iBeacons show great promise, but real-world issues prevent them from working as well as we might like. This presentation describes the issues and proposes some possible solutions.

1. Implementing BeaconTechnology inTitanium!!
Martin Hudson!!
BEACONS
Mobile Data Systems!
http://www.mobiledatasystems.co

2. INDOOR LOCALISATION
• GPS is not an option
- Low spatial discrimination (10m)!
- Poor signal penetrance through buildings!
• Unique building shapes - Signal reflection issues!
• Noisy environment - Many signals, varying crowd
density

3. BEACONTECHNOLOGY
• Small Bluetooth emitting devices!
• Battery powered!
• Significantly larger range than NFC!
• Uses Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) protocol

4. Geofencing
Passive process, alerting
user to location based
information!
Outdoors
- Reminders!
Indoors
- Art gallery
walkthroughs!
- Special offers
Geolocation
Active process, providing
user with precise
location!
Outdoors & Indoors
- Route navigation
USE CASES

5. Geofencing
Passive process, alerting
user to location based
information!
Outdoors
- Reminders!
Indoors
- Art gallery
walkthroughs!
- Special offers
Geolocation
Active process, providing
user with precise
location!
Outdoors & Indoors
- Route navigation
USE CASES

6. BARRIERSTO ENTRY
• Upfront costs
- Beacons, licences for services!
• Implementation
- Installation of beacons, databases, content!
• Security
- Physical and software

7. BEACONS IN ACTION

8. BEACONS IN ACTION
UUID Major
RSSI Minor
Power Complement

9. ABSORPTION ISSUES

10. ABSORPTION ISSUES

11. ABSORPTION ISSUES

12. BUFFER ZONES

13. BUFFER ZONES

14. BUFFER ZONES

15. BUFFER ZONES
Entrance Region
Exit Region

16. BUFFER ZONES

17. BUFFER ZONES

18. BUFFER ZONES

19. BUFFER ZONES

20. BUFFER ZONES

21. 1 2
3 4
TRIANGULATION

22. 1 2
3 4
Triangulation is highly inaccurate
- Reflection
TRIANGULATION

23. 1 2
3 4
Triangulation is highly inaccurate
- Reflection
- Refraction
TRIANGULATION

24. 1 2
3 4
Each point
x,y co-ordinates
Collect several training data sets
at different orientations
Beacon 1 RSSI!
Beacon 2 RSSI!
Beacon 3 RSSI!
Beacon 1 RSSI!
Beacon 2 RSSI!
Beacon 3 RSSI!
Beacon 1 RSSI!
Beacon 2 RSSI!
Beacon 3 RSSI!
Beacon 1 RSSI!
Beacon 2 RSSI!
Beacon 3 RSSI!
FINGERPRINTING

25. Mobile device receives
an RSSI from each
beacon, creating its
own data set.
The received data set is compared with the training
data set to estimate the most probable user location
1 2
3 4
FINGERPRINTING

26. TIBEACON MODULE
• Allows you to create up to 5 beacon regions!
• Regions defined by;!
- UUID!
- UUID and major!
- UUID, major, and minor

27. ACCESSINGTHE MODULE
To access the module in JavaScript, you would do the
following;!
!
!
TheTiBeacon variable is a reference to the Module
object.
var TiBeacon = require("co.mobiledatasystems.tibeacon");

28. REFERENCE
The following functions are exposed;!
• initializeBeaconMonitoring - used to register the app with core location services
• startMonitoringBeaconRegion - can be called several times and is used to
register a region with core location services
• stopMonitoringBeaconRegion - used to stop and clear down a region and
remove it from core location services!
• stopAllBeacons - used to stop and clear down all the beacon regions and remove
them all from core location services!
• sendLocalNotification - a convenience function that allows you to send an
immediate local notification

29. initializeBeaconMonitoring
arguments:!
• success - A function that is called when the module successfully registers with core location
services.!
• error - A function that is called when the module fails to register with core location services.!
• region - A function that is called when we detect we have entered or exited a beacon region.!
• ranged - A function that is called whenever we successfully process beacon monitoring (roughly
every second) and returns the beacons found.!
• change - A function that is called when we detect another beacon is the nearest one.!
purpose: Used to register the app with core location services.We specify the functions that will be called
when one of the modules events fire.

