How Indoor Navigation works in iOS using iBeacon? - ios

I am working on a project that has a requirement of Indoor navigations by using iBeacon. Have been searching a lot, I only found some paid sdk and other tools. I know how iBeacon used for indoor navigation,but there is some problem. I want move user location first beacon to another but only on specific path,but now when user move than location not follow path as given by me.
Please let me know. Thanks in advance!!


While it is possible to build an indoor navigation system using beacons, it is not a trivial exercise. Beacons only provide a very small building block needed to create the overall system. Think of beacons as being a brick used to build a house. Are you up for building a house from scratch out of a pile of bricks and many other components?
You may be better off using an off-the-shelf SDK, even if it is paid, rather than building this yourself. If you do want to build it from scratch, there are several components you must build:
Beacon location configuration: You need a system to register the location of each beacon in latitude/longitude and get this configuration into the mobile app.
Position determination: Based on detecting the closest beacon(s), you must build a module that determines the position of the user's mobile phone based on the configuration above.
Map rendering engine
Coordinate system conversion from the beacon location configuration reference frame to the map coordinate frame.
Wayfinding module: Based on configured routes on the map, the wayfinding module would determine where to direct the user along these routes to get to a destination.
I worked on a team that built a beacon-based indoor nav system for the Consumer Electronics Show. It took multiple team members a few months to build the system from scratch using hundreds of beacons and low-level tools. Don't underestimate the effort involved.


This answer is assuming that the user will have no other location services (GPS etc), it could be achieved using multiple iBeacons.
The all possible routes between the start and end destination would need to have to iBeacons on them.
Register that the user has arrived at the first beacon, and display to them your chosen route.
If you detect them getting close to any beacons which are not on your chosen route, then you know they're probably not following it.
So with enough beacons, you can accurately plot the user's location in an indoor environment (provided you know the exact location of the iBeacons beforehand).

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Imagine an app like Tinder but not for dating. It connects people in the same city/town/country, not based on exact location. So just one broad location check e.g. on app start-up is enough.
If I only need these 3 levels of location (city/town/country), do I still need to go with usual APIs like Geolocation API or Core Location? Or is there a way to simplify it, since no such granularity is needed.
Or would trying to simplify it only lead to more custom work?

Best practice for dealing with geolocation in offline mode

I have developed a mobile application allowing field agents to collect data based on geolocation.
Each agent is assigned to a specific point of sale where he has to go, and when he arrives, he has to point out his presence in this point of sale before starting the collection.
To detect that the agent is in the store, I used a radius of 20 meters to take into consideration errors, but the problem is that position detection isn't easy in offline mode and the user should insist for the position to be captured.Knowing that the GPS chip doesn't need internet to capture location.
My question is more about looking for advices and best practices if you've got some experience on these kind of applications.
In the Android phones especially i've increased the precision in the settings, but i'me having the same issues.
Notice : Online things are working good

Test GPS route tracker without driving on road

Using GMSMapView (google maps). I have created a route from current location to some selected locations (free car parking spaces). Now I need to test the route updating as when user drives on road. I myself, for testing is not supposed to drive. Is there any tool available for iOS (swift is preferred). I have heard in Android it is Moc Testing kind of thing.

Xcode has built-in Location Simulation feature.
Read this official documentation for usage.

Indoor mapping in iOS

I have map of my office room. I am trying to implement indoor mapping inside the office room for iOS. I watched the video from the WWDC2014 on Corelocation and indoor mapping. I also have the sample code from them. I am not sure what exactly they mean by "floor plan pixel". I have an image of the office and how can I use the following image to use as the floor plan pixel? I will really appreciate if somebody can guide me how to do or let me know if there are githubs or other resources are doing indoor mapping and tracking in iOS.
Thank you

You will need to apply for your venue to be mapped on Apple's Map Connect Website. You will have to declare that you are the manager for the venue, then instructions will follow. This will involve you providing blueprints for the venue to Apple, locations of Wi-Fi base stations and (possibly) iBeacons. You will have to use Apple's specific app (that you find in the Appstore) to map the venue. When all the process is done, you will be online: you should be able to see your venue in Apple maps and do whatever your need to do.
Having said that, Apple seems, still, focussed on venues that have at least one million visitors per year. If your venue is smaller you are stuck with iBeacons and your own implementation of a positioning / proximity algorithm. Take a look at Open Tagger, as an example in Swift, it will give you an idea of the task and hopefully a very good starting point.
https://github.com/PaoloLongato/open-tagger/tree/github-master

Indoor positioning on iOS with Core Location - not accurate?

Using the sample code provided from WWDC, I've been trying to write a simple proof-of-concept app that performs indoor positioning in my office building. I have a floor plan image and replaced the standard image in the demo code. I've also done the requisite mapping of GPS coordinates to pixels for the two anchor points.
When I run the app in the simulator and specify static GPS coordinates, I see the position updated as expected in the simulator. When I run it on my phone, however, the experience isn't nearly as seamless as Apple advertised in the video. On my iPhone 5s, the positioning is all over the place, and rarely anywhere close to accurate. Even sitting next to a window with a clear line-of-sight to the sky I still get very inaccurate results.
I would assume that this might have something to do with our physical layout, WiFi topology, or other such parameters. However, I also noticed that Apple has a portal where you can register your facility for use with indoor positioning. Does this have something to do with the poor results in my app? I can't imagine how Apple would be able to help with such a scenario, but thought it might have something to do with it.
Are there other steps I should take to increase the accuracy of my app? Is there a way to leverage iBeacons for improved positioning indoors? I haven't found any documentation indicating so, but thought maybe someone here would know.

You're right, Apple has the portal available at https://mapsconnect.apple.com
At this portal you can add your venue and Apple will guide you on setting it up. However, your venue must have all of the following attributes:
Accessible to the general public
Annual visitors in excess of 1 million per year
Availability of complete, accurate, and scaled reference maps
Wi-Fi throughout the area
Associated app that's authorized by venue owner
If your venue has all the required attributes, then you also will need to answer these questions about your usage:
How are you planning to use indoor positioning? (Ads, Navigation, Delivering content)
How many venues would you like to enable with indoor positioning?
What type of venue do you have? (Airport, Hospital, Museum, Mall, Office)
What type of floor plans do you have? (CAD, BIM, GeoJSON, AI, PDF, PNG, etc)
Are the venues equipped with Wi-Fi and/or iBeacon?
Name of the largest venue
Address of the largest venue
Once you have completed the entire form and jumped through the last hoop, you will be brought to a page that confirms the details. Once done, it's all in their hands and they will contact you.

Indoor Positioning does not work well without addional devices like iBeacons.
There is no useable GPS receivement in buildings, the reflected signal is often far worse than 50m .
GPS might work indoors if it is a single floor building with a thin roof, but this is usually not the case in indoor buildings.
The only thing that works well, is to buy some iBeacons and mount them at various locations in the office.
You have to manage the location of that beacons: they only send you an id, and (maybe?) the distance to that iBeacon. (Please check wheter you get distance to beacon)
But ios LocationService will not use that iBeacons.
So either use iBeacons or forget your project. There is no well working solution for indoor positioning. Some use magnetic fields, there is even an App for that, but this needs measuring your whole office in detail.

Why don't you try with the indoor SDK which can be integrated in iOS applications. Also try to give the accuracy level appropriately when you use location framework API.

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