Can iBeacon scan iOS devices even bluetooth is off?

Question

iBeacon/sensor tags should scan the devices that enters my store and report some information to the server/device. Information like device name, what position and how much time customer spent at particular product. My questions are:

1. Can iBeacons scan the device(IOS bluetooth smart ready devices) even if bluetooth is switched off?

2. If not, what should replacement i have to use for it.

Answer 1

If the Bluetooth is off then how can the iBeacon even see the device. So no this is not possible. And no you can not see the device any other way, wel maybe with some GSM/WiFi detector but you will never be able to the device name or something.

Also the iBeacon is transmitting an identifier that the users device is picking up, so I don't think you iBeacon will be able to to detect any device since the protocol should then work the other way around.

Answer 2

iBeacon is an open protocol built on top of BLE. An iBeacon is a send-only device, and a beacon receiver is a receive-only device.

Beacons send a very short ID signal, usually once a second. That is ALL they do. Period.

The beacon in your store has no knowledge of the iOS devices that come into it's range. Beacons don't scan for anything.

It would be possible to have your user's apps transmitting iBeacon signals constantly, but only if the app was running constantly in the foreground. That would drain the user's battery quickly, and if the user switches to Angry Birds or to the phone app, your app would stop transmitting. Also, with privacy concerns you are likely to get pushback from customers on broadcasting a constant "I, John Doe, am right here . Feel free to track my every move!" signal.

That said, there's nothing preventing you from developing an app that uses iBeacons plus other non-iBeacon BLE, or plus the internet and web services.

You could write an app that monitors for your store's iBeacons, and when it detects one, it sends a local notification to the user to wake up the app (if the phone was asleep) and also sends a message to your store's server (over the cell data network) with the user's ID and the beacon they found. You could use that information to send push notifications back to the user ("Special on ladies' watches on isle 12!")

Our company specializes in iOS development and have a sub-specialty in this sort of app. We'd be happy to talk further if you'd like to pursue it.