Determining Location When Indoors

Determining Location When Indoors

Problem:

     Mobile devices generally use Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) to determine a location; however, GPS requires communication with satellites and such communication may be limited or of poor quality when not outdoors. An inexpensive, reliable mechanism to provide location information when indoors may be desirable. Applications such as navigation and location-aware social applications, among others, may benefit from accurate indoor location information.

Solution:

     A reliable and accurate method of establishing location indoors is provided herein. Example embodiments may use printed location labels (including latitude, longitude, and elevation), RFID tags, and/or Bluetooth® beacons (or other near-field communication beacons) attached to fixed points within an indoor environment. A mobile device user may scan a printed label or detect a beacon via near-field communication to determine a location of the mobile device. The location may be made available at a software level such that any application requiring location may use the location established through the indoor locating system. In some cases, an application on the mobile device may use this location information instead of GPS data. This location may be used in lieu of GPS information when GPS satellite signals are weak or unreliable. In some cases, the application on the mobile device may operate the same regardless o fwhether it is using locally read information data...