Indoor-location company sensewhere won a U.S. patent for technology that enables consumer devices to automatically geo-reference electromagnetic signal sources indoors using signal sources generated by Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Near Field Communications (NFC) or cell sites. Such signals go into sensewhere's proprietary database, which continuously updates and cross references data to improve the accuracy of its indoor positioning over time.
"Our Locating Electromagnetic Signal Sources patent enables a global indoor positioning database that can be updated dynamically and will adapt quickly to changing environments. The sensewhere crowdsourced solution provides a much cheaper, much faster (in roll-out terms), much more adaptive and, most importantly, potentially universal indoor location solution when compared to sensewhere's competitors in this space," said sensewhere CEO Rob Palfreyman.
Source: Sensewhere
The company contends a major selling point of its technology is that it does not require installation of beacons or manual fingerprints to deliver indoor location information. The use of beacons that employ a low-energy version of Bluetooth technology for indoor location is advocated by numerous companies, including Estimote, Mobiquity and SAP. Further, Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) last week announced the commercial release of its Gimbal-brand proximity beacons through its Qualcomm Retail Solutions subsidiary, and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has already deployed iBeacons in its own stores and has been working with Major League Baseball and Macy's to employ the technology.
According to sensewhere, which began as a 2009 spin-out from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, its technology promises accuracy of 10 meters or less in indoor locations.
For more:
- see this sensewhere release
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