14 DAY TRIAL // GPS, Global Positioning System, is a satellite-based travel aide technology that shows people where to go and how.
Researchers have been trying to create something that can enable similar direction assistance inside buildings.
Cambridge Consultants, a UK, Cambridge-based company, claims to have developed such a technology, one that only needs normal gadget components like magnetometers, gyroscopes and accelerometers.
Basically, a chipset runs a special Bayesian algorithm that maps a location directly or sends the info to a remote system.
Firefighters and hospital workers are the first beneficiaries that came to mind.
According to Cambridge Consultants, the technology can easily be embedded inside gadgets. The location is mapped with an accuracy of within approximately 1% of the distance traveled.
“It could be used to help locate firefighters in smoke-filled buildings, for example, or to pinpoint the closest doctor in a hospital during an emergency – or to track offenders during home curfews,” said Geoff Smithson, technology director, sensing systems, at Cambridge Consultants.