30. initializeBeaconMonitoring
TiBeacon.initializeBeaconMonitoring({
success:function(e){
//called when we have registered core location services
},
error:function(e){
//called if we fail to register the core location services
alert("This device doesn't support iBeacons");
},
region:function(e){
//called when we enter or exit a region
},
ranged:function(e){
//when the app is in foreground, this returns all the beacons
},
change:function(e){
//called when a new beacon becomes the nearest one
}
});
!

31. startMonitoringBeaconRegion
arguments: !
• uuid -The uuid we will listen for, estimotes use this by default ‘B9407F30-F5F8-466E-
AFF9-25556B57FE6D’.!
• major -The major value that the beacon will transmit (optional, may be omitted).!
• minor -The minor value that the beacon will transmit (optional, may be omitted).!
• identifier - A string we use to identify the region. It is returned in the beacon data so we can identify the
region the beacon belongs to.!
• notifyEntryStateOnDisplay - Should be left set to true, used for module debugging purposes.!
• keepRanging - When we have exited a region, if false ranging will be switched off until we detect we
entered the region again. This may be slow but significantly saves battery power. Setting to true leaves
ranging on, improving performance at the expense of power consumption.

32. startMonitoringBeaconRegion
purpose: !
We call this once we have successfully registered the module with core location services. Core
location services will detect when we have entered or exited a beacon region, even if the app is
no longer running and will fire the regionChanged event.This is exposed in the region event in
the 'initializeBeaconMonitoring' function.!
If the app is running in foreground and the 'keepRanging' argument is 'true' then regardless of
whether we are in a region we will continue to check for beacons.!
If a beacon is detected that belongs to the beacon region, its data is returned in the ranged
event.This is exposed in the ranged event in the 'initializeBeaconMonitoring' function. If we
detect that a different beacon in the same region is now neared then the change event is fired.

33. startMonitoringBeaconRegion
// begin monitoring a specific region.
// must initialise beacons before calling this method
// we can call this several times to create different regions to monitor
!
beacons.startMonitoringBeaconRegion({
uuid:'B9407F30-F5F8-466E-AFF9-25556B57FE6D',
identifier:'all', // a logical name that is returned when beacons
// fire events so we can easily identify which
// region they belong to
!
notifyEntryStateOnDisplay:true,
!
keepRanging:true // tells the module to keep on ranging even if
// no beacons are in a region, this improves
// performance at the expense of power consumption
});
!
!

34. stopMonitoringBeaconRegion
arguments:!
• identifier -The string we used to identify the region when we started monitoring.!
purpose: Stop monitoring for that region and remove it from core location services.You can therefore safely
call startMonitoringBeaconRegion again to begin monitoring for the same region if you then wish.

35. stopMonitoringBeaconRegion
arguments:!
• identifier -The string we used to identify the region when we started monitoring.!
purpose: Stop monitoring for that region and remove it from core location services.You can therefore safely
call startMonitoringBeaconRegion again to begin monitoring for the same region if you then wish.
stopAllBeacons
arguments: None!
purpose: Stop monitoring for all the regions and remove them from core location services.

36. stopping Monitoring
// stop monitoring for a specific region
!
// we can stop a specific region
TiBeacon.stopMonitoringBeaconRegion({
identifier:'all'
});
!
// …or we can stop monitoring all the regions
// stop monitoring all regions
TiBeacon.stopAllBeacons();

37. sendLocalNotification
arguments:!
• message -The string we will display in the local notification.!
• sound -The sound we will play when the local notification fires.!
purpose:A convenience method to send a local notification. Even if the app is no
longer running, if we detect a region event (i.e. we have entered or exited a
region) core location services will open the app and trigger the region event for a
few seconds before shutting down again.You can therefore call this function to
trigger a local notification to alert the user that they have entered or exited a
beacon region.

38. sendLocalNotification
TiBeacon.initializeBeaconMonitoring({
success:function(e){
//…
},
error:function(e){
//…
},
region:function(e){
// we can use the convenience method to trigger a local
// notification… even if the app isn't running!
!
// we can test for 'entered' or 'exited'
if(e.status === 'entered' && e.identifier === 'all'){
beacons.sendLocalNotification({
message:'Hello from the beacon demo',
sound:'/sounds/siren.mp3'
});
}
},
ranged:function(e){
//…
},
change:function(e){
//…
}
});

39. LICENSE
Commercial, Royalty free, see license details.!
You are allowed to use the module in as many titanium projects
as you like, including any commercial apps you sell.
Martin Hudson MSc!
MAPM mobile data systems ltd.!
email: martin.hudson@mobiledatasystems.co
Public repo: https://bitbucket.org/tojoroja/tibeacon