We are working on an application that can find proximate distance between two Microsoft Band.
We explored options like Bluetooth but we could not find this as a better solution for our problem due to lot of limitation of Bluetooth.
Currently API's for accessing band GPS data are not available.
So is there any way we can find proximate distance between two Microsoft bands?
There is no API for finding distance between bands. The GPS sensors are not available to 3rd party developers. In the case of trying to find the distance between two bands you would need to run code on another device (mobile phone) to calculate the distance and as such using two mobile devices, each paired with a band, would be the way to handle this.
If you have a feature request for a future version of the band you can submit it at: https://microsofthealth.uservoice.com
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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
For one of our projects i'm looking for a way to only let centrals (native iOS or Android app) connect with the perhiperal when they are inside a defined connection range (distance around the perhiperal).
I know that BLE is not designed for distance measuring but i hoped there is a reliable way to make a difference between centrals in a range <2m from the perhiperal and centrals >3,5 meter from the perhiperal.This means i do not need to measure the exact distance.
An important thing to mentoin is that our perhiperal can be located in an "open field" situation but also in situations where it is surounded with walls or concrete for example in a entry floor of a building or a carpark.
Another possible issue is that the central can be inside a car but if this is the case, all centrals for the concerning perhiperal are inside a car. Ofcourse it can be different cars.
Note that there is max 1 perhiperal at the time inside the connection range.
In our current version we developed an formulla what uses the received RSSI strength to estimate the distance. Unfortunately we cannot get this working reliable enough. Maybe we need to use another formulla or calibration method or whatever, we really tried many things during the last 6 months.
The concrete question is:
Is it technically possible to achieve the target as described above and when yes, what is the way to achieve the target above? We are open for specific BLE antenna's or specific designed casings for the BLE antenna or whatever is needed. It is also okay when we need to build an calibration application or specific hardware to calibrate our perhiperals, for each perhiperal, so we are realy open minded for any solution as long as it works reliable!
When more info is required to give an answere, please let me know what is missing and i will complete the info.
Unfortunately, it is like you said, you cannot use Bluetooth or Bluetooth Low Energy for short distance/range measurements. Bluetooth was just not designed that way. You want to get accurate reliable measurement for something between 2-3.5, this is way too small for BLE to be capable of that. I know that this is not what you want to hear, but I have already tried this and wasted many months on this before.
The only thing I can recommend if you really really need to continue down this path is that in order to get a more reliable outcome, you will need many many devices that are measuring the RSSI simultaneously, and then those devices need to be talking to each other to get an average RSSI measurement. You may also want to look at configuring the Tx power based on the average readings that you get, i.e. the closer the device gets, you lower the Tx power of both the scanning and advertising devices. Finally, directional antennas can be used if you are planning to use non-Android non-iOS devices for scanning, but this will be tricky if the only antenna you can change is that of the peripheral.
I was wondering if the current api can tell the number of drivers near a given location. It would be more interesting if i can see how close they are to location.
We currently don't expose this granularity of data through the Rides API. The closest to this feature would be the estimates related to Uber products. For instance, you can get the ETA (in seconds) for available Uber products, which is an indicator of how close driver partners are to the given location.
Thanks for raising the question and expressing your interest in such a feature. It helps us to understand what the community is looking for so we can prioritize what gets built and released in the future!
Keep an eye on the Uber Developers blog for news around current and upcoming APIs.
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
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.