Having been operational for around three months, the trial of a mobile indoor positioning service at the Kamppi Shopping Centre in Helsinki, Finland, is attracting an increasing number of users and is about to enter its second phase.
The service provides cell phone users with indoor maps of the shopping centre together with discount vouchers and information services. Those electing to take part in the trial - which they can opt into by downloading an application on to a S60 handset, can also share their location with friends via an SMS link.
Commenting on the trial, Christian Prehofer, senior manager and research project leader at Nokia Research Centre, said the trial of mobile indoor positioning was not only a unique large scale experiment but aimed to demonstrate the capability and potential uses for indoor positioning services. "The Kamppi Shopping Centre provides us with an excellent place to test this, and the results from the trial so far have been extremely positive. Since March the indoor maps, vouchers and information service attracted over 30,000 hits and had more than 6,500 unique users."
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