4 ms·

hey are you thinking of open sourcing any part of the code? i can think of a lot of further applications of this, especially relating to mesh networking

ayhoung 13y ago
It's actually very simple. We've released a much more featured version of this at http://getloopd.com http://getloopd.com
- victor106 13y ago
  Can you give some pointers on how you developed this app?
- jschmi93 13y ago
  Are you guys planning to open source any of this? I'd love to dig into this a little deeper....
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
siralonso 13y ago
Hi! I helped build Shortwave. There are some interesting limitations to the ibeacon and corebluetooth APIs that we used - corebluetooth can broadcast in the background (but not receive) while ibeacon can receive in the background (but not broadcast). Our goal was to be able to recognize that two shortwave users were within range of each other, even if both phones were locked, so we had to find a way to make these two APIs work together. I'm working on a blog post that details how we did this. I hadn't thought of open-sourcing the code, but people seem interested so I'm more than happy to do so. I do have to warn you - this was my first foray into objective-c, so I'm sure there will be some shortcomings :) I'll post it to hackernews when I wrap it up. I'm also @alonsoholmes on twitter, in case it doesn't make the front page. Cheers! - ah
- cryptnotic 13y ago
  You should patent it.
  - marpalmin 13y ago
    There is nothing to patent, is just iOS Bluetooth Low Energy.
- mjmsmith 13y ago
  Isn't iBeacon built on top of Core Bluetooth? What stops you scanning in the background with CB?
  - eddieroger 13y ago
    Nothing. You can continue to range and monitor in the background, but you can not be a beacon in the background while using the blessed methods for doing so. I haven't dug in to CoreBluetooth directly, but the CLLocationManager abstraction layer doesn't allow you to broadcast in the background.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    - marpalmin 13y ago
      Yes that's true. Check https://github.com/CharruaLabs/AltBeacon https://github.com/CharruaLabs/AltBeacon to understand how it's done.
marpalmin 13y ago
Hi, We are working in a project that also uses Bluetooth Low Energy for nearby interaction (though is not a chat). So we do some similar stuff to have Beacons advertising in the background. Due to the demand we saw here, we decided to open source our library which is called AltBeacon. You can find it in https://github.com/CharruaLabs/AltBeacon https://github.com/CharruaLabs/AltBeacon , we need contributors so feel free to check it and contribute.

ayhoung 13y ago

It's actually very simple. We've released a much more featured version of this at http://getloopd.com http://getloopd.com

victor106 13y ago
Can you give some pointers on how you developed this app?
jschmi93 13y ago
Are you guys planning to open source any of this? I'd love to dig into this a little deeper....
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

siralonso 13y ago

Hi! I helped build Shortwave. There are some interesting limitations to the ibeacon and corebluetooth APIs that we used - corebluetooth can broadcast in the background (but not receive) while ibeacon can receive in the background (but not broadcast). Our goal was to be able to recognize that two shortwave users were within range of each other, even if both phones were locked, so we had to find a way to make these two APIs work together. I'm working on a blog post that details how we did this. I hadn't thought of open-sourcing the code, but people seem interested so I'm more than happy to do so. I do have to warn you - this was my first foray into objective-c, so I'm sure there will be some shortcomings :) I'll post it to hackernews when I wrap it up. I'm also @alonsoholmes on twitter, in case it doesn't make the front page. Cheers! - ah

cryptnotic 13y ago
You should patent it.
- marpalmin 13y ago
  There is nothing to patent, is just iOS Bluetooth Low Energy.
mjmsmith 13y ago
Isn't iBeacon built on top of Core Bluetooth? What stops you scanning in the background with CB?
- eddieroger 13y ago
  Nothing. You can continue to range and monitor in the background, but you can not be a beacon in the background while using the blessed methods for doing so. I haven't dug in to CoreBluetooth directly, but the CLLocationManager abstraction layer doesn't allow you to broadcast in the background.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - marpalmin 13y ago
    Yes that's true. Check https://github.com/CharruaLabs/AltBeacon https://github.com/CharruaLabs/AltBeacon to understand how it's done.

marpalmin 13y ago

Hi, We are working in a project that also uses Bluetooth Low Energy for nearby interaction (though is not a chat). So we do some similar stuff to have Beacons advertising in the background. Due to the demand we saw here, we decided to open source our library which is called AltBeacon. You can find it in https://github.com/CharruaLabs/AltBeacon https://github.com/CharruaLabs/AltBeacon , we need contributors so feel free to check it and contribute.