Skip to main content

Sensor-fusion indoor location system in over 30 malls in Singapore

SingTel just deployed indoor mapping and navigation from Swedish start-up SenionLab in over 30 shopping malls in Singapore, with 20 more in planning, in the biggest single deployment we've seen yet of customized indoor location technology.

The most significant aspect of this deployment is that this is one of the first commercial deployments of indoor location technology that uses a new technology approach called "sensor fusion," which uses sensors in smartphones (gyroscope, compass, accelerometer, ...) to track location by sensing the phone's movements.

Most indoor location systems determine location by measuring the signals of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots or cellular antennas, but this risks looking choppy as the phone waits for the radio signals to change to detect the next place it is. Sensing motion using phone sensors makes the system work more smoothly, regardless of radio signal details.  (The SenionLab solution does use Wi-Fi signals as well, to compensate for sensor errors, but their focus is sensor fusion.)

Sensor fusion motion sensing is not just a little techie detail, it's very important for the market, for a few reasons:
  1. Sensor fusion motion sensing is accurate and fast - Look at the videos below, you'll see impressively smooth indoor location tracking.
  2. Sensor fusion can run on iPhones - Many indoor location applications can't run on iPhones, because iOS doesn't give applications the Wi-Fi received signal strength data that they need for indoor location positioning.  But sensor fusion can in principle run on iPhone.  The SenionLab solution is being launched by SingTel only on Android, but Senion Lab is developing sensor fusion for iPhones as well.  We hope to see sensor fusion indoor location systems running on iPhones soon.
  3. Sensor fusion is a hot up-and-coming approach - It's been researched by Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung, Motorola, CSR, Broadcom, STMicroelectronics and many other major mobile and chip companies.  There are also several other start-up companies bringing sensor fusion technology to market. We expect more action soon in the area of sensor fusion for indoor location, both deployments and company acquisitions.
Sensor fusion and all the other approaches being researched and developed for indoor location are explained in our comprehensive report on indoor location technology. For sites interested in deploying indoor location systems, we have a report that focuses on indoor location solutions available now.  The reports cover more than 30 start-up companies and research by over 20 major mobile companies.

For SingTel this is part of a huge effort to reinvent themselves with mobile and multimedia innovation.  They just announced a mobile payments initiative, they recently purchased a mobile advertising agency, they just launched a system for planning and coordinating group activities, they acquired a social network mobile picture company, they've released mobile location-based business search and bookings, and they're in the market for more innovative start-ups to acquire.  They seem an ideal partner for SenionLab's bringing innovative sensor-based indoor location technology to market.

Here's a video of the SenionLab solution in action in one of the shopping malls:




And here's a demo that Grizzly Analytics saw of SenionLab technology at MWC 2012:



Of course, the real significance of this deployment will come from user response - will it deliver features that users will want? Will it work smoothly and effectively?  Time will tell......


Popular posts from this blog

Finding indoor location tech, and fans, at MWC 2017

Over 100,000 people are now planning to attend the 2017 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, in February. Many will flock to the newest devices, many to the keynote speeches from market leaders, and many to the latest tech from a huge variety of exhibitors. But how does anyone find all the tech they want to see? Anyone who has been to MWC in the past will tell you that there is no way to be sure you're seeing all that you want to see. Anyone interested in indoor location technology now has a solution. The Grizzly Analytics Guide to Indoor Location Technology at MWC2017 will list all the companies at MWC that are demonstrating, presenting or talking about indoor location tech. (Obviously we may miss one, but since we've reported on indoor location tech from over 200 companies , we expect to be fairly comprehensive.) The guide will be organized by technology type and also by MWC hall number, so you can plan your time accordingly. If you are exhibiting i...
Read more

The year indoor location will truly take off

For years I've been writing sentences like "this will be the year that indoor location will explode into the market." I, and many others, have been expecting indoor location technology to enable the huge range of location-enabled apps, which currently work only outside where GPS signals are available, to work inside. But until now the promise of indoor location has remained a promise. But if we look at the reasons for this, we'll see that it is about to change. 2017 and 2018 are poised to be the years that the challenges keeping indoor location from going mainstream will be solved. First is accuracy. Most indoor location technologies until a year or so ago had accuracy in the range of 4 to 8 meters. This sounds good in principle, and in fact is better than GPS in many cases. But GPS systems are able to use road details to hide their inaccuracies, so that the blue dot seems to follow your driving car almost perfectly. But indoors, this sort of inaccuracy means y...
Read more

Indoor Location, GeoFencing and Retail (Updated w/ video)

We've written a lot about indoor location technology , which is bringing location services indoors where GPS doesn't work. And we've written more recently about GeoFencing , a new location technology that enables smartphones to display content or take other actions when entering a specified area. And a few weeks ago we wrote about a company that was bringing the two together . Now Aisle411 has entered the ring, adding GeoFencing to their indoor solution . And they're bringing GeoFencing to life in the retail store industry . Aisle411's solution lets you navigate your way around a store to find specific products on the shelves. You can even enter your whole shopping list, or the items you need for a recipe, and the app will guide you around the store to buy everything you need quickly.   And here's where the GeoFencing comes in:  As you near certain products, you'll get offers for related products on your smartphone screen. They might be as s...
Read more