Table 2.

Summary of Estimote® and Sensefinity® main features, strengths and weaknesses

	Estimote®	Sensefinity®
Features	• Wireless beacons; • Based on BLE technology; • Signals broadcasted are detected by applications installed on mobile devices; • Main functionality is proximity detection; • The app needs Wi-Fi or GSM to communicate over the Internet; • Software Development Kit and example Demo app are provided.	• Wireless beacons and tags; • Based on BLE technology and a proprietary protocol operating on the 2.4GHz frequency band; • Provides a variety of functionality (proximity, direct location, etc.); • Communicates over the Internet using gateways via GSM; • Webservice provided to extract the data.
Strengths	• Not very expensive; • Accurate when providing proximity.	• Not very expensive; • Provides all necessary equipment to build an IPS; • No need for an already existent network;
Weaknesses	• Need to buy other equipment, namely mobile devices; • Demands the existence of Wi-Fi network or to use GSM; • Not good for estimating direct distances; • Very susceptible to interferences; • Batteries levels decrease very fast.	• Demands the existence of GSM coverage; • Hardware is very vulnerable to damage; • Very susceptible to interferences; • Beacons fall off frequently from their places.