I’m making a small, information app, which uses QR codes to give different informations.
In my flat, I put 10 QR codes everywhere (in the kitchen, living room, bedroom, etc.)
It uses a database, and it’s fine, but this method is fully manual. The user need to scan every time.
I’m familiar with Bluetooth Beacons, and my goal is, to replace QR codes with beacons.
The beacons would send one letter (A, B, C, D, etc.)
Can I manage to monitor the strength of the bacons?
So when I’m near (like 2-3m) the App get the signal, and do different tasks.
Turn down the TX power on each beacon until it can not be scanned by the app until the smartphone is within range. This is the dumb but easy approach. It doesn’t need any special extra coding on the app. You just need to adjust the TX power on the beacons. It’s a bit “dumb” since it is not very subtle and can react too quickly or too slowly in some cases.
The smarter approach is to have the app scan for the UUID of beacon xyz, then if it “sees” it (i.e. is within range of the beacon’s broadcast), it should next check the RSSI measurement to decide if the beacon is close enough. You can also make some subtle adjustments here to avoid early or late recognition. For example, instead of just requiring that the RSSI be “greater than X”, you could program your app to wait for “three consecutive RSSI values greater than X”. That way you can avoid false positives.
That’s the theoretical answer. Since I am really new to ThunkableX, I don’t know if the platform/app can measure RSSI’s and make decisions based on the RSSI value. I hope it can.