Beacons

- Upasana Chauhan

Agenda

1. What is Beacons?

2. Why use beacons?(Pros)

3. Why not to use beacons?(Cons)

4. Where to use beacons?(Use Cases)

5. Which beacons to use?(Vendors)

Demo Application

What is Beacons??

Beacons are a low-cost piece of hardware — small enough to attach to a

wall or countertop — that use battery-friendly, low-energy Bluetooth

connections to transmit messages or prompts directly to a smartphone or

tablet.

Whats inside?

BLE – Bluetooth Low Energy, marketed as Bluetooth Smart Advertised Packet

Major teminology used

BLE

Bluetooth LE is a specification

The specification is used to create Bluetooth LE chipsets,

eg: Estimote chipsets

The Chipsets are embedded in devices,

Eg: Estimote devices

Bluetooth Low Energy, as the name implies,

It consumes very less power. It can work upto couple of years on a single coin cell battery. It is cost effiecient wrt to classic bluetooth. Lower implementation costs Multi-vendor interoperability Enhanced range

Features

Difference from Classic BTNo consistent communication is required. BLE works well in sending small data packets, adverstisements, which is broadcasted within a particular range.

Bluetooth Low Energy is a part of Bluetooth 4.0. A dual mode device like a smartphone is able to support classic Bluetooth (BT) and Bluetooth Low Energy at the same time. Your smartphone could be connected to a Bluetooth 2.1 headset and stream audio, and at the same time be connected to a heart rate belt or other sensors on your bicycle.

Bluetooth LE works on “central-peripheral” mode, devices working as “central” means it can act as a device that consumes Bluetooth LE data. The “peripheral” role, which is used by devices being the Bluetooth LE data provider, in short, Bluetooth LE is a peripheral mode advertisement.

Bluetooth Low Energy, as the name implies, l it consumes very less power. l It can work upto couple of years on a single coin cell battery. l It is cost effiecient wrt to classic bluetooth.l Lower implementation costsl Multi-vendor interoperabilityl Enhanced range

Difference from Classic BT

Difference from Classic BT

How it works?

How it works?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrsHBjzt2E8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGSOf1tHSSo&index=1&list=PLyBzxvBn3_tBQHM9OvDrfFAQyq7m-VCoY

Advertised Packet

Apple has standardized the format for BLE Advertising. Under this format, an advertising packet mandatorily consists of three main pieces of information.UUID: This is a 16 byte string used to differentiate a large group of related beacons. For example, 12345678901234 if Coca-Cola maintained a network of beacons in a chain of grocery stores, all Coca-Cola beacons would share the same UUID. This allows Coca-Cola’s dedicated smartphone app to know which beacon advertisements come from Coca-Cola-owned beacons.Major: This is a 2 byte string used to distinguish a smaller subset of beacons within the larger group. For example, if Coca-Cola had four beacons in a particular grocery store, all four would have the same Major. This allows Coca-Cola to know exactly which store its customer is in.Minor: This is a 2 byte string meant to identify individual beacons. Keeping with the Coca-Cola example, a beacon at the front of the store would have its own unique Minor. This allows Coca-Cola’s dedicated app to know exactly where the customer is in the store.Tx Power: This is used to determine proximity (distance) from the beacon.

Role of UUID, Major, Minor

Example:1. We recieve a byte array2. Converting this byte array to hexadecimal

1aff4c000215b9407f30f5f8466eaff925556b57fe6dda958577b6

breaking it into information we required.1aff - Packet headers4c000215 - Manufacturing codeb9407f30f5f8466eaff925556b57fe6d - UUIDda95 - Major8577 - MinorB6 - Tx Power

With the help of Android's Bluetooth APIs we can collect raw bluetooth device information from Bluetooth LE packet like, 1. Manufacturer ID2. Beacon Name3. MacAddress4. RSSI(Received Signal Strength Information)

Few other information can also be decoded regarding device information depending on Third party Libraries/APIs.

