Session from GIDS 2014, covering iBeacons, developing applications, and trilateration techniques.

1. Indoor Location in Mobile Applications using iBeacons
-- Simon Guest, Distinguished Engineer. Neudesic, LLC

2. GPS IS GREAT!

3. WHEN YOU ARE OUTDOORS

4. INDOOR LOCATION IS A DIFFERENT STORY

5. ISSUES
▸ GPS signal rarely works indoors
▸ When it does, it's often inaccurate
▸ No concept of indoor space, such as multiple floors

6. MANY COMPANIES HAVE TRIED TO SOLVE THIS!

7. WIFI SOLUTIONS

8. NFC BASED SOLUTIONS

9. MAGNETOMETER

10. LESS THAN IDEAL RESULTS
▸ Expensive
▸ Custom
▸ Too heavy on power
▸ Unpredictable requirements (e.g. WiFi)
▸ Don't run in background

11. DEMOCRATIZATION

12. IBEACONS

13. GOAL OF THIS SESSION
▸ What are iBeacons?
▸ Developing iOS and Android applications
▸ Pushing the boundaries

15. CLASSIC

16. BLUETOOTH LOW ENERGY (BLE)

17. BLUETOOTH LE/SMART
▸ Designed for low power
consumption
▸ Secure, simple pairing
w/ multiple profiles
▸ Wide range of hardware
vendor support

18. HOW DOES IBEACON RELATE?

19. IBEACON SPECIFICATION
▸ Apple Specification and Trademark on using Bluetooth
LE/Smart for indoor proximity
▸ Similar to a Bluetooth profile, except Apple are driving it
▸ Implementing specification is free, subject to Apple
NDA

20. REDBEAR BEACON
▸ RedBear BLE Mini
▸ TI CC2540
▸ 5v USB or 3.4v cell
battery input
▸ Around $30 USD

21. HOW DO IBEACONS WORK?

22. IBEACONS IN USE
▸ iBeacon broadcasts
signal using a UUID
▸ UUID is unique to a
group of iBeacons, not
an individual

23. IBEACONS IN USE
▸ Beacon identifies itself
in the group using a
Major and Minor number
▸ For example, Major: 1,
Minor 2

24. IBEACONS IN USE
▸ Devices can find
iBeacons nearby that
match a particular UUID
▸ This is known as
ranging for beacons

25. IBEACONS IN USE
▸ Once found, device can
detemine power level of
signal from the beacon
▸ Which in turn can
approximate the
distance

26. IBEACONS IN USE
▸ Three enumerated
ranges supported in the
specification
▸ IMMEDIATE, NEAR, and
FAR

27. EXAMPLE SCENARIOS

28. RETAIL STORE: PRODUCT PROMOTION AND LOCATION

29. EDUCATION: MUSEUM INFORMATION SYSTEM

30. OIL & GAS: PERSONNEL SAFETY SYSTEM

31. REAL ESTATE: OPEN HOUSE WALKTHROUGH

32. REMEMBER, IBEACONS ARE NOT SMART!

33. REMEMBER, IBEACONS ARE NOT SMART!
▸ No network connectivity
▸ No concept of devices that have discovered them
▸ No storage or additional information beyond UUID,
Major, Minor

34. DEVICE COMPATIBILITY

35. DEVICE COMPATIBILITY
▸ iPhone 4S / iPad 3 and upwards, running iOS 7+
▸ Android 4.3 and upwards, running Linux Kernel 3.4+
▸ Macs with Bluetooth 4 hardware, running Mavericks
▸ Hardware vendors
-- Radius, Redbear, Estimote, and others

36. DEVELOPING APPLICATIONS THAT SUPPORT IBEACONS

37. IOS
▸ Support for iBeacons in CoreLocation in iOS 7.x
▸ Create new CLBeaconRegion using UUID
▸ DidRangeBeacons event used to detect nearby beacons
▸ Returns array of beacons

