Magnetic positioning

Magnetic positioning is an IPS (Indoor positioning system) solution based on magnetic sensor data from a smartphone used to wirelessly locate objects or people inside a building.[1]

There is currently no de facto standard for IPS, however magnetic positioning appears to be the most complete and cost effective. It offers accuracy without any hardware requirements and a relatively low total cost of ownership. According to Opus Research magnetic positioning will emerge as a “foundational” indoor location technology.[2]

Magnetic positioning was invented by Professor Janne Haverinen and Anssi Kemppainen.[3] Noticing that buildings' magnetic distortions were leading machines astray, they eventually turned the problem around and focused attention on the magnetic interferences caused by steel structures. What they found was that the disturbances inside them were consistent, creating a magnetic fingerprint unique to a building.[4]

Professor Janne Haverinen founded the company IndoorAtlas in 2012 to commercialize the magnetic positioning solution with dual headquarters in Mountain View, CA and Oulu, Finland.[5]

Advantages

– 1–2 meters accuracy

– 90% precision

– no additional infrastructure required like routers or beacons

– support for Android and iOS

References

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  1. ↑ "Global indoor self-localization based on the ambient magnetic field". ResearchGate. doi:10.1016/j.robot.2009.07.018. Retrieved 2014-08-02.
  2. ↑ Miller, Dan. "Analysis & Expertise in Conversational Commerce". Opus Research. Retrieved 2014-08-02.
  3. ↑ "Homepage of Janne Haverinen | Department of Computer Science and Engineering". Oulu.fi. Retrieved 2014-08-02.
  4. ↑ Truong, Alice (2013-09-25). "IndoorAtlas Hopes to Unlock the "Holy Grail of Advertising" With Magnetic-Field Mapping | Fast Company | Business + Innovation". Fast Company. Retrieved 2014-08-02.
  5. ↑ Clark, Liat. "Finnish startup can locate you indoors using magnetic field anomalies (Wired UK)". Wired.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-08-02.