Code Implementation Transmitter Reciever

For Transmitter –

1. Bluetooth should be on getSystemService(Context.BLUETOOTH_SERVICE)

2. BLE supported device hasSystemFeature(PackageManager.FEATURE_BLUETOOTH_LE))

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH" />

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN" />

Beacon beacon = new Beacon.Builder() .setId1(“2f234454-cf6d-4a0f-adf2-f4911ba9ffa6”) .setId2(“1”) .setId3(“2”) .setManufacturer(0x0118) .setTxPower(-59) .setDataFields(Arrays.asList(new Long[] {0l})) .build();beaconTransmitter.startAdvertising(beacon);

Beacon Advertisement Receiver

Two classes are main in this reciever1. Beacon Parser2. Beacon Manager

Why use Beacons Bluetooth LE can be understood as an ‘extension’ of location

technology. It’s a lot like GPS but also uses a LOT less battery GPS doesn’t work very well once you get inside.Bluetooth LE does. Provides rich user experience in form of Notifications, Alerts, dialogs,

etc. Helpful in Consumer engagement activities. Capability to facilitate payment also. Advantage over NFC because of its range, affordability.

Why not to use Beacons Bluetooth must be on. Security issues Durability Programming Only limited data can be transferred through beacons. Each Beacon specification is vendor/hardware dependent. Proximity based distance, it may vary from environment to

environment.

Where to use Beacons(Use Cases)1. Shopping ComplexesBeacons can play a major role in retail marketing. It can attract Consumers by sending offers, discounts or any other interesting stuff by notifications. As soon as the device comes in the range of any Beacon say, near ABC Shop, then all the offers will arrive on the device.

2. AirportsFlight delay, waiting time is a very common process while boarding any plane. During this situation, if while travelling from any nearby Custom Shop, the passenger gets the notification regarding all the stuff on sale, without actually entering into the shop, will utilize the passenger time in converting it into fine retail experience.

3. Mueseums/ZooAlthough everyhting is written everywhere, but still if the information comes on the User device with fine User Interface, displaying the related videos, captivating images, then it will surely popularize the place and its management.

Where to use Beacons(Use Cases)4. Amusements Parks/Trade FairsWhile waiting for half an hour in the queue, if User gets this information prior regarding the head count near any ride, then User can easily optimize its experience by visiting all the rides he likes.This can be done by Beacons. Any device in the beacons contact can capture its presence and thus helps in showing the real time analytics.

5. To-Do-ListEarly in the morning, as soon as the employee enters in the office or get seated, automatically a TO DO LIST gets open for him, either showing the task assigned to him by this Team Lead, Project Manager, or any work that the employee assigned to himself. We can further sync this list with the server to track the work done in whole day.

5. Cab TrackKeeping a track of Cab Board/ De-board by any employee/passenger. On the basis of this we can identify whether the person is in the cab or not and correspondingly sending the data back to server to ensure safety as well. Also, deploying Beacons is a cheaper way to track.

Where to use Beacons(Use Cases)6. New employeesBeing a new employee, introduction to their team is a must. If not to the whole team then atleast to its immediate supervisors and supervise. As soon as the person enters into office, a brief overview can be send to him in a very nice UI structure.

7. Attendance appBeacon can easily identify if the device is in its range or not, so marking the attendance for the same and simultaneously User can see who all are present in the office.

Other Use cases could be8. Hospitals9. Events/Conferences10. Stadium11. Entertainment junctions

Which Beacons to use?

Available SDK/Library/API to implement Beacons(iOS/Android)

1. https://github.com/Estimote/Android-SDK

2. https://github.com/Estimote/iOS-SDK

3. https://github.com/AltBeacon/android-beacon-library

4. http://www.smartbeacon.eu/platform-api/

5. https://github.com/easibeacon/ibeacon-android-library

6. Developing an Android iBeacon App with Xamarin

7. Gimbal: Proximity Solutions

Refrenceshttp://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/bluetooth-le.html

https://developer.apple.com/ibeacon/Getting-Started-with-iBeacon.pdf

http://www.quora.com/Is-there-a-difference-between-Bluetooth-4-0-and-Bluetooth-Low-Energy-If-so-what

Q&A

Thank you