WORKING WITH IBEACONSGlenn Stephens

WHAT IS A BEACON?

• Proximity Detection Device

• Using for close interaction detection

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH THEM?

• Location Centric Applications

• Prize Hunts

• Informational Booth Style Apps

• Anything where location is a factor. e.g. Cafe ordering from the table

• Airport checkin

• Signon for services

WHAT CAN I USE AS A BEACON?

• Variety of Devices

• Raspberry Pi

• Apple

• Any device that supports Bluetooth 4 LE

TREASURE HUNT

• Need a volunteer to use one of the beacon apps

• Time to find the monkey

• Rewarded with a real monkey

PLATFORM USAGE

iOS using the Find the Monkey app

!Code Walkthrough

FOR IOS• Geofencing

• Region Monitoring when your app is running in the background

• Proximity Detection

• When the application is running in the foreground

• Lets look at the Beacon tool to see proximity

FOR IOS• Use the LocationManager with iOS7 extensions and use the beacon functionality

• Look at

• http://www.knowing.net/index.php/2013/09/19/my-favorite-ios-7-apis-part-1-ibeacons-and-multipeer-connectivity/

• http://blog.xamarin.com/play-find-the-monkey-with-ios-7-ibeacons/

• https://github.com/mikebluestein/FindTheMonkey

• https://github.com/xamarin/monotouch-samples/tree/master/AirLocate

• http://www.knowing.net/index.php/2013/09/19/xamarin-code-for-ibeacons/

PLATFORM USAGE

Android using the Xamarin Component by Chris Riesgo

!Example project using the

same find the monkey !

PLATFORM USAGE

Android using Google Glass demo. Only arrived yesterday

ANDROID DETAILS• Links

• https://github.com/chrisriesgo/FindTheMonkey-Android

• http://blog.xamarin.com/use-ibeacons-in-android-with-c/

• Google Glassing it up

• http://blog.xamarin.com/ibeacons-and-google-glass/

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTtBnUl_2-g

• https://github.com/chrisntr/FindTheMonkey-GoogleGlass

WINDOWS PHONE

• Windows Phone 8.1 is the first to add BT4 LE support

• Should (hopefully) see some availability of iBeacon support soon

• Not quite there yet, but soon according to the Microsoft members that attended the meet up

THANKS

• Glenn Stephens @glenntstephens