Indoor Navigation Workgroup

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is to form an OGC Technical Committee Standards Working Group (SWG) to advance the candidate OGC IndoorGML Standard. The OGC members invite the public to comment on the SWG charter and will consider comments received before 10th February 2012. This SWG aims to provide a common schema framework for interoperability between indoor navigation applications, which cover a wide spectrum of application areas such as indoor LBS, indoor web map services, indoor emergency control, guiding services for visually handicapped persons in indoor space, and indoor robotics. Several commercial services for indoor spatial information have... (read more)

2012-01-31 12:00:00

Indoor Navigation Using Smartphones

Assessing the Quality of Integrated Sensors

Nowadays, navigation systems have become an integral part of everyday life. But since GNSS-based systems do not work in locations where no GNSS signals can be received, a navigation solution can offer an interesting solution in such places – such as at congresses, in shopping malls, at train stations or in large office buildings. The HafenCity University in Hamburg, Germany, started exploring the possibilities of indoor navigation solutions in 2009, and especially in conjunction with smartphones since 2011. In order to devise a successful indoor navigation solution, it is important to understand the quality of smartphones’ integrated sensors. This article... (read more)

2013-01-29 06:25:35

OGC Indoor Navigation Feedback

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) seeks comments on an OGC discussion paper, 'Requirements and Space-Event Modelling for Indoor Navigation'. Just as digital technologies such as GPS and web mapping mediate our awareness of outdoor space, new indoor location and sensor technologies are beginning to mediate our awareness of indoor space.The discussion paper presents a model for indoor navigation that simultaneously addresses route planning, multiple localisation methods, navigation contexts, and carious types of locomotion. Connecting indoor location with outdoor location is becoming a critical requirement for emergency and disaster response, security, facilities planning and management, real estate finance, insurance,... (read more)

2011-04-12 09:36:17

Apple Acquires Indoor Navigation Startup

Silicon Valley-based indoor navigation company WiFiSLAM has been purchased by Apple. The US information technology giant reportedly paid USD20 million for the two-year-old startup. WiFiSLAM has developed methods for mobile apps to detect a phone user’s indoor location using Wi-Fi signals. The main product of WiFiSLAM smartphone is a location-based mobile app that allows users to pinpoint their location (and the location of their friends) in real-time to 2.5m accuracy using only ambient Wi-Fi signals that are already present in buildings. WiFiSLAM is a small company with only a couple of employees, interestingly composed of a mix of former Google... (read more)

2013-03-25 11:33:59

Indoor Location Technology Experience at Indoor Navigation Seminar

UK-based CSR’s SiRFusion platform was featured alongside STMicroelectronics (ST) MEMS technology in a live, hands-on demonstration of CSR’s industry-leading indoor location and navigation capabilities at an Indoor Navigation Seminar at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) in Taipei, Taiwan, on 1 August 2012, assisting a museum guide tour app on a smartphone. During the event, attendees and leading members of Taiwan’s media community had the opportunity to personally navigate through the museum’s exhibits using a standard smartphone equipped with ST MEMS and CSR’s SiRFusion platform. The indoor navigation application from VisioGlobe on the smartphone is designed to tell the user... (read more)

2012-08-02 11:30:15

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... (read more)

2013-03-08 10:00:07

Philips Launches LED Lighting for Indoor Navigation

Dutch diversified technology company Philips is piloting an intelligent lighting system that adds a geomatics dimension to personalised shopping. The indoor GPS solution uses intelligent LED in-store lighting to communicate location-based information to shoppers via a smartphone app. The lighting communicates with the app to send relevant special offers and information to shoppers depending on where they are in the store. The lighting system, which is currently being piloted with retailers, was demonstrated at Euroshop 2014, the world’s leading retail show in Düsseldorf, Germany, taking place from 16 to 20 February. With the connected retail lighting system Philips aims to... (read more)

2014-02-19 09:43:04

OGC Adopts IndoorGML Standard for Encoding Indoor Navigation Data

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) membership has approved the OGC IndoorGML Encoding Standard. This OGC standard specifies an open abstract data model and XML schema for indoor spatial information. The driving requirement for IndoorGML is navigation. IndoorGML provides a coherent, technology-neutral description of a building’s navigable spaces that can be used by any number of navigation app developers and platform providers. Because IndoorGML is an application schema of the OGC Geography Markup Language (GML) Encoding Standard, it enables easy integration of indoor navigation and outdoor navigation systems. IndoorGML’s developers anticipate that this will benefit emergency responders, shoppers, airport visitors and... (read more)

2015-01-21 09:18:41

New Project to Develop Leading Indoor Navigation System

RNF Digital Innovation, UK, has unveiled an ambitious new GBP702,000 project to develop a globally groundbreaking indoor navigation system, after securing funding from the Technology Strategy Board. The indoor navigation system project, including research and development, is scheduled to take place over the next 18 months. The Leamington-based mobile app developer has secured a GBP500,000 grant from the Technology Strategy Board, the UK’s Innovation Agency, to develop an indoor navigation service using smartphones, tablets and i-beacons that can be used across a range of businesses including supermarkets, hospitals and leisure parks. The further GBP202,000 investment will come through RNF Digital Innovation... (read more)

2014-08-25 12:05:38

OGC Calls for Participation in Indoor Mapping and Navigation Pilot

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has released a Call for Participation to solicit proposals for the OGC Indoor Mapping and Navigation Pilot initiative. The Indoor Mapping and Navigation Pilot, sponsored by the Public Safety Communications Research Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will create and advance solutions to complex geospatial challenges related to indoor mapping and navigation for first responders. First responders typically survey high-risk facilities in their jurisdiction at least once per year as part of a preplanning process. Outputs from preplanning are often in report form, and first responders may annotate available floor plans... (read more)

2018-06-20 09:48:06