Estimote Indoor Location SDK
Infrastructure
indoor positioning sdk
SHOW HN2015
How HN took it
4 positive, 9 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 6 critical, out of 20 comments about the project. Thread score -0.13.
Performance: 0 for, 3 againstIdea: 1 for, 1 againstExecution: 1 for, 0 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Simple deployment and calibration of rooms
From 1 comment
Hi Travis, Jakub again here. This is great; thanks for your comments. We try to have a very pragmatic approach and believe that room beaconifying procedure should be extremely…
jimiasty on HN
Interesting technology and useful for many applications
From 2 comments
Highly recommended stuff.
RichardZite on HNI had a fiddle with some Estimotes for a research project last year. Managed to get some fairly inaccurate indoor location tracking going on Android using 4 beacons and some…
pr0vitamin on HN
Objections
Accuracy of about 4m is only middling compared to competitors
From 1 comment
There are a ton of other competing technologies. We have been to the Microsoft Indoor Localization Competition and saw the estimote there too:…
mmaroti on HN
Interference with Wi-Fi on Android devices
From 2 comments
These are very cool, but unfortunately the last time I tried using BLE (specifically Estimote beacons with their sdk) in an Android app the interference with wifi made the…
craigts on HNFrom my experience, this usually happens with the older/cheaper Android devices that use a combined BT+WiFi radio/chipset (Nexus 4, Galaxy S3 etc.) Fortunately, the Android…
heypiotr on HN
Location tracking raises privacy concerns
From 2 comments
Im guessing (based on recently using Estimote beacons in a project) that this relies on inexpensive beacons and most of what happens is in the app. The beacons don't talk to the…
bigiain on HNYep. Wifi is easy - any wifi module that can be put into "monitor mode" will let you listen in for SSID probes. Apple have started randomising the MAC address the device uses for…
bigiain on HN
Only works on iOS for the home calibration feature
From 1 comment
Seems to be iOS only, unfortunately.
DiabloD3 on HN
Requests
Documentation of the computational model and error sources
From 1 comment
Do you use time of arrival techniques? What strategy do you use to overcome indoor multi-path conditions? Are there more detailed implementation notes somewhere? Reading the…
wyc on HN
Android SDK support
From 1 comment
I had a fiddle with some Estimotes for a research project last year. Managed to get some fairly inaccurate indoor location tracking going on Android using 4 beacons and some…
pr0vitamin on HN
Questions
How well does it scale to large spaces and crowds
From 2 comments
How big is "large spaces" (should I start pitching this internally for a client with a ~30x60m room)? How does it perform with many people at once (think of a trade show booth…
bigiain on HNTechnically there is no limitation in the size of the space; it can be an airport or shopping mall - you just need to use more beacons if you want better results in a huge space.…
jimiasty on HN
What phone settings are needed for it to work
From 2 comments
For the average iPhone-toting person whose location is the one being plotted, what does their phone have to be set to in order for this to work? Do they have to have a specific…
rmxt on HNYou just need bluetooth on. I don't believe the iPhone provides a distinct option for Bluetooth-On Visible vs Invisible.
kingnight on HN
Does interference from bodies and materials distort results
From 2 comments
Would the result be easily distorted by e.g. (human) bodies standing in-between, or certain materials (e.g. installing it in an art exhibition, but certain art installations use…
wiradikusuma on HNIt very much depends on the number of people and obstacles (glass, metal). The best approach would be to put more beacons in that "interfering" areas. If beacons are installed…
jimiasty on HN
Alternatives named
Ekahau indoor positioning
From 1 comment
How does this compare to indoors location startup from 15 years back (or so?), Ekahau? http://www.ekahau.com/
vardump on HN
WiFi, ZigBee and RFID localization
From 1 comment
Pretty cool. You can achieve similar localization accuracy with WiFi, BLE, ZigBee, or long-range RFID. Common techniques are time of flight (ToF, or time of arrival), FMCW…
beambot on HN
GPS on smartphones
From 1 comment
Why not do this [1] and not have to worrie about other hardware? Everyone has a cell phone and it would end up more accurate. [1]…
gravypod on HN