iBeacon is a Bluetooth Low Energy-based protocol for broadcasting information to nearby iOS and Android devices. It is aimed at use in public locations such as retail stores, providing visitors with information on their devices as they navigate between beacons installed around the location. It is also able to track each visitor's position in the location.
iBeacon support is implemented in CoreLocation as of iOS 7.0 and OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and apps making use of it must request Location Services permission. It is supported starting from iPhone 4s, iPad (3rd generation), or iPod touch (5th generation), due to the dependency on Bluetooth Low Energy, a mode introduced with Bluetooth 4.0. It is also supported starting with Android 4.3 on devices with Bluetooth 4.0 hardware.
One known iBeacon device was produced by Apple, and the iBeacon protocol specification was published to enable third-parties to produce iBeacon-capable devices.
iBeacon does not appear to have received major updates since 2015.
iBeacon device
An iBeacon device with regulatory model A1573 was produced by Apple. It has an FCC filing dated 4 July 2014, and a user guide labelled as "Release R1". It is a white plastic disc measuring around 700 x 700 mm (27.56 x 27.56 in) with an Apple logo on the top side, and on the bottom side, a status LED, power switch, micro USB connector, and M5 threaded screw hole. It contains a lithium-ion battery of unknown capacity. By holding the switch in the center for 3 seconds, the device enters programming mode.
Internal photos from the FCC filing indicate that the device may have a codename of X92.[1]
External Links
 iBeacon |
- iBeacon
- Getting Started with iBeacon, published 2 June 2014
- Region Monitoring and iBeacon
References
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