Broadcom delivers on-chip GeoFencing and indoor positioning

We've talked a lot about GeoFencing recently. GeoFencing is the technology behind location-based reminders and location-based promotions, but more importantly, it transforms mobile apps to being proactive based on location, instead of acting only when invoked by users. GeoFencing is being researched and developed for indoor location applications, mobile app discovery, and more.

But GeoFencing brings technical challenges. Constantly monitoring a phone's location to see when it enters or leaves a GeoFence drains the CPU and the battery. Checking only every minute risks not catching a GeoFence crossing in time. Additionally, GeoFencing needs to integrate GPS, indoor location systems, and other location positioning methods, depending on the phone's location and capabilities.

To answer these challenges, Broadcom has just released a GNSS chip (supporting GPS and other location systems) that includes built-in hardware-based GeoFencing. Their aim is to support GeoFencing without battery drain, with the hard work being done by the chip, not software.

We predicted in our comprehensive GeoFencing report that GeoFencing support would move to chips, and reported there on GeoFencing research by Qualcomm and other chip makers. With their new chip, Broadcom has staked a claim in this huge new area. Their chip integrates GeoFencing with not only GPS, but also Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Wi-Fi, sensor fusion, Near Field Communication (NFC) and other location positioning approaches.

Broadcom says that they will be showing their location innovations at MWC next week.

For more on GeoFencing, see our comprehensive report on ongoing R&D in the area, which enables you to learn about developments before they reach market. Also of interest is our comprehensive report on indoor location positioning technologies.

Intel demos indoor location technology in new Wi-Fi chips at MWC 2015

Intel made several announcements at MWC 2015, including a new chipset for wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi) in mobile devices. This new chipset, the 8270, include in-chip support for indoor location positioning. Below we explain their technology and show a video of it in action. With this announcement, Intel joins Broadcom, Qualcomm and other chip makers in moving broad indoor location positioning into mobile device hardware.

The transition of indoor location positioning into chips is a trend identified in the newest Grizzly Analytics report on Indoor Location Positioning Technologies, released the week before MWC 2015. By moving indoor location positioning from software into hardware, chips such as Intel's enable location positioning to run continuously and universally, without using device CPU, and with less power consumption.

Intel's technology delivers 1-3 meter accuracy, using a technique called multilateration, generating a new location estimate every second. While 1-3 meter …

33 Indoor Location Technologies at Mobile World Congress 2017

The number of companies exhibiting indoor location technologies at the 2017 Mobile World Congress (MWC) skyrocketed to 33!

Before MWC started, we released our Guide to Indoor Location at MWC, with 23 companies:

During the conference we notified our guide recipients of 10 other indoor location exhibitors that we saw. (Sign up here to receive our guide and to be on our mailing list for next year's MWC.)

This is many more indoor location related exhibits that previous years. The area is growing by leaps and bounds! Our recent report on indoor location technologies analyzed and profiled almost 200 companies!

Here are some videos, so you can see the technologies in action, followed by a list of the other indoor location companies that were at MWC.

First up is Philips Lighting, with high-accuracy indoor location positioning based on LED light modulation and visible light communication (VLC) technology:

Next comes Estimote, makers of Bluetooth (BLE) beacons, who introduced self-mapping b…

Ultra-Wideband Poised to Enter Smartphones

Recent years have seen a constant increase in the speed at which software innovations reach market. One day’s new concept can be the next day’s innovative mobile application, the following day’s ten competing mobile applications, and the day after that’s built-in phone feature.
In hardware, however, innovation tends to go slower. Addition of new hardware chips or components to smartphones, for example, are a constant worry for smartphone manufacturers, who need to be 100% certain that the new innovation won’t in some way hurt the other functions and components of the phone.
Does adding a new chip affect in any way the electrical signals between the other chips? Does a new wireless component affect the radio waves of the core phone or wireless components? Do signals to or from a new antenna hurt the performance of other antennas in the device?
Early cellphones and smartphones often had concerns of this sort. Some early smartphones did not include vibrate-mode because the shaking int…

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