Market quests for indoor and pedestrian navigation

The Navigation and Location Summit, the biggest on the Continent, takes place at the Marriott in Berlin on June 16 and 17. Untapped markets in these areas will receive special attention. They\'re on the agenda in a presentation on pedestrian navigation, a panel discussion on indoor positioning and a workshop on GNSS applications for pedestrian navigation in urban areas.iSuppli on pedestrian navigationJérémie Bouchard from iSuppli will deliver a presentation on pedestrian navigation and moderate the follow-up panel on indoor positioning. His theme is built around untapped markets. By way of a preamble for us, he said: \"Indoor maps emerged rapidly in 2009 at start-ups such as Point Inside and Micello, and the giant, NAVTEQ, will release its first indoor content later this year. Now that the business case for pedestrian outdoor and indoor navigation is in place, it makes sense to use motion sensors to improve the accuracy of the location and navigation, enhancing the user experience.\"Motion sensing uses input from the on-board accelerometer, gyroscope and compass for dead reckoning and the pressure sensor for floor height accuracy, combined with Wi-Fi and cell triangulation. Accelerometers and compasses are already well established in smart phones, and the gyroscopes will appear in June 2010 in a Japanese phone.\"From 2012, indoor navigation will be a major driver for further adoption of motion sensors in cell phones.\" The use of inertial sensors in phones provides some interesting challenges in pedestrian navigation. For one thing, they weren\'t initially designed for positioning, according to InsideGNSS.These sensors were designed to use micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and demand exacting, precise micro-fabrication technology. However, InsideGNSS reported that MEMS \"offer great possibilities for indoor and outdoor navigation in an autonomous and independent manner.\"One of the questions Jérémie will address in his presentation is how and why pedestrian navigation must differ from the more familiar outdoor and driving GPS navigation. To put this issue into perspective in anticipation of Jérémie\'s talk, a recent ABI Research study on alternative positioning technologies concluded that Cell-ID and Wi-Fi combined with A-GPS will provide 25 percent of all positioning solutions by 2014.ABI added: \"The future will be about hybrid positioning systems, combining A-GPS, Cell-ID, Wi-Fi, cellular, motion sensors, and even TV broadcast and proximity technologies such as Bluetooth, NFC and RFID.\"One thing appears to very clear from the ABI study - any number of next-generation location-based services (LBS) applications will become commonplace in indoor environments where GPS becomes less reliable. These apps will cover social networking, local search, advertising and geo-tagging, which are all enjoying a surge in use and popularity.To whet your appetite further, these are the topics Jérémie will cover at the Summit: What\'s driving - and hindering - pedestrian navigationHow to integrate and monetise pedestrian navigation with location-based social networking, indoor positioning, people tracking and pedestrian-specific POIs Will pedestrian navigation become the natural USP for mobile navigation?Why will pedestrian navigation need to differentiate itself from regular navigation? How are map providers responding to the potential of pedestrian navigation? Who will win the race for multi-modal content data? How do you extract and integrate transportation data to create multi-modal functionality?Panel discussion on mapping & navigating Jérémie will moderate the panel, which will examine opportunities and applications. For some pre-Summit prep, here\'s what\'s being done by the indoor map providers he mentioned in his preamble for this article.Point Inside has added real-time indoor auto-location by including its proprietary SmartFix in its mall navigation app, Indoor Smart Map. The SmartFix algorithm determines the precision of the auto-positioning indoors. If the auto-location isn\'t accurate enough, the user is prompted to pinpoint the location manually by selecting a nearby landmark. Micello integrates social networking with a database of shopping malls, college campuses, convention centres and other places that attract a lot of pedestrian traffic. Ankit Agarwal, founder and CEO of Micello, said: \"The maps today bring you to the door. We take you inside. It\'s the last mile, the uncharted territory. We are building the foundation for indoor location-based services and creating an eco-system similar to what\'s happening in the outdoor space.\"Ovi Maps in their latest update from Nokia and NAVTEQ include Wi-Fi functionality. Nokia has been researching and testing indoor navigation since last year. Christof Hellmis, Nokia\'s VP, Product, Location Services, has stated: \"I can see a time when public places of interest such as shopping malls will be mapped and available on Ovi. This would open up a new dimension in advertising, because vendors would be able to push messages to people as they walked past their stores. Indoor mapping could also be useful for museums and general places of interest.\"This is what\'s on the Summit agenda for the panel discussion, which will also consider those untapped markets:Identifying applications and business models to monetise indoor navigation in locations such as shopping centres, campuses, theme parks, museums and public areas.Where are the workable business models to profit from indoor navigation?Who will take responsibility for mapping these places? Why should traditional navigation players care about indoor navigation?How soon will the giants enter this space?Which will be the best fit across the range of indoor location services? Will Wi-Fi win?How fast is investment in indoor positioning technology driving indoor navigation and mapping?What comes first, the map or the app?Indoor advertising: What will it take for location-based advertising to work profitably indoors?TelematicsPRO and MetroNAVThe TelematicsPRO workshop on pedestrian navigation is a great opportunity to get the most informed intelligence on what Europe\'s Galileo navigation satellite system may offer to manufacturers, developers and other segments of the mobile industry. TelematicsPRO is managing product testing for private enterprises who want to make the most of Galileo.TelematicsPRO is using the Metropolitan Navigation test platform, or MetroNAV, an open system for mobile navigation services. MetroNAV is a market promotion and testing platform for precompetitive applications, projects and products focussing on traffic management, geoinformation and tourism.The Galileo system is planned to become operational from end of 2013. With a clear launch date in sight, the development of Galileo-based applications and products becomes more important.Join the workshop at the Summit and explore:How does pedestrian navigation differ from vehicle navigation?What specific challenges need to be overcome?What impact will advances in positioning technology have on indoor location and pedestrian navigation?The market promotion of GNSS applications: To what extent they match the needs of urban areas.The concept of seamless navigation (from GPS, WLAN and RFID): Understanding the requirement for reliable data transmission and high-quality features.Positioning and plausibility strategies for areas with a non-liaison to satellites Understanding the approved concept for product and system tests.Report on additional test applications in the Galileo test bedsStar line-up of speakersAny Who\'s Who of the mobile industry would include all of the speakers you\'ll be able to hear at the Summit: Jérémie Bouchaud, Director - Principal Analyst MEMS, iSuppli Deutschland GmbHIan Sheret, Consultant, Polymath Insight Stuart Strickland, Director, GPS & Hybrid Location Strategy, Atheros Communications Philippe Sayerse, Sales Director, Polestar Ruslan Budnik, General Manager, Spirit TelecomClaudio Schapsis, Founder, LBS StrategiesHenk Hoff, Board Member, OpenStreetMap FoundationChristof Hellmis, VP Product, Location, NokiaTed Morgan, CEO and Co-Founder, SkyhookStephen Deadman, Group Privacy Officer and Head of Legal - Privacy, Security & Content Standards, Vodafone Group Services LimitedSam Critchley, Co-Founder & Vice President - Products, Gypsii Velipekka Kuoppala, VP Sales and Marketing, Bluesky PositioningSara Murray, Founder and Managing Director, buddiMartin Worth, Director, TrackaphoneChairman: Michael Sandrock, Chairman, Telematics PROTo get a better insight into the developing world of how mobile is changing the location and navigation industries, check out the Navigation & Location Summit Europe on June 15-16 in Berlin.Article reprinted from TheWhereBusiness.com - see the link below.

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