Indoor location in mobile applications using iBeacons
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This document discusses iBeacons and indoor location using Bluetooth Low Energy technology. It provides an overview of the limitations of GPS for indoor use and how iBeacons address this by broadcasting Bluetooth signals that can be detected by mobile devices to determine proximity. The document demonstrates how to develop iOS and Android applications to detect and range iBeacons, and how additional beacons allow for more accurate indoor positioning through trilateration. It also covers running beacon detection in the background and potential accuracy issues.
Indoor location in mobile applications using iBeacons
- 1. Indoor Location in Mobile Applications using iBeacons -- Simon Guest, Distinguished Engineer. Neudesic, LLC
- 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!
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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