Prevailing Indoor Positioning Technology Approaches

From classical compasses to smartphone GPS, indoor positioning technology has dramatically evolved.

FREMONT, CA: While the compass is regarded as China's gift to the West, Mapsted has bestowed the most precise indoor navigation technology upon the globe. Indoor positioning solutions are fundamentally dissimilar to global positioning systems.

Before Mapsted, there were five primary methods for determining an inside location: GPS/cellular technology, Bluetooth beacon indoor positioning technology, geomagnetic technology, UWB indoor positioning system technology, and inertial navigation technology.

GPS/cellular technology is simply ineffective. Obstacles such as walls and similar structures obstruct the transmission between satellites and mobile devices. While a 30-meter error is acceptable for Google Maps outdoors, 30-meters indoors could mean the difference between walking into and not walking into the store.

Bluetooth beacon indoor positioning technology must be installed in several locations across the facility to ensure coverage. While beacons are precise, clients must have Bluetooth enabled or be within 100-150 meters of Wi-Fi. Scaling beacons is difficult since batteries need to be replaced regularly, and their accuracy eventually degrades.

Indoor magnetic disturbances affect geomagnetic technology. Changes to the environment, such as renovations, hospital machinery, kiosk placement, or furniture rearrangement, can impair accuracy.

Ultra wide band (UWB) is an intriguing technology. Three or more ultra wide-band readers transmit a comprehensive pulse throughout the GHz spectrum. After that, the readers listen for super wide-band tag chirps. These tags contain a spark-gap-style exciter that emits a small pulse, resulting in a brief, coded, vast, practically instantaneous burst. The readers then transmit exact time measurements taken from the tags to a central server. Due to the extensive range of the UWB signal, the position information is relatively accurate. However, the most expensive system to install is the UWB indoor positioning system. While UWB tags are affordable, each place must have at least three readers due to the tags' restricted range. These readers are pretty costly.

Simply using a cell phone daily can cause issues with inertial navigation technology. Swinging the phone, changing the angle, or even walking in a straight line can all affect accuracy.