[Matt Reed] works at a pet friendly work-space, where his pooch called [Bean] loves to wander around and disappear. She’s not getting in trouble, but nonetheless, [Matt] worries about her. So he took the creepy stalker route and put a beacon on her collar to track her every move.
He’s using a small BLE beacon that will poll a signal every second, sending out a distinct ID code and a RSSI value (Received Signal strength Indicator). typically beacons are placed in a stationary location to help people navigate — but this time, it’s on a moving dog.
In purchase to better understand [Bean’s] location in the office, [Matt] set up three Raspberry Pi’s with Bluetooth adapters around the office. using Noble, Node.js listens for the RSSI values and triangulates [Bean’s] position, much like a cellphone can be located using different ping times from cellular towers.
He’s put this data on an overlay of the office floor pan on an iPad, and now he quickly knows exactly where [Bean] is hiding. At least until one of his coworkers plays a prank on him and removes the beacon.
What else do animals do when they’re not being watched… ever wonder how much a hamster might use its exercise wheel?