Fraunhofer IPMS Develops Indoor Navigation System
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Fraunhofer IPMS Develops Indoor Navigation System

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS, Germany, have developed a navigation system that works indoors, just like GPS in a car, and leads users to their destinations quickly and easily. The software developed by Fraunhofer IPMS currently supports Android 2.3. and can be used as an application on a smartphone or tablet PC, for example.

The display shows a previously defined menu of possible destinations such as doctors’ offices, examination and patient rooms or lavatories. Following a successful selection, the current position is determined, and the shortest route to the destination is shown in a graphic while the position is constantly updated.

Head developer Hans-Jürgen Holland explained it is similar to how a car navigation system works. The route guidance can be stopped at anytime, and a new destination can be chosen by the user. He emphasises the advantages of the system: existing systems work with their own hardware, which in turn makes special devices necessary, while his team wants to solve the challenge using smartphones and standard WLAN. The prerequisite for operation is a very good, gapless WLAN network provided by the Swiss company LPS-Services SA.

Thanks to the indoor navigation system developed by the team at Fraunhofer IMPS, large facilities with countless buildings, halls and rooms will no longer seem like labyrinths.

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