Epic Intro Music: BLE Beacons and Ruby
summary
A working prototype uses a Raspberry Pi with a Bluetooth dongle to broadcast as an iBeacon and run a Sinatra music server, an iPhone app written in RubyMotion that registers with CoreLocation and posts events, and ngrok to expose a webhook; mpeg321 plays MP3s by name. Beacons emit only identifiers (not content), distance estimates use RSSI and are noisy beyond a meter, and the assembled system reliably triggers theme music at close range.
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chapters (18)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:18TARDIS light with Arduino
- 2:21Office music challenge
- 3:27Rick Astley demo choice
- 4:08Bluetooth Low Energy beacon
- 5:12Beacon types compared
- 7:01Music player system design
- 8:28Demo setup Raspberry Pi
- 9:40Broadcasting with BlueZ
- 11:05Music player with Sinatra
- 12:49iOS app RubyMotion
- 15:00Full system overview
- 15:43Beacon misconceptions
- 17:27Beacons don’t track users
- 18:55RSSI distance limits
- 21:20Platform beacon differences
- 22:28Privacy concerns addressed
- 24:21Closing
