Chattering billboards and telltale cell phones
The fact that posters suddenly “chat” with cell phones using ultrasound has caused quite a stir. But anyone can use ultrasound data, and cell phones have always been digital chatterboxes.
Advertising that talks directly to consumers is an old marketing dream. With its Beem technology, Swisscom and a number of app providers want to teach posters to talk. The trick is simple. A small loudspeaker on the billboard emits ultrasonic sounds. If you stand in front of the advertisement with your smartphone and the appropriate app, the cell phone microphone hears these tones. A message then pops up informing you that you can tap your finger to access additional information about the billboard via the Internet.
However, the inaudible chattering posters have now caused such a stir that Swisscom has postponed the launch of Beem for the time being (Werbewoche.ch reported). But actually ultrasonic communication (Ultrasonic) is old hat and has been used for years.
In the beginning, however, the advertising industry tried to use the technology in a hidden way. That's why its reputation is pretty tarnished. Two years ago, several studies discovered hundreds of apps that unnoticedly monitored the behavior of cell phone owners via ultrasonic signals.
The bad reputation of the technology is now also preceding Beem. This is despite the fact that Swisscom promises that Beem does not secretly track cell phone owners at all. The user must actively initiate data transmission. So Beem actually works more like the QR code on billboards. Thanks to ultrasound, the user only has to save photographing the code.
Ultrasound technology already has numerous useful cell phone applications. It can be used, for example, to turn thousands of concertgoers' cell phones into a light show. This is demonstrated, for example, by the American provider Cue audio in numerous videos.
The app shows how easy it is to transfer data with sounds Chirp Messenger. Two cell phone owners can use it to exchange texts and chat without WLAN or Internet.
If you want to transfer data inaudibly between smartphones or even from PC to smartphone, you will find on the website Quiet.github.io/quiet-js/ Help. It converts any text into audible and inaudible sounds (Send) and can then also convert them back (Start Receiver).
If you want to act as an ultrasound researcher yourself, install the Android app UltraSound Detector or SoniControl. They sound an alarm as soon as the phone hears an ultrasound source. UltraSound Detector can even convert ultrasonic sounds into "audible" sounds (transfer). Ultrasonic test tones can be found for example on Ultrasonic-ringtones.com.
But even without ultrasound, store owners and advertisers have many ways of capturing the audience. After all, the Bluetooth and WLAN transmitters on smartphones are also chatterboxes.
If you install apps such as "nRF Connect for Mobile" or "Bluetooth Monitor" on your cell phone, you can see all the cell phones and headphones in the immediate vicinity, including manufacturer information.
Because cell phones are constantly trying to find a suitable network when WLAN is switched on, they can also be easily tracked this way. The free Windows program WifiChannelMonitor for example, continuously listens in the wireless network and even detects devices that are not connected to the home WLAN. How far such Wifi tracking and Bluetooth tracking can go is shown in an animation on the website Libelium.com. (Kurt Haupt/SDA-MDI)
Note: SDA received "financial support" from Swisscom for this article. Werbewoche.ch publishes it free of charge due to the thematic relevance around the coverage of the launch of Beem.
