October 2014
Intermediate to advanced
80 pages
1h 33m
English
Content preview from Building Applications with iBeacon
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Chapter 3. Setting Up Your Own Beacons
There are many ways to get a beacon running. 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. 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.
Types of Hardware
Creating a beacon does not require any specialized type of hardware. You might already have suitable hardware lying around to create a beacon. If not, the investment required is only a few dollars.
Dedicated Beacon Hardware
The advantage of dedicated beacon hardware is that it is cheaper than using general-purpose hardware, and it is optimized for the beacon task. Here are a couple popular options:
- Estimote
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One of the earliest developers of beacon technology, Estimote sells a developer kit that includes three beacons for $99. Interestingly, Estimote beacons have fixed configuration parameters and, in particular, administrators cannot set the UUID.
- RadBeacon
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RadBeacon is a $29 USB dongle that performs the transmission functions of an iBeacon. All you have to supply is USB power. Configuration of the beacon’s numbers is done through an app.
- Kontakt
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Kontakt sells an ARM-based iBeacon as well as tools for managing iBeacons and analyzing user interactions with them.
- Gelo
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Gelo’s Beacons are waterproof and designed for both indoor and outdoor ...
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