Building a Mobile Location Aware System with Beacons

Tim Messerschmidt
Head of Developer Relations, International
Braintree_PayPal
@Braintree_Dev / @SeraAndroid
Building a Mobile Location Aware
System with Beacons
#OSCON

@Braintree_Dev / @SeraAndroid#OSCON
A Beacon’s
Purpose

Location
Awareness

Source: http://communityhealthmaps.nlm.nih.gov/2014/07/07/how-accurate-is-the-gps-on-my-smart-phone-part-2
GPS
3m
A-GPS
8m
WiFi
75m
Cellular
600m
Leveraging Your
Phone’s Hardware

GPS vs
Bluetooth Smart

Bluetooth vs
Bluetooth Smart

Triangulation
Beacon
Beacon
Beacon
Position
Measuring
Angles From a
Fixed Location

Trilateration
Beacon
Beacon
Beacon
Position
Measuring
Distances From a
Fixed Location

Applying This to
the real world

Behind the Magic
Beacon Device
Advertisement

Behind the Magic
Beacon Device Endpoint

Popular Beacon Choices
Estimote
99 $ / 3
Gimbal
5 $
Bluecats
29 $
Kontakt.io
81 $ / 3

Advertising Beacons
UUID (16 Bytes): Large Beacon Group
Major (2 Bytes): The Beacon Subset
Minor (2 Bytes): The individual Beacon
Tx Power: translates into distance

Avoid Being creepy

Deploying Beacons

Range vs. Battery

Replacing Batteries

SiGnal Interference

Confounding Factors
Microwave ovens
Direct Satellite Services
External electrical Sources
Monitors and LCD Displays
Anything that uses 2.4 or 5 GHz

SiGnal degradation

reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/2qv6xv/visualization_of_wifi_signal_strength_in_a_room

Low Interference
Wood
Glass
Synthetic Material
Medium Interference
Water
Bricks
Marble
Very High Interference
Metal
High Interference
Plaster
Concrete
bulletproof Glass

Attaching to a Beacon

dependencies {
compile 'com.estimote:sdk:0.9.1@aar'
}
Resolving The Dependency
Source: http://github.com/Estimote/Android-SDK

getMacAddress()
getMajor()
getMinor()
getMeasuredPower()
The Estimote Beacon Object
Source: http://estimote.github.io/Android-SDK/JavaDocs/com/estimote/sdk/Beacon.html
getName()
getProximityUUID()
getRssi()

public class BeaconApplication extends Application { 
private static final String ESTIMOTE_APP_ID = "FROM THE ESTIMOTE CLOUD"; 
private static final String ESTIMOTE_APP_TOKEN = "FROM THE ESTIMOTE CLOUD"; 
 
@Override 
public void onCreate() { 
super.onCreate(); 
 
EstimoteSDK.initialize(this, ESTIMOTE_APP_ID, ESTIMOTE_APP_TOKEN); 
EstimoteSDK.enableDebugLogging(true); 
} 
}
Initializing the SDK

public class BeaconApplication extends Application implements BeaconManager.ServiceReadyCallback { 
 
private BeaconManager beaconManager; 
 
@Override 
 
… 
 
beaconManager = new BeaconManager(this); 
beaconManager.connect(this); 
} 
 
@Override 
public void onServiceReady() { 
final Region regionOne = new Region("First region", UUID.fromString("Beacon UUID"), 22504, 44870); 
beaconManager.startMonitoring(regionOne); 
} 
}
Monitoring a Single Beacon

public class BeaconApplication extends Application implements BeaconManager.ServiceReadyCallback { 
 
 
@Override 
 
… 
 
beaconManager = new BeaconManager(this); 
beaconManager.connect(this); 
} 
 
@Override 
final Region regionOne = new Region("First region", UUID.fromString("Beacon UUID"), null, null); 
} 
}
Monitoring multiple BeaconS

public class BeaconApplication extends Application implements BeaconManager.ServiceReadyCallback, BeaconManager.MonitoringListener { 
 
@Override 
} 
 
@Override 
public void onEnteredRegion(Region region, List<Beacon> list) { 
// Interact with the region 
final String regionId = region.getIdentifier(); 
… 
} 
 
@Override 
public void onExitedRegion(Region region) { 
// Notify the user that he left the region 
} 
}
Interacting with Regions

public class BeaconApplication extends Application implements BeaconManager.ServiceReadyCallback, BeaconManager.RangingListener { 
 
 
@Override 
beaconManager.startRanging(regionOne); 
} 
 
@Override 
public void onBeaconsDiscovered(Region region, List<Beacon> list) { 
final Beacon closestBeacon = list.get(0); 
// Interact with the beacon 
} 
}
Ranging Beacons

public class BeaconApplication extends Application implements BeaconConnection.ConnectionCallback, BeaconConnection.WriteCallback { 
 
private void configureBeacon(Beacon beacon) { 
final BeaconConnection connection = new BeaconConnection(this, beacon, this); 
connection.authenticate(); 
connection.edit() 
.set(connection.major(), 11) 
.set(connection.minor(), 3) 
.commit(this); 
connection.close(); 
}
// Implement the two interfaces for successful authentication and writing the configuration
…
}
Configuring Beacons

@Braintree_Dev / @SeraAndroid
Distance vs Signal Strength
Source: http://developer.estimote.com/android/tutorial/part-3-ranging-beacons
0
25
50
75
100
1m 2m 4m 8m

Important: While received signal strength, proximity
zone and accuracy values can theoretically be used to
derive a distance estimation, in practice this is far
from trivial and requires complex mathematical models
to account for fluctuations in the signal strength.
Long story short: do not expect distance estimations
from beacons.
Measuring Distance

immediate (strong signal)
near (medium signal)
far (weak signal)
unknown (very weak signal)
Measuring Distance

immediate (strong signal) - NFC
near (medium signal) - Beacons
far (weak signal) - Beacons
unknown (very weak signal)
Measuring Distance

computeAccuracy()
computeProximity()
isBeaconInRegion()
proximityFromAccuracy()
The Utils Class
Source: http://estimote.github.io/Android-SDK/JavaDocs/com/estimote/sdk/Utils.html

Ranging vs Monitoring

Testing BLE on Android

BLE & Android’s Emulator
Virtual Machine + USB BLE Adapter
chrislarson.me/blog/emulate-android-and-bluetooth-le-hardware.html

Altbeacon

Eddystone vs iBeacon

reference Material
Beacon vs BLE: link-labs.com/bluetooth-vs-bluetooth-low-energy
ALTBEACON: altbeacon.org
iBeacon Specification: developer.apple.com/ibeacon
Estimote JavaDoc: estimote.github.io/Android-SDK/JavaDocs
Eddystone: github.com/google/eddystone

@SeraAndroid
tim@getbraintree.com
slideshare.net/paypal
braintreepayments.com/developers
Thank you!

Building a Mobile Location Aware System with Beacons

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