Sensors

BlueZoo sensor software is deployed on both BlueZoo’s custom hardware platform or any of a number of third-party hardware platforms as a software application, extension, or container instance.

Suitable hardware platforms must offer low-level control of a Wi-Fi or BLE radio and a mechanism to connect to the internet. The radios may have internal antennas or connectors for external antennas. Connectivity to the internet can be by any mechanism that provides at least 100kbps bandwidth.

Antennas can be directional or omni-directional. Directional antennas can have any beamwidth and gain. External antennas are generally connected to sensor hardware via a coaxial cable. Suitable cable specifications vary with the length of the antenna cable. The most common antenna types are dipole and panel antennas, but any antenna tuned for the 2.4GHz band is suitable.

BlueZoo supports a list of 3rd-party hardware that is continually growing. The best known platforms supported include BrightSign media players, Bluefin screens, and Moka screens. These platforms all have RP-SMA connectors for external antennas.

BlueZoo’s Black Panther sensor is BlueZoo’s third generation custom hardware sensor.  The sensor is small and lightweight, requiring less than 1W of power when using ethernet backhaul.  Because of its low power consumption, the Black Panther runs cool and mean times between failure greater than 8 years.  The Black Panther is often powered via power over ethernet (PoE) and BlueZoo provides suitable injectors and splitter.

The Black Panther is available with either two internal dipole antennas or two RP-SMA antenna connectors.  Find more information about antenna options.

Black Panther sensors are usually mounted in an enclosure selected for the specific deployment, whether on a ceiling or post, or inside a screen housing.  These enclosures are often off-the-shelf for reasons of cost, complemented by 3D-printed brackets that securely collect the necessary combination of the antennas, cellular modems, and PoE spitters required.  If the enclosure is plastic, antennas can be placed inside the enclosure or a Black Panther with internal antennas can be used.

If an enclosure is metal, external antennas are most often placed outside the enclosure because metal enclosures form a Faraday cage that can highly attenuate microwave frequencies.   For this reason antennas are often placed on top of the signage or behind a plastic panel.  The antennas themselves, usually connected via RP-SMA, can be placed several meters from the Wi-Fi or BLE radio, connected by a coaxial cable.  Thicker coaxial cables have lower attenuation and are suitable for longer distances.

If BlueZoo’s own hardware is deployed, the sensors can be powered by a USB 2.0 port on another device, such as an LCD screen.  If sensors are deployed without screens, power over ethernet is generally less expensive than requiring a line-voltage power source to supply a USB power adapter.

BlueZoo has developed a series of brackets with strain reliefs that are designed for deploying any combination of a sensor, a cellular modem, a PoE splitter, or a directional antenna.  BlueZoo makes these bracket designs available to customers for customization, if necessary, and subsequent 3D printing.

Our products leverage our expertise in microwave antennas and sensing, firmware development, and scalable cloud systems including real time data processing and data warehouse management. BlueZoo has invented and patented multiple techniques to pioneer smartphone impressions/occupancy measurement.

Passive microwave measurement

Scalable anonymized detection using both Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) & Wi-Fi

Calibration & auditing

Techniques essential for maximizing measurement accuracy & accountability

Privacy protection

Meeting all international standards for consumer privacy protection

Patents

BlueZoo has been granted seven patents in audience measurement by the USPTO