Indoor positioning

What's that then?
 
Sat-nav for when you're indoors.
It's the next generation of location
technology that could revolutionise
the way we use indoor space.

How will it work?
Sat-nav normally uses GPS, but the
radio waves it relies on are absorbed
or reflected by buildings, so when
you're indoors it's useless. An
effective Indoor Positioning System
(IPS) has to find a way of locating you
and guiding you through a built space
Two methods are being developed,
but neither has the market dominance
needed for a global roll-out. Yet.

 What are the two systems?
Received Signal Strength (RSS)
measures the drop-off from a signal
beamed from fixed transmitters and
triangulates your position based on
that data. Time of Arrival (ToA) also
uses fixed transmitters, but these
beam time stamps to your location
device. The difference in time
between these stamps as you receive
them gives you your position.






Who's it really for?

It could be a boon for fire fighters - or
any workers for whom precise and
real-time location data can be a
matter of life and death.  

 Where will we see it first?
Nokia is blazing a trail with location-
awareness. Comoined with RFID
chips in your everyday items - such as
car keys and glasses - they believe it's
how we'll find everything in the future.