Interested in iBeacon technology but have no idea what it is or how it works? This presentation aims to give a quick insights to this technology by explaining how it works and how it can be applied to create location-aware mobile apps.

2. A crash course in
iBeacon technology
Tyson Bradford
Mobile Lead at Klyp

4. Who is Klyp?

5. What do we know about iBeacons?
• Working with iBeacons since June 2014
• Delivered Australia’s largest iBeacon roll-out (70+ retail stores)
• 4x Klyp iBeacon apps in App Store and Google Play

6. What are iBeacons?
• Small devices that emit a bluetooth signal
• This signal can be received by smartphones
• Allows smartphones to gain micro-location context awareness
• Opens the door for many new innovative apps

7. What are iBeacons?
• Come in various shapes and sizes
• iBeacon protocol developed by Apple
• Released with iOS 7 September 2013

8. What are iBeacons?
Semantics & Confusion
• “iBeacon” is Apple TM
• Refers to the software protocol
• Entire technology now referred to
as “iBeacons” or “beacons”
• Apple does NOT manufacture
iBeacon hardware

9. Beacon hardware
Estimote
• Most popular amongst developers
• Polish company
• $35/beacon

10. Beacon hardware
BlueCats
• Australian company
• Replaceable AA batteries
• $30/beacon

11. Beacon hardware
Other popular devices
• Gimbal (by Qualcomm)
• Kontact.io
• White label (Alibaba)

12. How do iBeacons work?
What's under the hood?

13. Bluetooth Low Energy
• Underlying technology of iBeacons
• Bluetooth variant with ultra-low power consumption
• Also known as “Bluetooth Smart”, “Bluetooth LE” and “BLE”
• Merged into main Bluetooth standards in v4.0

14. BLE with iBeacon
• iBeacon acts as a BLE protocol
• Particular packet message format
• What do these packets look like?

15. BLE with iBeacon
• Estimote default settings:
ProximityUUID = B9407F30-F5F8-466E-AFF9-25556B57FE6D
MajorID = 1
MinorID = 1
• Why not just have a single ID?
Store Location San Francisco Paris London
UUID D9B9EC1F-3925-43D0-80A9-1E39D4CEA95C
Major 1 2 3
Minor
Clothing 10 10 10
Housewares 20 20 20
Automotive 30 30 30

16. Apps
• Beacons are purely broadcasters
• Apps are the bridge between beacon and smartphone
• All logic is handled by the smartphone using apps
• No app = no action

17. Minimum specifications
Apple
• iOS 7.0+
• iPhone 4S, iPad 3rd Gen, iPad Mini, iPod Touch 5th Gen
• Macs with OS X Mavericks + BLE
• Bluetooth enabled
• Custom app (or Passbook)
• Location services enabled

19. Minimum specifications
Android
• Android 4.3+
• BLE compatible device
• Bluetooth enabled
• Custom App
• No official support for iBeacons*
• BLE still unstable*

20. Beacons vs. GPS
• Power consumption
• Indoor accuracy

21. How do apps interact
with iBeacons?
What information can apps use?

22. Region monitoring
• App can subscribe to pings
• Ping sent from OS when region is entered or exited
• This can occur whilst app is closed
• App can then perform an action

23. Region monitoring

24. Region monitoring

25. Region monitoring

26. Ranging
• Receive approximate distances between device and beacons
• Polling occurs at 1Hz
• Distance calculated using RSSI
• Only available while app is in foreground

27. Shortcomings
• Crude distance calculations: ±50%
• Very sensitive to environment
• Limited maximum range
• High barrier to opt-in

28. iBeacons at work
How are they being used today?

29. Micro-location

30. Micro-location
• Provide location specific information
• Notifications for passive use
• Custom in screen displays for active use

31. Micro-location
Marketing
• Special offers
• Limited time discounts

32. Micro-location
Shopkick

33. Micro-location
Informational
• Galleries
• Museums
• Exhibitions
• Zoos
• Retail

34. Micro-location
The Rubens House

35. Business intelligence
Bringing web-like analytics to the physical world
Entering
iBeacon area
Time in store
Customer
movement
Purchase

36. Business intelligence
• Not only useful for marketers
• Improve user experience based on findings

37. Wayfinding

38. Wayfinding
Meridian and MLB.com Ballpark

39. Wayfinding
Limitations
• Trilateration is difficult with noisy signals
• Discreet grid system more robust
• Calibration required

40. Electronic leashing

41. Electronic leashing
• Make use of the “exit” notification
• Become aware when you are separated from a beacon

42. Electronic leashing
Nivea Sun Kids

43. Electronic locks

44. Electronic locks
Bitlock

45. Electronic locks
UniKey's Kevo

46. Security
• iBeacon IDs are easy to sniff
• Other apps can use your IDs
• Other beacons can pretend to be yours
• Some beacon suppliers provide option for rotating IDs
• Avoid using default IDs that are shipped with beacons

47. Case studies
Some of Klyp’s iBeacon work

48. NightOwl Convenience

49. NightOwl Convenience
Challenges
• Live store notification messages
• Installation
• Battery life

50. NightOwl Convenience
Outcomes
• 35,000 app downloads in 3 months
• Top 10 in "Food and Drink" category
• 55,000 beacon interactions in first 12 weeks

51. Find My Things

52. Find My Things
Challenges
• Hardware selection
• Range filtering (low-pass)

53. Future of iBeacon

54. Predictions
• IoT will have strong links to iBeacon and BLE
• Improved range reliability
• Android support

55. Final note
Provide value to users/customers

56. Any questions?
Come and see me afterwards
for a Find My Things beacon