Thanks to the help of the new collaborator Chris Tacke, the Universal Bluetooth Beacon Library has evolved to its next level. Based on a modularized architecture, the library is now based on .NET Standard 1.3. Extensions provide the glue to the Bluetooth APIs of various platforms.
Currently, Windows 10 (UWP) and Android (Xamarin) are supported. The core library also works fine on iOS, Mac and Linux.
At the Microsoft Build Tour in Vienna, I had the opportunity to present an enhanced version of the Bluetooth Beacon talk. With the Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft released a massive update to the Bluetooth LE capabilities of the OS. This finally allows developers to use the full potential of modern Bluetooth scenarios, including sensors, wearables and beacons.
At Build 2017, Microsoft released three new sessions explaining the capabilities of the new APIs:
Even though the sessions reference example code and blog posts that should have been released together with the session recordings, still none of that is available so far. That gave me the opportunity to explore the new APIs based on the short documentation overview page and the videos.
With the first Bluetooth 5 devices just released (first and foremost the Samsung Galaxy S8), Bluetooth Beacons like Apple iBeacon and Eddystone by Google gain a lot of potential. Increased range means future beacons will cover a much larger area, without increased power consumption. With the payload increase of beacon advertisement frames from 31 bytes to 255 bytes, the amount of information transmitted by beacons can substantially increase.
In my session about Bluetooth Beacons at the Mobile Developer After-Work #14: Creating Immersive Environments, I provided a short update about the latest news. Unfortunately, recording of the live session at the event failed. Therefore, I’ve re-recorded it – you will miss the live experience, but I did have a little more time for more detailed explanations of some important facts, so it’s well worth watching again even if you have been at the #mdaw14 Event!
The 45 min recording is now available on YouTube.
According to ABI research, 8.2 million Bluetooth Beacons have been shipped. In 2021, the yearly shipments will have increased to an astonishing number of 565 million beacons per year.
The Bluetooth Beacon Interactor for Windows 10 is a free & open source app for scanning your environment for Beacons. It was the first Bluetooth Beacon scanner app available for Windows 10 and works on PCs, smartphones and even the Microsoft HoloLens.
The app has just received an update to version 2.0, which adds the two most requested features:
You can download the source code of the Bluetooth Beacon Interactor and its base Universal Beacon Library at GitHub. If you would like to scan your surroundings for Bluetooth Beacons and analyze their contents, you can directly download the app from the Windows 10 App Store.
Especially when working with Bluetooth Beacons like iBeacon or Eddystone, you will often want to use embedded hardware to create a low-cost, always running system. This short guide explains how to read Bluetooth Beacon messages using the Arduino 101 / Genuino 101 board.
The Arduino / Genuino 101 already includes a Bluetooth chipset and is based on the Intel Curie platform. You can use the same Arduino IDE as for all the other variants of the Arduino Board.