Grizzly Analytics Blog

Virtually all R&D in indoor location positioning falls into a few categories. Many systems determine location based on Wi-Fi signals, either using fingerprinting or using triangulation. Many are using sensor fusion (also called inertial navigation), tracking location movements using device sensors. And an increasing number are using Bluetooth Low Energy beacons, where devices track their locations based on signals from dedicated beacons that are deployed around sites, again using either fingerprinting or triangulation. With over 50 start-up companies in our comprehensive report on indoor location technology , and more starting-up every week, virtually all are using one or more of these approaches. Enter DecaWave , a fabless semiconductor company developing indoor location positioning based on 802.15.4a-standard UWB (ultra-wide band) wireless technology. DecaWave's solution is hardware-based, so it's not something you can download to your phone today. Their chip is going t...

Chip maker Broadcom  just announced that they are licensing metropolitan indoor location technology from USA-based NextNav . NextNav, one of over 50 companies developing technology for indoor location positioning , has developed unique technology for enabling indoor positioning in metropolitan and urban settings. Their radio beacons are deployed throughout cities, and their signals can penetrate buildings and enable indoor positioning in places that GPS can't reach. Because they are deploying their beacons throughout cities, they have much broader coverage than Wi-Fi or BLE based approaches. They offer positioning in 3 dimensions, including altitude. The press releases indicate that Broadcom is buying a commercial license to NextNav's technology, enabling them to add support for NextNav beacons to their chips, but are not acquiring the company itself. Broadcom already offers chips that support a wide variety of indoor location positioning technologies, including W-...