A new startup currently established in Boston now allows companies to keep track of their employees roaming around in the office using special sensor beacons for a better relationship between employees and the employers.
The perception of the future that Sam Dunn, the CEO and co-founder of the extraordinary startup Robin, has changes the idea of knocking on anyone’s door. Rather it concerns with logging into rooms rather than entering them with perception. Similarly, the whole idea of questioning who is at the door also changes when the person sitting on the desk is automatically reported who is near about their door. As fun as it may sound, this system can get an employee into a lot of trouble because the system the startup is using has wireless sensors and the co-workers and employees know exactly where each person is. Robin’s software makes use of the Bluetooth LE present in everyone’s phones. As soon as an employee approaches, the smartphone alerts the wireless transmitter. This software automatically shares key information of a person like his name, twitter handle, maybe his drop box presentation and professional LinkedIn profile. So every time someone walks into a meeting, you know exactly who he is. The software is working with iBeacons currently who are providing the wireless network sensors powered by Apple for all iOS devices and their work is magnificent.
As yet now, not many companies have implemented this technology, however, a few like News Corp, the newspaper and publishing company use it in their executive floors for room bookings. Many co-workers associated to the company also use it profoundly and find the results very cost efficient. Though first launched by robin, the technology is under consideration and activation by many other companies as well who are up for experimenting with beacons. For example, Burcin Becerik Gerber is an assistant professor at University of Southern California. She too has implemented the same technology in her engineering labs but that to track fire fighters and those victims who are trapped in burning buildings. She also uses her technology to make her office energy efficient y keeping a track of room usage in the building.
Men working under Becerik Gerber believe that her software does have privacy concerns; however, with so much information already being transmitted to others through social media and other mediums of communication, it doesn’t fit as a huge problem. Robin too recognizes the concern of the people but substantiates it by giving the example of entering a building and joining a Facebook group where everyone can view the user’s basic Facebook profile. Hence, the privacy concerns can be settled considering the advantages that the software offers to the co-workers as well as employers for a clean transparent and efficient system.
