The first in our blog coverage of MWC 2013 is SK Telecom's indoor location demo. Grizzly Analytics has been analyzing indoor location positioning R&D for years, and it's good to see it reaching market, with many start-up companies, phone makers, chip makers and telecom operators showing technologies and solutions.
SK Telecom's solution, shown in the video below, shows the user's location on a 3D map, and updates the location smoothly as the phone moves around the area. Their solution also includes GeoFencing, whereby information can pop up on the screen when the user gets to a particular place.
Their indoor positioning is achieved using beacons, dedicated radio devices deployed around the area covered. Their beacons use Bluetooth to communicate with the phones, and the phones calculate their position based on the signals received from the beacons. The beacons also define the GeoFences for information pop-ups.
Like many solutions reaching market, SK Telecom's solution also analyzes the places that people move and stop, to give site owners hard data about which areas interest people, which paths people take as they move around, and so on.
All in all, the technology looks solid, although we were obviously seeing it in an idealized demo setting. Their solution does require deploying beacons, which may be a downside for some, but they appear to enable good quality indoor positioning.
Here's our video of their technology in action:
To learn more about these technologies, see the Grizzly Analytics in-depth reports on indoor location positioning and GeoFencing. You can contact us at info@grizzlyanalytics.com.