using ibeacons to solve real problems

Beacons

With iOS 7 Apple released the iBeacon API

“Nobody cares until Apple does”

- me, just now

Sales people LEAPT on it

BEHOLD THE JESUS STONE

A typical scenario

A beacon

A bag

An iPad

However…

A label

User Journey Analysis

Before - Walk in - ‘Nice bag!’ - buy it - pub. !After - Walk in - vibrate - get phone out of tight pocket - unlock phone - go to app - agree to the terms - read the guff - swipe a bit - find price - reject spam …

“That’s shit”- Ian Huckvale

Public service announcement

What is a BLE beacon?

Immediate

Near

Far

In Region

Beacon Device Cloud

UUID etcUUID = The group the beacon belongs to (Design Museum, Tate Modern, Simon’s Pub, etc) e.g. E2C56DB5-DFFB-48D2-B060-D0F5A71096E0 !Major = The sub group the beacon belongs to (Gallery A, Building 2, etc) e.g. 33995 !Minor = The specific beacon (Object 1, Painting B, etc) e.g. 59204

Combine all that together and you get this !d6 be 89 8e 40 24 05 a2 17 6e 3d 71 02 01 1a 1a ff 4c 00 02 15 e2 c5 6d b5 df fb 48 d2 b0 60 d0 f5 a7 10 96 e0 00 00 00 00 c5 52 ab 8d 38 a5

‘Experiment’ and perform ‘research’ in work time?

Hack some beacons and the API to let you triangulate your position in 3 dimensions and

measure the gap between them instead of just knowing which distance bracket you were in?

- (CGPoint)getTrilatterationCoordinateWithBeaconOne:(CGPoint)one beaconTwo:(CGPoint)two beaconThree:(CGPoint)three distanceOne:(CGFloat)dOne distanceTwo:(CGFloat)dTwo distanceThree:(CGFloat)dThree { CGFloat W, Z, x, y, y2; W = beaconOne*distanceOne - distanceTwo*distanceTwo - beaconOne.x*beaconOne.x - beaconOne.y*beaconOne.y + beaconTwo.x*beaconTwo.x + beaconTwo.y*beaconTwo.y; Z = distanceTwo*distanceTwo - distanceThree*distanceThree - beaconTwo.x*distanceTwo.x - distanceTwo.y*distanceTwo.y + beaconThree.x*beaconThree.x + beaconThree.y*beaconThree.y; ! x = (W*(beaconThree.y-beaconTwo.y) - Z*(beaconTwo.y-beaconOne.y)) / (2 * ((beaconTwo.x-beaconOne.x)*(beaconThree.y-beaconTwo.y) - (beaconThree.x-beaconTwo.x)*(beaconTwo.y-beaconOne.y))); y = (W - 2*x*(beaconTwo.x-beaconOne.x)) / (2*(beaconTwo.y-beaconOne.y)); y2 = (Z - 2*x*(beaconThree.x-beaconTwo.x)) / (2*(beaconThree.y-beaconTwo.y)); ! y = (y + y2) / 2; return CGPointMake(x, y); }

Can you turn every bluetooth device - every phone and tablet and laptop - into a beacon if it’s

not Apple hardware?

Can you reprogram a commercial flight controller to hunt for a

beacon signals and therefore build an autonomous flying drone?

Can you write a technology demo in 2 weeks for a MeetUp?

Can you get Apple to approve it?

NO

“technology demonstration apps will no longer be

submitted to the App Store”

So what could all of you do with beacons?

Solve real problems

Some problems we have made in order of how I typed them

that I’d like to see solved.

Problem #1Our world is not inclusive

Problem #2We are bombarded with fluff

Problem #3Colouring-in is eroding design

However, using the flippant hacks from the start of this

talk you could…

Build an audio guide for blind people which describes where they are, what is around them, and directs

them safely to where they are going.

Track the flow of people through your spaces in real time and push this data to Google Analytics. Identify popular

exhibitions and objects or areas of obstruction. !

Talk to people in specific areas in real time with notifications.

Connect teachers to school groups. !

Child leaves the building =

your phone tells you.

Pre-plan a learning tour and let the device guide the group, offer up appropriate content, and mark off

each area completed.

Start telling the story before your visitors arrive

at your venue.

Make queues less dull.

Auto generate music playlists based upon the movement of the people on the dance floor.

And while your at it control the lights.

Build the biggest treasure hunt ever.

Just please don’t use it to make shopping worse.

Thank you