Xamarin is holding contest to get ideas of how beacons (iBeacons) can be used to context-aware mobile applications.

I have been doing a lot of research on beacons so I thought I’d share some of my ideas.

The Concept: Don’t touch my beer

This little idea will help insure that your beer remains where you put it.

The Problem

Occasionally you have to work late at the office; really late.  On such occasions you might like to enjoy a couple of beers as you wait around to verify your work. The issue is you do not have a personal refrigerator in your office so you are forced to put your two beers in a paper bag with your name on it in the shared kitchen refrigerator. 

Unfortunately, and on more than one occasion, you have opened the fridge to find that your beer is no where to be seen. (I’m talking to you, Lyn).  This makes for a most disappointing end to the evening.

The Solution

This solution involves an Estimote sticker and a small application that has been created to monitor the sticker for movement. Estimote stickers have a variety of sensors and can actually report back changes in orientation and movement. You set up a trigger to notify you should your paper bag move more than two feet which will trigger an alert on your phone.

This will allow you to run to the kitchen to see who is handling your beer (Lyn).

The Velociraptor Option

An addition to this type of security measure would be the connection to a a micro-drone that you also keep in your office. Working in conjunction with a 3-letter federal agency (which must remain nameless, of course), you have developed some custom software that ties the drone to the beacon, allowing the drone to home in on the beacon so that the on-board camera can take a picture of the offender, as well as to take, “alternate actions,” which again, I really can’t talk about at this point.