HN Explorer

Turn WiFi and Bluetooth signals into app actions (newaer.com)

36 points by ggdm ↗ HN
NewAer wants to make the Siri reminders & GPS location based triggers obsolete with a software SDK to use radios in smartphones as app triggers. They just launched their new Android and iOS SDK for the Techcrunch Disrupt hackathon, and have a pretty funny example video posted. Nick's life is pretty sweet! LOL.

24 comments

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buildnship
https://www.gimbal.com/
kelnos
So? Please add something to the discussion rather than just pasting a link to a competitor. What does Gimbal do that's different/better/etc.? Genuinely curious.
diminoten
If only there were a handy link available! :P
diminoten
I use Android's tasker to put my phone on vibrate when my work WiFi is detected, it's pretty convenient.

Putting features like that into other apps would be fantastic.

w1ntermute
You can also do this using NFC. Not sure if this is possible with Tasker, but (for example) you could have a car dock with a passive NFC tag (very cheap) on it that would change the phone to automatically read your text messages out loud and prompt you to respond with voice input.
diminoten
For my specific car I can detect the Bluetooth connection using tasker, without the need for the NFC chip.

I don't mean to turn this into an, "Isn't Tasker great?" rave, but... isn't it?

anoncow
Handy Profiles did something similar for symbian using cell tower id.
ggdm
This is the concept for the engine, we are glad you "got it." Although you can add it into Tasker too. The bigger picture is that you do not need to be connected to the WiFi or BT radio to enable this.
omarseyal
what's the killer use case for this api?
ggdm
Isn't this for you to answer? NewAer builds "showcase apps" but the SDK is for all to build on. Our favorite is a menu on a tablet that knows what you ordered last time you visited the restaurant and suggests something new the 2nd visit. All with your phone in your purse or pocket. No check ins, QR codes, tapping NFC or logging in. That's the vision of the SDK.
andrewtbham
iOs has a featured called region monitoring that is similar.

I use it in my app OnSite Time Tracker.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onsite-time-tracker/id470803...

nathanstitt
How's that working out for you?

I've written a similar (open-source) app called Remindly (https://github.com/nathanstitt/remindly) that uses region monitoring to fire alarms.

I've found it's region monitoring accuracy to be horrid - either the alarms fire when I haven't moved, don't fire at all, or fire an hour later when I'm 20 miles outside the region.

Since I have the same issues with the built-in Reminders app, I suspect it's something specific to my geographical area, or the api is just rubbish.

andrewtbham
In ios 4 it was accuracy was miles. As of ios 5, it's usually accurate to within a block. but it's not accurate in desolate areas (due to lack of wifi signals).
ggdm
Significant location change is clumsy to say the least. If you ask Siri to "remind you to get milk when you leave the house" you can see she sends messages at all different ranges of your leaving. Our engine monitors BTLE for disconnected, or WiFi zones for connected on iOS. Plus we provide background operation in iOS. Let us know what you think of the SDK in your application.
tdj
I developed a similar app for a psychology research team. They needed a way to trigger certain things (sound recording, etc) when two certain people were in physical proximity. As it turns out, bluetooth bonjour discovery did the trick when they were in the same room. Over wifi, it got triggered sooner, once one of them enterred the building where the other one was (which corresponded to being on the same LAN).

The hard problem on iOS devices (iPod touch) was keeping them awake during this, so they could detect eac other. iOS likes to sleep while locked. Got a solution, which made the battery last around a day. I guess they're not using mobile to mobile peer triggers, but fixed-to-mobile and then deliver a notification. Interesting to see this popping up in commercial tech.

I was going to spin my code out into a infrastructure for spatial awareness triggers for various home automation tasks, but also couldn't find a killer use case. I'll be following this topic for ideas :)

buster
Is this a joke? I remember this kind of application has been available for android since the G1, in fact when Google hosted some app contest to have some apps available on the launch of android one of the winners was that kind. That was 2008: https://developers.google.com/android/adc/adc_gallery/
zmmmmm
I'm curious how this works on iOS in the background? I admittedly don't know that much about it, but my understanding was that apps basically couldn't run code that constantly monitored things like this in the background on iOS.
jamesRaybould
I'm also curious how they got the wifi scanning working on iOS, last time I looked at doing it myself Apple had moved/removed the private library in iOS5.
tdj
I solved this by using the "Insomniac" approach - if you play a silent sound every 30 seconds or so, the scheduler will reset the sleep timer and the app will keep working. It drains the battery in around 1 day though.
ggdm
Love the idea of the silent sound. Alas, that and the IP backgrounding is a bit clumsy. We pass through Apple's store guidelines without powering up the GPS.
nathanstitt
It's my understanding that they can do so if they identify as a navigation app. It's hit-or-miss as to whether that will pass scrutiny by the app store reviewer though.