Internal Mapping & Beacons

jasgrif11

I currently manage a team of mobile app developers, where we have produced many mobile projects.

One idea we are working on is a meeting room finder project, whereby app users can easily locate meeting rooms in a building(s).

Does anyone know if a commercial app already exists for this and if using iBeacons would help with the geo location?

Graham

If I remember correctly, there's a meeting room app that uses iBeacons in a slightly different way. I don't think it specifically directs people to meeting rooms, but it does show meeting room availability and booking options when within proximity of a specified iBeacon.

There's no reason you couldn't combine location/mapping to make an app like you describe, a few of the iBeacon manufacturers provide SDK's to help with mapping projects. Is there any particular reason you'd restrict it to just meeting rooms or are you planning to add some meeting room specific functionality?

Check out the SDKs from Estimote, Kontakt, Sensoro, Reco, Gimble, Glimworm etc.

It would also be worth you taking a look at Apple indoor mapping program:

https://mapsconnect.apple.com

jasgrif11

Im not limiting it to meeting rooms, i plan to add peoples desk location as a phase2 along with printers etc...

I have ordered some Estimote beacons, ill try thrm out.

Graham

jasgrif11 wrote: »

Im not limiting it to meeting rooms, i plan to add peoples desk location as a phase2 along with printers etc...

I have ordered some Estimote beacons, ill try them out.

The Estimote beacons aren't a bad choice and their SDK's are probably the most mature just be careful if you're thinking of deploying them in public. The shape and colour invites curiosity, I'd be concerned how easy they would walk if within easy reach. Make sure they stick probably too, there's been a few reports of them throwing themselves off walls lemming style.

I'd recommend looking at Kontakt beacons too. Their beacons are lower key than Estimote, looking every bit like they've been designed for mass deployment. Kontakt also offer a Cloud Beacon for beacon fleet management over wifi which could make future management significantly easier. You'll find a lot of the smaller Beacon vendors are selling re-badged Kontakt beacons.

Sensoro are almost caught up to Estimote and Kontakt in terms of hardware and software. Very keen pricing too. Some major deployments in Asia which would instill confidence in the product. It's worth checking ebay for their 99c trial pack of 3 different beacon types.

Glimworm beacons are plain white plastic making them look like small panels. Probably the least pinchable of the bunch.

Reco beacons look great but the company has kept such a low profile, it's hard to know which direction they're heading in.

Gimble have heavyweight backing and IIRC are used in the Major League Baseball deployments. They were offering a free 3 pack of Beacon tags for a while, not sure if they're still doing that. Worth a look if you want to experiment with keyfob style beacons.

Accent systems produce their own disk shaped Beacon which you'll also see re-badged quite a lot. Nice solid devices with a front sticker panel for cheap and easy branding. Also sold by Blesh with Google Physical Web firmware installed (rather than iBeacon).

For cheap and cheerful, JaaLee iBeacons would also be worth a look.