Skip to main content
Proximity detection is one of the two core safety functions in PulseGuard. It monitors the physical distance between a worker’s wearable and the beacons installed near heavy equipment, restricted machinery, or any area you designate as a hazard zone. The moment a worker crosses your configured alert threshold, the wearable vibrates to warn the worker, and the Console raises an alert for the assigned supervisor — all in real time, without any manual action from either party.

​
How Proximity Detection Works

Each hazard zone in the Console is anchored by one or more physical beacons that you install near the hazard. The BreakPoint Gen 2 wearable uses a combination of ultra-wideband (UWB) ranging and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to continuously measure its distance from every beacon within range. UWB provides centimeter-grade accuracy in open environments; BLE fills coverage gaps and extends range in areas where direct line-of-sight is limited. Distance measurements are computed on-device and streamed to the BreakPoint cloud, where they are compared against your configured alert thresholds in real time. This on-device computation means proximity alerts fire even when cloud connectivity is momentarily interrupted — the wearable will queue events and sync them once connectivity is restored.
Proximity detection requires the BreakPoint Gen 2 wearable or later. Gen 1 devices do not include UWB hardware and cannot participate in proximity detection.

​
Alert Threshold Distances

You can configure a proximity alert threshold between 1 meter and 20 meters for each individual zone. The threshold represents the distance at which the wearable will vibrate and the Console will trigger an alert — it is not a hard boundary that workers cannot cross. Most facilities use a two-tier alert model: You can configure both tiers per zone, or use a single threshold if your workflow requires it. Critical alerts appear in red in the Console and trigger an audible notification for the assigned supervisor; warning alerts appear in amber and log silently unless escalation rules are configured.

​
Adjusting a Zone’s Proximity Threshold

1

Open the Zones panel in the Console

From the Console dashboard, navigate to Safety → Zones. You will see a list of all configured zones with their current threshold settings displayed.
2

Select the zone you want to edit

Click the zone name to open its detail view. The Proximity Settings section shows the current warning and critical distances, beacon count, and last-seen beacon status.
3

Edit the threshold distances

Click Edit Thresholds. Enter your desired distance in meters for the Warning threshold and the Critical threshold. Both fields accept values between 1 and 20. If you only want a single threshold, leave the Warning field blank and set only the Critical distance.
4

Save and confirm

Click Save Changes. The Console will push the updated thresholds to all wearables that have synced within the past 24 hours. Wearables currently on-site will receive the update within 30 seconds via the beacon mesh.
5

Test the new threshold

Walk through the zone yourself — or ask a supervisor to do so — wearing a BreakPoint wearable, and confirm that the alert fires at the expected distance before workers use the area. See the testing section below for a structured walk-through checklist.

​
Configuring Beacon Placement for Best Coverage

Beacon placement directly determines the accuracy and reliability of your proximity alerts. A poorly placed beacon creates blind spots — areas where a worker is physically close to a hazard but outside the beacon’s ranging range. General placement principles:
  • Mount beacons at 1.5–2 meters above the floor for the best horizontal ranging plane. Beacons mounted near the floor or above 3 meters see significant range reduction.
  • Maintain clear line-of-sight between the beacon and the areas where workers are most likely to approach the hazard. Avoid mounting beacons behind structural pillars or large equipment.
  • Place beacons on the hazard side of the threshold you want to detect, not on the worker side. This ensures the wearable measures distance to the actual hazard rather than to an arbitrary boundary marker.
  • Use at least two beacons per zone to eliminate single points of failure and improve ranging accuracy through triangulation.
Metal structures, reinforced walls, and large metallic equipment can significantly attenuate both UWB and BLE signals, reducing effective beacon range by up to 60%. In environments with heavy metal infrastructure — such as steel fabrication floors or dense rack storage — increase beacon density and reduce your threshold distances to compensate. Always validate coverage with a walk-through test after installation.
Recommended beacon spacing by facility type:

​
Reading Proximity Events in the Console

Every proximity alert — warning or critical — is automatically logged as a proximity event in the Console. You can access the full event history from Safety → Proximity Events. Each event record includes:
  • Worker name and device ID — identifies which wearable triggered the alert
  • Zone name and type — the hazard zone the worker approached
  • Entry time — timestamp when the worker crossed the alert threshold
  • Distance at alert — the measured distance (in meters) when the alert fired
  • Alert tier — whether the event was a Warning or Critical alert
  • Duration — how long the worker remained within the alert distance
  • Acknowledgment status — whether a supervisor acknowledged the alert and when
You can filter events by date range, zone, worker, alert tier, and acknowledgment status. Use the Export button to download a CSV of filtered events for safety audits or incident investigations.

​
Testing Proximity Detection After Setup

Before bringing workers into a newly configured zone, always validate that your beacons and thresholds are working as expected.
The single most effective thing you can do before going live with a new hazard zone is a structured walk-through test. Put on a BreakPoint wearable, have a second person watch the Console in real time, and walk toward the hazard from multiple approach angles — not just the main aisle. Near-misses often happen from unexpected directions, and blind spots are easiest to find before they matter.
Walk-through test checklist:
  1. Confirm at least two beacons show a green status in the zone’s detail view before starting.
  2. Approach the hazard from the primary worker approach path and verify the wearable vibrates and the Console alert fires at the expected distance.
  3. Repeat the approach from at least two additional angles (sides, rear if accessible) to check for blind spots.
  4. Walk the outer perimeter of the zone to confirm alerts do not fire outside the intended threshold distance — excessive false positives indicate beacons are placed too far from the hazard.
  5. Have a second tester walk through simultaneously to confirm multi-worker detection works correctly.
  6. Check the Console’s Proximity Events log to confirm all test events were recorded with accurate distances and timestamps.