Services that track your position via your cellphone can locate the nearest post office or pizza parlor or indicate which of your friends are nearby, but they don't work indoors.
Researchers from Tartu University in Estonia, the University of Toronto and Intel Research Seattle are aiming to change that. They have developed an indoor localization system that picks up cellphone signals. The ability to track people room by room is a key requirement for ubiquitous computing, allowing, for example, co-workers to find each other easily and location-specific information to be delivered to a person's cellphone.
The system uses Global System for Mobile telecommunications (GSM) technology that transmits communications to cellphones using the six strongest signals from base station antennas. The system uses as many as 29 other signals from base station antennas that are too far away to be useful for communications but can be used to help identify the location of a cellphone.
The method is as accurate as using indoor wireless communications networks for localization -- about 5 meters -- and offers three advantages: it uses widely available signals, ubiquitous cellphones, and works in buildings with no power.
Via TRN Research
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