In the past, you may have had the opportunity to use Bluetooth devices in your projects. However, in all probability, that would have been an earlier version of BT, now commonly referred to as "classic" Bluetooth. Before we jump into an actual recipe on how to use these small radio devices, we should take a look at some of the significant differences between the classic version of Bluetooth and the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) spec because they are very different animals. Although they are both available as part of the 4.0 spec, we will work only with the BLE piece for our recipe.

Classic Bluetooth

With the classic version of the stack, one device basically connects to another device, data is exchanged serially, and the data does not persist. For example, when you set up a BT headset, the audio comes piping into your ears, and the data goes on after the throughput. Furthermore, the connection does not reveal or show anything about what's happening in the middle of that pipe with the data itself.

Bluetooth Low Energy

Although more challenging to work with and still nascent with its documentation, BLE (sometimes referred to as Bluetooth Smart) is a far more robust environment for managing data, particularly in the world of IoT. Several key elements distinguish it from its earlier kin:

Beacons and iBeacons

Where GPS leaves off, Beacons begin. This emerging BLE technology is quickly becoming the next big thing in location sensing. Although proven, powerful, and ubiquitous, GPS can only determine the coordinates of an object within 20-30 feet. However, the BLE Beacon technology is commonly referred to as hyperlocal in its sensitivity because it is accurate within a range of 100 meters down to inches. Thus far, most of the interest around the Beacon technology is focused on how marketers and advertisers want to use it in order to send you targeted offers… Yuck!

This is largely due to the fact that Apple's marketing-centric version of the protocol called iBeacons has been the most commonly referenced and easiest type to get running quickly. However, the intrinsic BLE Beacon stack, iBeacon or otherwise, is very exciting for several reasons:

For IoT-like scenarios, both indoor and outdoor, Beacons provide much promise far beyond annoying marketing messages. Also, you can actually buy premade beacons for very little money, sometimes for only a few dollars (USD).

It may seem like overkill to be using a full-blown microcomputer, such as the BBB, to serve as a Beacon. However, our intention is to create our own BBB version so that we have more flexibility in understanding and building the constituent parts of a Beacon network. Doing this as an open source recipe allows you to pull the levers yourself.

A further point to clarify here is that BLE Beacons do not actually send content that a user receives on their smartphone app. The beacon simply provides the rudimentary data to a mobile app, which allows that app to determine its location in a venue or outdoor spot and in turn sends the user location-specific data. Alternatively, it can capture and make use of that data in other ways.

Furthermore, iBeacons do not track users based on any kind of profiling requirements; the interaction can be—and generally is—completely anonymous, so concerns about privacy are negligible.

With Beacons, there are several data fields that you typically want to watch. This helps in differentiating one beacon from another. For instance, let's say that we are in the Museum of Natural History in New York City that has a beacon network. Here are the relevant data fields:

The major and minor IDs can be used to trigger certain behaviors in your application when it discovers one of your beacons. All of these fields come together to make pinpointing locations extremely accurate.

Evothings_Studio/examples/ibeacon-scan/index.js

      // Add your own manufacturer UUIDs to this list.
      {uuid:'B9407F30-F5F8-466E-AFF9-25556B57FE6D'},
      {uuid:'F7826DA6-4FA2-4E98-8024-BC5B71E0893E'},
      {uuid:'8DEEFBB9-F738-4297-8040-96668BB44281'},
      {uuid:'A0B13730-3A9A-11E3-AA6E-0800200C9A66'},

      {uuid:'3784B5B0-2DA7-11E4-8C21-0800200C9A66'},