DYNAMIC BLUETOOTH BEACONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

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Ronald Hines
5 years ago
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1 DYNAMIC BLUETOOTH BEACONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES A journey from ibeacon to IoT beacons, InfinIT Summit 2017

beacons ibeacon is Apple s subset (2013) Eddystone is Google s variant Physical

2 BLUETOOTH BEACONS Short information sent by radio A few times per second Kind of radio barcode Similar to active RFID but using consumer technology Bluetooth beacons ibeacon is Apple s subset (2013) Eddystone is Google s variant Physical Web (2014) Custom variants Can be deployed in different setups: Wikipedia Side 4

3 SETUP 1) FIXED BLUETOOTH BEACONS Most common setup Radius Networks Side 5

4 SETUP 2) MOBILE BLUETOOTH BEACONS Useful for automatic triggers Radius Networks Side 6

5 ABILITIES OF A BLE BEACON What it can Provide a vague approximation of distance Broadcast a small amount of information May work without Internet connectivity ~10cm to ~30m What it cannot Cannot provide accurate direction (Except with some workarounds) Cannot detect smartphones or other Bluetooth devices Limiting factors Battery time Emitting is cheap (by the beacon) Scanning is expensive (by the sensor / smartphone) Scaling IoT security Side 7 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ012345

BLUETOOTH BEACONS COMPETITORS 2D-barcodes Much cheaper (if using paper), but requires an active start by the user only for line-of-sight less appropriate for nearby discoveries NFC Cheaper, safer,

6 BLUETOOTH BEACONS COMPETITORS 2D-barcodes Much cheaper (if using paper), but requires an active start by the user only for line-of-sight less appropriate for nearby discoveries NFC Cheaper, safer, but only for very short range RFID Bluetooth beacons are a kind of active RFID Traditional RFID cannot interact with smartphones Geomagnetic positioning (compass) Requires a pre-mapping and maintenance Wi-Fi sniffing Lower temporal precision With / without trilateration Side 8

7 COMPETITOR: WI-FI POSITIONING Side 9

8 IBEACON TECHNOLOGY Apple proprietary convention Subset of BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) Broadcast a (cryptic) number Data (up to 31 bytes) ibeacon prefix (9 bytes) Proximity UUID (16 bytes) Major (2 bytes) Minor (2 bytes) TX power (1 byte) Side 10

EDDYSTONE TECHNOLOGY Google s open beacon format: Physical Web Broadcast e.g. a short compressed URL https://goo.

name="description" content=" 30 til Bygdøy via Bygdøynes om 2 min 56 til Solemskogen om 4 min 30 til Bygdøy via Bygdøynes om 12 min 30 til Nydalen

9 EDDYSTONE TECHNOLOGY Google s open beacon format: Physical Web Broadcast e.g. a short compressed URL Does not necessarily require a dedicated app only some HTML E.g. with Google Chrome, Opera: <head> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <meta name="description" content=" 30 til Bygdøy via Bygdøynes om 2 min 56 til Solemskogen om 4 min 30 til Bygdøy via Bygdøynes om 12 min 30 til Nydalen klokka 14:54 56 til Solemskogen klokka 14:58" /> <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="30" /> <link rel="icon" href="ruter.png" /> <title>gullhaugveien</title> </head> Opera Side 11

CUSTOM APPROACH Add custom Bluetooth beacons to home/building devices Able to broadcast: a type: lamp, fan, music, TV, door, coffee machine a status: e.g. on / off, alarm, temperature, defect, toilets in use Able to actuate: e.

10 CUSTOM APPROACH Add custom Bluetooth beacons to home/building devices Able to broadcast: a type: lamp, fan, music, TV, door, coffee machine a status: e.g. on / off, alarm, temperature, defect, toilets in use Able to actuate: e.g. switch on / switch off By accept incoming connections (GATT) Link to existing electronics Relays (to switch on/off any electrical device) Radio (e.g. 433 MHz, ZigBee, Z-wave for smart-house products) Infrared (for televisions) I 2 C Side 12

11 IMPLEMENTATION 1: WITH RFDUINO Microcontroller compatible with Arduino Easy custom electronics Built-in Bluetooth Suitable for running on batteries Examples: Control a 230V electric plug Via a 433MHz module 12V relay to control a lamp Side 16

IMPLEMENTATION 2: WITH RASPBERRY PI Full

3) or with a dongle Better for multimedia and

prototyping Examples: Audio beacon To play a

12 IMPLEMENTATION 2: WITH RASPBERRY PI Full desktop Linux Built-in Bluetooth (Raspberry Pi 3) or with a dongle Better for multimedia and Internet connectivity Easier software prototyping Examples: Audio beacon To play a sound / speech synthesis / music, when needed Control infrared devices (e.g. TV) With infrared emitter (can also be done with RFduino) Side 17

13 IOT SECURITY CHARACTERISTICS Share all problems found in classic IT projects, and also: Physical integrity Operate over larger / public areas More controversial Hacktivism Security is expensive, also in energy Hardware costs, performance impact, energy impact Small sensors are not powerful enough for crypto IoT projects involve many different technologies Weakest link? IoT projects involve many different actors Trust? Distributed responsibilities Side 19

14 BEACONS COMMON PITFALLS Security Physical tempering: (re)move beacon Cloning: make the app believe it is elsewhere Piggybacking: competitor app Use some counter-measures Bluetooth pairing (only for small scale) Ephemeral identifier (Eddystone) App logic (geofencing verification, GATT connection ) Proprietary cloud (randomisation ) Scaling Push vs. scan Push: performance issues with ~2 to ~15s on ios, but performance drop on telephones with many beacon-using apps Scan: high battery consumption, problematic for background apps Maintenance Side 20

15 FINDINGS Dynamic Bluetooth Beacons Relatively cheap and easy to work with Versatile: can be adapted to many IoT items Work out-of-the-box with smartphones/tablets Robust, with fast reaction time More than 1 full interaction per second: Discovery, read status, change status, get confirmation Good spatial precision A distance of ~1 meter between beacons can be enough: If the distance between the tablet/telephone and a beacon is significantly shorter than the distance between two beacons Main limitations to gain adoption: Need to improve standardisation, maintainability, and security Side 22

16 DYNAMIC BEACONS: FUTURE DEVELOPMENT Take better advantage of: Google Eddystone open beacon format E.g. Physical Web, broadcasting a short URL For more standardisation, more scalability, security Together with Web Bluetooth API To avoid having to install apps Bluetooth 5 Longer range, richer payloads Emerging beacon-based standards Side 23

17 QUESTIONS? Side 24

CSRmesh Beacon management and Asset Tracking Muhammad Ulislam Field Applications Engineer, Staff, Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.

CSRmesh Beacon management and Asset Tracking Muhammad Ulislam Field Applications Engineer, Staff, Qualcomm Atheros, Inc. CSRmesh Recap Bluetooth Mesh Introduction What is CSRmesh? A protocol that runs