Does implementation of BLE technology affect synchronous communication in an office space?

Abstract

This study examines communication in a co-located context, emphasising on the role of location-awareness through the introduction of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology in an office environment. An investigation into the relationship between location-awareness and face-to-face communication is conducted at the offices of Sigma ITC. How much privacy is traded by the employees in favour of localisation via BLE, and its effect on communication practices is inspected here. The methodology consists of developing a mobile application acting as a localisation artefact in combination with BLE iBeacons placed at the case company. A privacy-related questionnaire and, a series of interviews with the employees form the data collection process. Evaluation of collected responses through emergent coding identifies the prominent themes later highlighted as answers to the proposed research questions. Synchronous communication is found to remain unaffected by location- awareness on the study. The employees are found willing to sacrifice some aspects of privacy in favour of localisation, albeit with certain reservations about time and choice. No discernible effect is seen in terms of communication frequency thus, the overall effect of BLE on communication is said to remain inconclusive from this study.