38. IOS (XAMARIN)
private CLLocationManager locationManager;
private NSUuid beaconUUID = new NSUuid ("E2C56DB5-DFFB-48D2-B060-D0F5A71096E0");
private CLBeaconRegion beaconRegion;
public void StartListeningForBeacons ()
{
beaconRegion = new CLBeaconRegion (beaconUUID, "0");
locationManager = new CLLocationManager ();
locationManager.DidRangeBeacons += (object sender, CLRegionBeaconsRangedEventArgs args) => {
// args.Beacons contains the array of found beacons
};
locationManager.StartRangingBeacons (beaconRegion);
locationManager.StartUpdatingLocation ();
}

39. ANDROID
▸ Apple does not provide iBeacon SDK for Android
▸ Radius Networks open sourced SDK
▸ Extend Activity with IBeaconConsumer
▸ OnIBeaconServiceConnect and RangingBeaconsInRegion

40. ANDROID (XAMARIN)
private readonly IBeaconManager iBeaconManager;
private readonly Region monitoringRegion;
private readonly Region rangingRegion;
private const string UUID = "e2c56db5dffb48d2b060d0f5a71096e0";
public MainActivity ()
{
iBeaconManager = IBeaconManager.GetInstanceForApplication (this);
monitorNotifier = new MonitorNotifier ();
rangeNotifier = new RangeNotifier ();
monitoringRegion = new Region ("r2MonitoringUniqueId", UUID, null, null);
rangingRegion = new Region ("r2RangingUniqueId", UUID, null, null);
}

41. ANDROID (XAMARIN)
public void OnIBeaconServiceConnect ()
{
iBeaconManager.SetMonitorNotifier (monitorNotifier);
iBeaconManager.SetRangeNotifier (rangeNotifier);
iBeaconManager.StartMonitoringBeaconsInRegion (monitoringRegion);
iBeaconManager.StartRangingBeaconsInRegion (rangingRegion);
}
private void RangingBeaconsInRegion (object sender, RangeEventArgs e)
{
// beacons returned in e.Beacons
}

42. DEMO

43. WHAT DID WE SEE?
▸ Simple application using CLLocationManager to range
for beacons
▸ Relatively accurate line-of-sight proximity detection
▸ Enumerated proximity levels

44. BEYOND THE BASICS

45. RUNNING IBEACONS IN THE BACKGROUND

46. BACKGROUND DETECTION IN IOS
▸ Made possible by iOS 7.1!
▸ Invoke ranging for beacons from AppDelegate (not
ViewController)
▸ Beacon ranging will persist background and even work
when device is locked/standby

47. BACKGROUND DETECTION IN ANDROID
▸ Default as Radius SDK actually runs as a service
▸ Developer chooses how to handle OnResume, OnPause
events, and invoking application/service on updates
▸ Should consider own service to handle background
notifications

48. BACKGROUND TIPS
▸ Keeping BLE enabled and ranging will have some effect
on battery
▸ Consider adding sleep time if running in background
▸ Don't make expensive calls (e.g. networking,
computation) on each ranging

49. DEMO

50. BETTER ACCURACY OF INDOOR LOCATION

54. TRILATERATION

55. TRILATERATION
▸ Similar in concept to triangulation except uses distance
vs. angles
▸ Requires minimum of three beacons
▸ Assuming accurate power signals, can calculate more
accurate position

56. DEMO

57. WHAT DID WE SEE?
▸ Position of 3+ beacons sent to NodeJS server
▸ NodeJS server uses cartersian coords to work out
position, broadcast via WebSockets
▸ HTML5 page responds to WebSockets and plots position
on canvas

58. NOT PERFECT...

59. NOT PERFECT...
▸ Walls or line-of-sight obstructions will decrease
observed power range, and lead to inaccurate results
▸ But an array of iBeacons in an open area (e.g. retail
store) should provide 1-2m accuracy

60. WRAPPING UP

61. IBEACONS

62. IBEACONS
▸ Apple standard, but supported well on most (latest)
mobile devices
▸ Mix of hardware and software options, easy to develop
▸ Opening up wide opportunity of indoor location
scenarios to any developer at a relatively low cost point

63. THANK YOU!

64. Q&A
▸ Simon Guest, Distinguished Engineer, Neudesic LLC
▸ simonguest.com (@simonguest)
▸ http://github.com/simonguest/gids
▸ http://slideshare.net/simonguest

65. -- http://
www.amazon.com/File-
New-Presentation-
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