building a mobile location aware system with beacons

Building a Mobile Location Aware System with Beacons

Jonathan LeBlanc (@jcleblanc) Head of Global Developer Advocacy at PayPal + Braintree

twitter: @jcleblanc | hashtag: #OSCON

Purpose of a Beacon

Being Location Aware


Real World Use Case


Central Device

Beacon Hardware

IP Address Endpoint

How it Works



Estimote: $99 / 3, temp + motion

Beacon Comparison

Bluecat: Trial, AA batteries

Gimbal Tag: $5, small & deployable

Kontakt.io: $81 / 3, battery life

•  UUID (16 bytes): Differentiates Large Group

•  Major (2 bytes): Beacon Subset

•  Minor (2 bytes): Individual Beacon

•  Tx Power: Proximity from beacon

Beacon Advertisement & ID



Don’t be Creepy


Deploy Considerations

Battery Life vs Range


Battery Replacement


Signal Interference


•  Microwave ovens

•  Direct Satellite Service (DSS)

•  Certain external electrical sources

•  2.4 GHz or 5 GHz phones

•  Video transmitters/receivers that operate in the 2.4

GHz or 5 GHz bandwidth

•  Wireless speakers that operate in the 2.4 GHz or 5

GHz band

•  Certain external monitors and LCD displays

•  Any other wireless devices that operate in the 2.4

GHz or 5 GHz bandwidth


Signal Degradation


Low Interference Medium Interference

High Interference Very High Interference

Wood

Synthetic Material

Glass

Water

Bricks

Marble

Plaster

Concrete

Bulletproof Glass

Metal


Attaching to a Beacon

<uses-permission android:name=

"android.permission.BLUETOOTH"/>

<uses-permission android:name=

"android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN"/>

<service android:name=

”com.estimote.sdk.service.BeaconService"

android:exported="false"/>

AndroidManifest.xml


Adjusting Beacon Settings Estimote Site and App


connection = new BeaconConnection(this, beacon, new

BeaconConnection.ConnectionCallback(){

@Override public void onAuthenticated(){ ... }

@Override public void onAuthenticationError(){ ... }

@Override public void onDisconnected(){ ... }

});

connection.authenticate();

connection.close();

The Beacon Connection


//update the beacon UUID and Major

connection.edit()

.set(connection.major(), newMajor)

.commit(new BeaconConnection.WriteCallback(){

@Override public void onSuccess(){}

@Override public void

onError(EstimoteDeviceException exception){}

});

Adjusting Beacon Settings


•  AdvertisingInterval

•  BroadcastingPower

•  Major

•  Minor

•  ProximityUuid

Updatable Settings


The Android Emulator



Virtual Machine Software +

USB BLE adapter

http://chrislarson.me/blog/emulate-android-and-bluetooth-le-hardware.html

Emulating Android & BLE


Collecting Range Data

•  getProximityUUID: Proximity UUID of the Beacon

•  getMajor: Major version of the beacon •  getMinor: Minor version of the beacon

•  getMeasuredPower: Beacon measured power

(in dBm)

•  getMacAddress: Beacon MAC address

•  getName: Display friendly beacon name •  getRssi: Received Signal Strength Indication

The Beacon Object


private static final Region ALL_BEACONS =

new Region("regionId", null, null, null);

private BeaconManager beaconManager = new

BeaconManager(this);

Setting the Beacon Manager


beaconManager.setRangingListener(new BeaconManager.RangingListener() { @Override public void onBeaconsDiscovered(Region region, List<Beacon> beacons) {

for (Beacon rangedBeacon : beacons) { double currentDistance = Utils.computeAccuracy(rangedBeacon); … }

} });

Setting the Listener


beaconManager.connect(

new BeaconManager.ServiceReadyCallback(){

@Override public void onServiceReady(){

try{

beaconManager.startRanging(ALL_BEACONS);

} catch (RemoteException e) {

Log.e(TAG, "Cannot start ranging", e);

}

}

});

Getting Beacon Range


iBeacon Specification https://developer.apple.com/ibeacon/

Estimote Javadocs http://estimote.github.io/Android-SDK/JavaDocs/

AltBeacon http://altbeacon.org/examples/


Beacon Wrap-up


Thank You! http://slideshare.net/jcleblanc

Jonathan LeBlanc (@jcleblanc) Head of Global Developer Advocacy at PayPal + Braintree

building a mobile location aware system with beacons

Technology