Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from June, 2014

Innovative indoor location technologies based on sound and light - from MWC 2014

Going through my pictures and videos from MWC 2014, there are two innovative indoor location positioning technologies that I haven't written about. Both are still at an early stage, and it's not yet clear how they will compete or integrate with indoor location technology already developed by the more than 130 companies in the area . But bottom line, it's great to see new innovative approaches continue to be researched. The first is from MTI , in Tokyo, who has developed location positioning technology based on inaudible sound waves. Their beacons emit sonic waves at around 20kHz, which people cannot hear but phone microphones can pick up. Smartphones used the sound waves they "hear" to trilaterate their positions. The key point is that they can do so without using any radio technology, using only their microphones. As you can see in the video below, their system enables smartphones to track their location with high precision. This video was taken in a very cro