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Comment by jimiasty | Hacker News Reader

Hi HN,

this is Jakub, Co-Founder of Estimote.

We have just uploaded into GitHub (https://github.com/Estimote/iOS-Indoor-SDK) another release of our Indoor Location SDK.

We have managed to achieve 4m accuracy for large spaces using just several beacons.

In addition it is possible to locate several people same time with a real-time access to their X,Y position via cloud-based API.

We believe this might be your next canvas for awesome future real-world apps. Feel free to test it and share feedback/ask questions.

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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 fudged trilateration functions, then did some cool location-based things with Philips Hue bulbs. Was a blast!

Keep up the good work, can't wait for the Android Indoor SDK! (I appreciate that it's more effort due to differences in device hardware, etc)

Thanks! Glad you experimented with beacons and Hue. There is already several apps that combine beacons with Hue: https://vimeo.com/91335074

When it comes to Android we have just released an update to our main Android SDK and app (you can read more here: http://blog.estimote.com/post/118119809840/announcing-an-upd...)

We plan to catch up with other SDKs for Android as well.

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 hall - if there were 300+ people running an app would it be practical to use this to direct users to a 3x4m booth amongst a hundred or two such booths)?

Technically 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.

See this GIF: http://i58.tinypic.com/33nyrgo.gif It's a 30m x 15m space (half of your space) and we used 12 beacons. You can use less if you want "corner / room" level accuracy.

Because beacons broadcast signals all around any number of devices can access their signals and there is no limit in number of people with mobile app that uses our SDK. If you put beacons high enough the signal absorption should be minimal, but we haven't tested with high density crowd yet.

Thanks.

That gives me some ideas.

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