Can I create an indoor localization application with this beacon extension?
I didn't see anything in the documentation related to range between the phone and a beacon.
Yes you can.
The accuracy value on a BeaconObject is the estimated range from the device to the beacon in meters.
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I'm currently study BLE Beacon. I know that with Google Beacon API and its app, it is possible to know when the beacon communicates with my mobile phone, so I can design different notifications based on the proximity. But in my case, I need to know the proximity between a wearable beacon to a stable beacon. Is that possible at all?
Two challenges to doing this:
Google Beacon APIs do not provide proximity information beyond a beacon being visible at all (regardless of distance) to a mobile phone.
Beacons are generally speaking one way transmitters. You cannot use a beacon to listen for another beacon.
To make something like this work you need one of the two devices (either fixed or mobile) to be a beacon scanner, not a beacon. You could make a beacon scanner out of a fixed Raspberry Pi 3 which would detect the beacon wearables and calculate the distance to them. This is an approach I have helped multiple clients implement.
I have bought three bluecats and three kontakt.io beacons and I'm wondering if i can use the com.distriqt.Beacon ANE for my application development ?
Thanks
The distriqt Beacon ANE supports any beacon adhering to Apple's iBeacon standard.
Both bluecats and kontakt beacons can be formatted to the iBeacon standard so you should be able to use them with this ANE.
In my app I get the information of the beacons with CoreLocation and and the LocationManager.
I've set the advertising interval of the beacons to 200ms.
Is it possible to call the didRangeBeacons delegate method faster, so that i get the values of the advertising package according to the advertising interval of the beacon?
No, you cannot alter the frequency of the didRangeBeacons:inRegion callback, which is 1 Hz regardless of the beacon advertising frequency.
You can get callbacks for each beacon advertisement (every 200 ms in your case) using CoreBluetooth APIs, but there are a couple of restrictions:
It will not work with iBeacon transmissions as iOS blocks access to iBeacon advertisement data in CoreBluetooth. You can use AltBeacons, which are iBeacon compatible, and get the more frequent updates with those. You can buy beacons that send out both iBeacon and AltBeacon transmissions.
It will only work in the foreground. You cannot get Bluetooth LE manufacturer advertisements in the background on iOS.
Full disclosure: I am Chief Engineer at Radius Networks which sponsors the open source AltBeacon standard.
Can you get signal strength measurements of Mobile Networks in iOS and/or Android?
On developer.apple.com I have found CoreWLANWirelessManager sample code for OSX, that shows how to get measurements for WiFi networks.
For Android, what about PhoneStateListener?
Would it be possible to fill a building with 20 - 30 bluetooth devices that act as proximity detectors and write an app that can calculate location in the building based on distance from the current detected sensors.
I've looked at the GameKit API, but I don't see anything about calculating distance from devices.
Can someone point me in the direction of an Apple API, or a 3rd party API that can be used for this kind of application.
We don't get the low level BlueTooth or WiFi control that would be required to do this. So unless you jailbreak you can't.
Low level Bluetooth can provide RSSI and Trasmit power level at the maximum for any kind of proximity indications.
As I understand it is extremely difficult to calculate the distance from these reliably.
Location services is surprisingly good at estimating location even in a residential area with only secured wireless APs detectable. But how you would add your APs into that DB, I don't know.