ANT Forum

Hi,
Can ANT/ANT+ technology used for positioning & tracking applications ?But can I use ANT as Beacon/Indoor location tracking applications ?

Most of the current application I see on website are geared towards fitness and I haven't found any application/company using it for tracking/positioning.

I am new to ANT. I know Bluetooth Smart can be used as Beacon. But since ANT/ANT+ is better technology and allows formation of large connected nodes/networks, low power consumptions etc.


I am developer and would like to invest my energy in creating innovation applications in positioning space.

-Roofi

     

Hi,

Nothing precludes ANT from being used as a beacon/location tracking technology from a technical standpoint, and it does have it's own unique benefits.

ANT supports proximity pairing and RSSI which can be used to help determine relative distance. ANT "beacons" or master channels are fully bi-directional with every message which reduces latency and ANT master channels automatically organize themselves using isochronous adaptive transmission allowing large topologies to be formed without using large amounts of processing resources or developer effort.

There are certainly companies which use ANT for positioning/beacon like applications, but do not necessarily promote their use of ANT in marketing. Berg Liquor Controls for example uses ANT to manage a liquor control system and manage hundreds of bottles concurrently in a bar setting for example.

There was recently an announcement of deploying ANT in self-forming/self-healing networks as well.

If you wish to find out which companies are using ANT, the ANT+ Members list is indicative of larger companies which do so.

Cheers      

Good to know that the technology permits usage beyond fitness. For applications such as Berg Liquor Controls systems do they have to go through ANT certification ? If yes, what would be typical cost ??

I looked at the Fees Estimator and randomly picked few options to estimate but it didn't give me a ballpark figure. Rather requested me to send an email.

I am assuming if companies use ANT but do not promote their use for marketing reasons, Do they have to go through ANT certification process ?

     

You do not need to certify any custom ANT based products, only products which use ANT+ Device Profiles must be certified to ensure interoperability with other ANT+ devices which share the same device profiles. No work is required on behalf of developers to ensure protocol level compatibility between devices.

If you do require a new device profile in order to partner with other companies/launch a new product space, as an ANT+ Member you may request/submit a device profile to be eventually created and released.