Developing a Selfie Remote-Control App in iOS Using Bluetooth Low Energy
Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) is getting a lot of attention lately due to its support in various devices and gadgets. Thanks in no small part to the advent of the IoT (Internet of Things), Bluetooth LE is poised to change the way you build applications that interact with external devices and gadgets. Although Bluetooth LE is just starting to get developers' interest, Apple actually had support for Bluetooth LE very early on, starting from the iPhone 4S.
In this article, rather than walk you through the details of Bluetooth LE programming, I'll show you how to build a selfie remote-control app quickly, using the Bluetooth LE APIs in iOS 6 and later, with a cheap $25 device for the remote control.
What You Need for This Project
For this project, you'll need the SensorTag from Texas Instruments (TI), which you can purchase online for $25. The SensorTag is a low-cost, multiple-sensor device that allows developers to connect to it through Bluetooth LE. The SensorTag contains the following sensors:
- Temperature
- Humidity
- Pressure
- Accelerometer
- Gyroscope
- Magnetometer
In addition to the various sensors, the SensorTag has two buttons located at the top of the unit (see Figure 1). Press these buttons to get your app to perform an action such as taking a photo.