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IBeacons and Eddystone
This document provides an overview of beacon technology and context aware apps. It discusses iBeacons and Eddystone, which are Bluetooth Low Energy beacon specifications from Apple and Google respectively. iBeacons interact with iOS apps through CoreLocation APIs while Eddystone works with Android apps using Google Play Services. The document also covers example use cases for context aware apps and challenges with beacon technology.
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IBeacons and Eddystone
- 1. Building context aware appswith iBeacons and Eddystone Jim Bennett @JimBobBennett http://JimBobBennett.io
- 2. Overview • A quickoverview of beacon technology • What are context aware apps? • What is iBeacon? • What is Eddystone? • Demos
- 3. What are beacons •Bluetooth LE devices • Broadcast a signal at a defined interval with a defined data packet • They don’t rely on a client connection, just a regular, public broadcast • Low power - some run off USB, some run of batteries with lifetimes in months to years
- 4. What are contextaware apps?• Context aware apps are aware of some kind of contextual information provided by the devices location relative to the beacons • Better than GPS as this can work indoor as well as out • Context is based off the location of a beacon, and this is not necessarily a fixed point • Context is defined by an multi part id • Beacons broadcast a signal strength indicator so the device can get an approximate distance based off the received signal strength
- 5. What apps canyou build to take advantage of this?• Museum guide - app knows which exhibit you are standing next to and plays the correct audio • Stadium location - app can pinpoint your location and direct you to your seat, and let you know when a beer seller is close by • Shopping - notifications of special offers when you are next to the items on offer • Respond to indoor location - turn your lights off when you put your phone down on your bedside table, notify friends when you are home safe
- 6. Problems! • Security -anyone can read your beacon by scanning for Bluetooth devices and spoof your id • Power - some beacons run off the mains so need socket, battery powered ones will die and need replacing • Accuracy - not very, for example in a busy location people can decrease signal strength
- 7. What are iBeacons? •Apple’s beacon specification • Message has an Id, version (major, minor), measured power • Multiple iBeacons can have the same Id, versions can be used to distinguish different iBeacons
- 8. How do theyinteract with your iOS app?• Apple defines an API to interact with iBeacons as part of CoreLocation • Apps can register to monitor a region - all beacons with a given Id • Monitoring notifies when an iBeacon moves in or out of range • Monitoring can happen in the background even if your app is terminated and will launch your app • Once your app is in the foreground, you can range the iBeacons to get their proximity/distance as it changes
- 9. What is Eddystone? •Google’s beacon specification - recently announced and open source • Broadcasts one of two possible message formats • Eddystone UID broadcasts a UID and a version • Eddystone URL broadcasts a URL (limited length) • Eddystone TLM goes alongside one of the other 2 formats and provides telemetry • Beacon broadcasts can wake your Android app up
- 10. Which one isbetter? • Eddystone URL allows discovery - can be detected by Chrome instead of a custom app • Downside is spamming with too many URLs • Apple provides OS level interaction with iBeacons so can wake your iOS app up - iBeacons can work on Android with manufacturers SDKs but can’t wake your app up • Eddystone can interact with the latest Google Play services and wake your Android app up, but not an iOS app • In the future beacons could broadcast multiple packets to wake apps up on both platforms
- 11. Using beacons with Xamarin •iBeacons on iOS is available in CoreLocation • Eddystone on Android is available in Google Play Services 7.8 • Google is releasing a Nearby API for iOS and Android that supports Eddystone on both platforms - no Xamarin binding yet • Estimote (a beacon vendor) has a Xamarin component for iOS and Android that supports iBeacon, needs to be updated to support Eddystone
- 12.
Editor's Notes
- #3 Install Chrome on iOS, Google Physical Web on Android
- #4 Just like a lighthouse or other signaling beacon - hence the name. Interval is hardware configured Packet is defined by standards - iBeacon and Eddystone are both standards Very low power - coin cell battery can last for years depending on signal strength and interval Signal can be pretty strong - up to 100m is normal, some do 500m
- #5 GPS can provide some context, rough location, speed etc. Beacons can provide more including fine grained location inside, proximity to well know points that are not fixed in location etc. E.g. painting or exhibits in a museum, vendors at events. By monitoring the distance to a beacon an app can act accordingly
- #7 Security can be a problem for payments - another beacon can broadcast the same id and the wrong person pays. Some vendors have a secure ID system that needs an internet connection to decrypt Battery is an issue with large installations - imaging having to replace them regularly in an art gallery where they would be hidden behind pictures. Not accurate with people in the way - a problem in busy areas like shops, museums and art galleries. Brooklyn Museum has a great article on this.
- #8 Apple recommends 100ms broadcast interval but doesn’t enforce it The Id is a 128bit UUID, version is 2 16-bit integers for major and minor Multiple beacons with the same Id can be used to indicate the same thing to allow discovery over a wider area than the broadcast power of a single iBeacon Can only register up to 20 regions made up of id, or id/major or id/major/minor. Normal usage would be things like id for a department in a store, major for an aisle and minor for an area in the aisle
- #9 Monitoring detects iBeacons moving into an our of fixed ranges. Once your app is in the foreground you can range the iBeacons to get notifications of distance changes. The iBeacon message contains the measured power. The API provides a value for the RSSI - relative signal strength indicator. This is the power detected by the iOS device and can be used to calculate the approximate distance. Distance is only approximate and is based on assuming empty air - things in the way can reduce the detected signal - furniture, people etc. Ranging will call a method regularly when your app is in the foreground to provide the updated distance.
- #10 Eddystone UUID (referred to as a namespace) broadcasts a 10 byte ID and 6 byte instance ID - usage is multiple beacons can share the namespace for one area and with different instances to define different beacons for more accurate context. Eddystone URL broadcasts a URL but is limited to 17 bytes with some abbreviations allowing longer (e.g. one bye can replace .com/) Eddystone TLM sends things like battery life remaining, up time etc.
- #11 URL allows discovery - can drive people to your app. URL appears in chrome, but nothing to stop you being spammed, especially in a potentially busy place like a shopping centre. Eddystone needs latest google play services - only been out for a week No one standard can work in the background on both devices
- #13 Eddystone URL - Blueberry for URL Green for dodgy URL iBeacon - white for monitoring - show Xamarin code