Bluetooth 4 LE Tag Proximity

[K L]

Will there be a Android Tasker Plugin to allow users to automate TASKS (ie: locking of their phone) if the distance from the phone to a Bluetooth LE tag exceeds a given distance?

[Wes Stacey]

You should have this ability already Use the "Bluetooth Connected" context. It should be treated just like any other bluetooth device.

[K L]

Perhaps I can clarify.  For example: The Galaxy GEAR will BT LE can detect if the user is > 1 meter away, AND remain connected for > 10 meters.  So the BT Connected is not useful in this sense.

Bluetooth LE has a profile to allow Range Detection:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBeacon
"They can also be used by the Android operating system (limited to central-only)"

Ranging

Ranging works only in the foreground but will return (to the listening device) an array (unlimited) of all iBeacons found along with their properties (UUID, etc.) ^[10]

A iOS device receiving an iBeacon transmission can approximate the distance from the iBeacon. The distance (between transmitting iBeacon and receiving device) is categorised into 3 distinct ranges:^[11]

• Immediate: Within a few centimetres
• Near: Within a couple of metres
• Far: Greater than 10 metres away"

There are several threads on Stackoverflow about this function:

Detect proximity using Bluetooth LE “Proximity” profile Android

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19639891/detect-proximity-using-bluetooth-le-proximity-profile-android

How to use the profile of PROXIMITY PROFILE,IMMEDIATE ALERT SERVICE and Find Me Profile in android 4.3 BLE?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19440707/how-to-use-the-profile-of-proximity-profile-immediate-alert-service-and-find-me

[Pent]

The next Tasker version has BT Near with LE support, but you can't specify a distance, no. And Android's BLE stack is horribly flakey unfortunately.

Pent

[K L]

On Monday, March 24, 2014 11:08:22 AM UTC-4, Pent wrote:

The next Tasker version has BT Near with LE support, but you can't specify a distance, no. And Android's BLE stack is horribly flakey unfortunately.

Pent

True, that what I heard from the whole StickNFind debacle with non-Samsung Android devices.

But Samsung's reportedly fixed these issues to the point where Bluetooth LE stack is functional. Which is why StickNFind and Gear works.

Is there anyway to leverage the improved BTLE stack when Tasker is detected on Samsung devices?

[Pent]

True, that what I heard from the whole StickNFind debacle with non-Samsung Android devices.

I've been testing with a StickNFind with a Nexus 5 (LG).

>Is there anyway to leverage the improved BTLE stack when Tasker is detected on Samsung devices?

I don't know what you mean by that. I might add distance in the future, at the moment I'm just happy
if it notices the device is there or gone.

Pent

[K L]

>Is there anyway to leverage the improved BTLE stack when Tasker is detected on Samsung devices?

>I don't know what you mean by that. I might add distance in the future, at the moment I'm just happy
if it notices the device is there or gone.

I was under the impression that the Android BT stack doesn't support distance properly, but Samsung's BT Stack does. 

So that's why I figured Tasker could detect if the phone is by Samsung before enabling certain BT LE functions not normally supported in Android. 

[Pent]

So that's why I figured Tasker could detect if the phone is by Samsung before enabling certain BT LE functions not normally supported in Android. 

No, I won't be doing anything manufacturer-specific, sorry.

Pent

[K L]

No need to be sorry my friend :) 

 There's good reason to have things work uniformly across all devices. 

[Ludovic Dupont]

Don't know to which extent it would work, or would instead be some horrible mess, but I'm dreaming about how cool it would be if one was wearing some Android Wear thingie, and as soon as he would grab the phone in the same hand as he wears the watch, the display would turn on and go to the home screen, without having to use a PIN or even push the power button.

Then you'd lay the phone somewhere, and the screen would shut off, and the PIN would reactivate, until you grab it again with the hand wearing your smarwatch.

Well, I guess it would at least be fun to have such an option in Tasker to try it out ;-)