Rather than use specialized hardware, beacons can be generated using general-purpose hardware, such as the following examples: If iBeacons are battery powered, the operational lifetime between battery changes may be quite short. The downside to a relatively high advertisement interval is reduced battery life. It also will enable iBeacon-powered applications on enduser mobile devices to save power, because the search for beacon advertisements can be much shorter. The specification’s requirement for a relatively high fixed transmit interval ensures that applications will react promptly, because beacon transmissions will be readily available. The iBeacon specification requires all devices to adhere to the same advertisement interval, regardless of how the beacon is being used. Frequent beacon advertisements enable more immediate actions to be taken by an app, while extended advertisement intervals prolong battery life. That is, an iBeacon will always transmit 10 times per second. Within Apple’s iBeacon specification, the advertisement interval is fixed at 100 ms. Additionally, such a simple protocol can run on battery power for extended lengths of time, which enables proximity applications to be developed for areas that might otherwise be inaccessible if beacons were required to be connected to a higher-power source. One of the major reasons for designing such a simple protocol is that it allows beacons to be made cheaply. 12 The iBeacon protocol is simple, and the hardware was designed to run on small batteries for extended periods of time. Some dedicated iBeacon hardware runs on batteries, either coin cell or something with a higher capacity, such as AA. Gelo’s Beacons are waterproof and designed for both indoor and outdoor use, and the batteries can be replaced manually using simple tools. Kontakt sells an ARM-based iBeacon as well as tools for managing iBeacons and analyzing user interactions with them. Configuration of the beacon’s numbers is done through an app. RadBeacon is a $29 USB dongle that performs the transmission functions of an iBeacon. Interestingly, Estimote beacons have fixed configuration parameters and, in particular, administrators cannot set the UUID. One of the earliest developers of beacon technology, Estimote sells a developer kit that includes three beacons for $99. The advantage of dedicated beacon hardware is that it is cheaper than using general-purpose hardware, and it is optimized for the beacon task. If not, the investment required is only a few dollars. You might already have suitable hardware lying around to create a beacon. Any device with Bluetooth 4.0 (or later) hardware is capable of acting as a beacon, whether it is a software application on a laptop, a software app on a mobile device, or a host computer with a USB interface.Ĭreating a beacon does not require any specialized type of hardware. With such a simple protocol, all that a beacon needs to do is transmit its UUID, major number, and minor number at a fixed interval. There are many ways to get a beacon running. Building Applications with iBeacon (2015) Chapter 3.
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