October 2014
Intermediate to advanced
80 pages
1h 33m
English
Content preview from Building Applications with iBeacon
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Chapter 2. The iBeacon Protocol
iBeacons are transmit-only devices. They work by periodically transmitting numerical identifiers that are mapped into actions by an application on a mobile device. As a result, the “protocol” that they use is simple and is basically a vehicle to deliver numerical identifiers to nearby clients.
Translating those numbers into concrete action requires building an app for mobile devices. The simplicity of the protocol hides the big challenge, which is that application developers and user experience designers need to figure out how to make applications interact more tightly with the physical world.
Bluetooth Basics of an iBeacon
The iBeacon advertising function is transmit-only. Many iBeacon devices will implement a Bluetooth receiver for monitoring and configuration functions, but the protocol itself is transmit-only.
In the jargon of the Bluetooth specification, an iBeacon is a broadcaster, a type of device that is specific to Bluetooth Low Energy. Broadcasters transmit periodic advertising packets, which contain information used by the receivers. iBeacon advertising packets are designed to be transmitted, but receivers do not need to respond to them.9 In effect, iBeacon advertising packets are thrown out into the air, and receivers can act on them (or not).
Note
iBeacons send advertising packets. When a device receives an advertising packet, it results in the creation of an advertisement event at the receiver. Sometimes, advertising packets and events ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.