest) device supports applications including indoor tracking, navigation, asset management, and condition monitoring.

LiNT features several sensors including IR proximity, IR array, ambient light, and addressable LED indicators, as well as footprints on the board for additional sensors including an accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer.

Scanning Bluetooth LE devices

LiNT operates in both Bluetooth LE host and peripheral mode under Semiconsoul’s SPIDEXTM (Secure Platform for IoT Data Exchange) platform. Using the nRF52833 SoC-enabled Bluetooth® LE connectivity, the product is able to continuously scan nearby Bluetooth LE devices, and can also act as a peripheral to connect to any IoT gateway or the proprietary, Nordic SoC-powered parent gateway, ‘SPIGWAYTM’ (Special Purpose Industrial-IoT Gateway). 

SPIGWAY runs on any Linux open-source system and provides the IoT connectivity framework called ‘C3F’ (Common Communication and Control Framework) to control data acquisition, data cleansing, filters, device management, over-the-air device firmware updates (OTA-DFUs), and edge processing. Multiple LiNT devices can connect to a single gateway, with collected sensor data then sent to the Cloud for further analysis. Optionally, the LiNT also supports mesh networking.

The nRF52833’s radio is capable of all Bluetooth Direction Finding features enabling positioning applications that not only rely on received signal strength indication (RSSI) but also signal direction. For example, in a large warehouse divided into different zones, where hundreds of racks are each divided further into precise rack locations, the combination of the LiNT device and the gateway/SPIGWAY device can determine the actual location of a particular asset in real time.

Continuous connectivity

“Unlike passive tags, the continuous Bluetooth LE connectivity and ability to acquire sensor data enabled by the Nordic SoCs provides companies with a tremendous ability to improve operational efficiency,” says GovindaRao Gotta, Chief Functionary – IoT Device Platform Engineering & Technology, Semiconsoul Technologies.

“We also appreciate Nordic’s development support, reference designs, and flexible SDK [Software Development Kit] examples.”

• About Semiconsoul Technologies
• About nRF52833
• About Nordic Semiconductor