Supporting Bluetooth beacon-based positioning for better indoor/underground location accuracy

[dg55521]

Hopefully this proposal will be considered after #31 is implemented.

Background:
Currently, MapMarker relies on GPS for location, but in environments such as underground parking lots or basements, GPS signals are weak or unstable. In property management use cases (e.g., maintenance or inspections in underground areas), accurate indoor positioning is essential, and GPS often causes the location marker to drift predictably.

Feature suggestion:
Add support for Bluetooth beacons (such as iBeacon or Eddystone) to enhance location accuracy when GPS is unreliable. When the app detects nearby beacons, it could infer the user’s location based on signal strength or a pre-mapped beacon location and display it accurately on the map.

Use case examples:

Property staff can locate themselves in different zones of an underground parking lot using Bluetooth beacons.

Engineering or maintenance teams can pinpoint their location in basement service tunnels or utility rooms.

Technical feasibility (optional):
Android supports scanning for Bluetooth beacons and retrieving their UUID, RSSI, etc. By allowing users to assign coordinates to specific beacons, the app can determine approximate location when GPS is not available.

Possible future expansions:

Allow users to manage and assign positions to known beacons

Automatically prompt relevant markers when within beacon range

Fuse multiple beacon signals to improve accuracy

[androidseb]

Thank you for the suggestion.

Just a though about a workaround to partially achieve this regarding positioning alone, I don't know if it exists, but it could be interesting to see if there isn't already an Android app handling beacon positioning and acting as a location provider to override your GPS positioning so it can be used in other apps like Map Marker.