Find your way
around more easily with a navigation app, even inside buildings:
For this,
Fraunhofer researchers use the WLAN signals indoors. © Fraunhofer IPMS
(November 3, 2015) In
large buildings, you can lose your orientation. Fraunhofer researchers have
developed an Android app that navigates through passages, corridors, rooms and
floors to the desired destination. They use WLAN to help with location. The
technology can be customized and integrated into other applications.
Large public building complexes, such as exhibition halls,
airports, shopping centers or museums, as well as hospitals and public
authority buildings are sometimes like a maze. Arrows, maps and signs are
supposed to make it clearer. But right when you enter the building for the
first time, it is often very laborious and complicated to follow them through
the maze of corridors, hallways, rooms and floors. Classic GPS-based navigation
apps do not work in enclosed spaces, because the satellite signals are
sometimes significantly disrupted by walls and ceilings.
Software evaluates WLAN signals
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic
Microsystems IPMS in Dresden, Germany have found a way to use smartphones for
navigation inside buildings too. For this they rely on WLAN: With local radio
networks, the researchers locate smartphones indoor to within about two meters.
To determine the position, the software evaluates the signal strength of the
WLAN spots. The app, which was originally developed for use in hospitals, is
based on the Android mobile phone operating system.