DIGITAL navigation surely ranks as one of life’s high-tech bargains. Thanks to free Global Positioning System (GPS) signals broadcast by American satellites, and free online maps from companies like Google, Nokia and Apple, all you need is a smartphone with an internet connection to pinpoint your location on the Earth’s surface and call up maps, directions and local information. Unless, that is, you are indoors. And even if you are outdoors in a built-up area, the lack of a clear view of the sky can prevent GPS working properly, because its satellite signals are easily blocked by roofs, nearby buildings or even trees. For positioning to work indoors, where people spend most of their time, new technologies are needed.
Locata, an Australian company, recently unveiled a system of powerful transmitters whose signals can penetrate walls or cover large outdoor areas such as airfields. The beacons within the network are synchronised to within a billionth of a second, and can allow a receiver to determine its position to within less than a metre.
There has also been headway in cutting through the tangle of competing standards that has discouraged investment in infrastructure. In August a group of 22 technology companies including Nokia, Samsung and CSR formed the In-Location Alliance. This trade organisation is dedicated to building indoor-location systems around two technologies, Bluetooth beacons and Wi-Fi signal mapping. It may finally give the indoor positioning industry something it currently lacks: a sense of direction.
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