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Indoor Navigation On Your Smartphone, Using the Earth's Magnetic Field
MrSeb writes "Researchers from the University of Oulu in Finland has created an indoor navigation system (IPS) that uses the Earth's innate magnetic field to ascertain your position — just like a homing pigeon or spiny lobster. According to IndoorAtlas, the company spun off by the university to market and sell the tech, its system has an accuracy of between 0.1 and 2 meters. The Finnish IPS technology is ingenious in its simplicity: Basically, every square inch of Earth emits a magnetic field — and this field is then modulated by man-made concrete and steel structures. With a magnetometer (compass), which every modern smartphone has, you can first create a magnetic field map — and then use that map to navigate the shopping mall, underground garage, airport, etc. Compared to most other IPSes, which require thousands of WiFi or Bluetooth base stations to achieve comparable accuracy, IndoorAtlas' infrastructure-free approach sounds rather awesome."
How exactly is one expected to create these maps then? Every time something metallic or magnetic is moved in the vicinity the previous map is now invalid.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
It's called a compass. It's been in use for like 1000 years.
yay....one more way for them to track me **puts on tinfoil hat**
until somebody decides to put on the microwave
that immediately had Fog of War come to mind?
Join the army they said, see the world they said, I'd rather be sailing!
Just maybe :-)
I thought that the API for a compass in a smartphone really just supplied a bearing, but I'll assume they are assuming access to the raw data that comes from the hardware.
Still, are these magnetometers anywhere close to sensitive enough? I would think they are built to be as cheap as possible. I would expect them to be only accurate enough to determine which side of the road you're facing. This application must require amazing accuracy. I'd be amazed if they can get it out of a smartphone.
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
This will be good for when I need to find the closest shitter after eating taco bell at the mall
IPS doesn't even make sense...call it magnav or something.
With a magnetometer (compass), which every modern smartphone has, you can first create a magnetic field map — and then use that map to navigate the shopping mall, underground garage, airport, etc.
Sorry, but the majority don't have a magnetometer.
uses the Earth's innate magnetic field to ascertain your position — just like a homing pigeon or spiny lobster.
I always ask myself, "how can I be more like a spiny lobster today?". Now I'll be one step close to my goal.
I can't pinpoint it exactly, but the way the phone is being held doesn't seem quite right. Like it was faked or done on a computer. Is this really just a concept video?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
What if the field reverses? It can happen anytime now.
There is just no way that one would get enough information from a magnetometer to give you the information to do this, any more than a compass in the great outdoors can tell you where you are, it can only tell you headings. Of course, there are all of the other issues that people bring up also, like metal or electrical things moving in the area and changing (effectively randomizing) the minimal information that you have. But to focus on that only ignores the greater problem, any simple vector from a magnetometer (even if it included a vector strength) can't tell you a location in 2D or 3D space. And unless you somehow magically know the correct way to orient your magnetometer when you are holding it, then just moving it as you move through the structure could give you any magnetometer direction at any point.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
...so malls are going to problematic, no? Airports? Supermarkets? Retail stores that aren't going under...?
Lol.
Perhaps they have methods for mitigating these things or they are less problematic than I expect, but just changing the shelving and orientation in a store would screw this thing up, doesn't it seem?
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wth! most places big enough to require such a thing have 'you are here' kiosks with maps on them. if they don't, just ask someone for directions. jeesh. use what the God of Evolution gave you or lose it!
I can't pinpoint it exactly, but the way the phone is being held doesn't seem quite right. Like it was faked or done on a computer. Is this really just a concept video?
The camera is fixed on the phone like they had some kind of brace mounting on his arm. It makes for a steady shot, but it doesn't look natural at all. It looks like a 3D shooter where the view is always centered on the gun.
I also noticed that when focused on the phone, the rest of the world is a blur. I'm not going to enjoy dodging people who are staring down at their phones while walking, completely oblivious to what's going on around them. It would, however, be hilarious to mess with the magnetic field enough to disrupt the navigation and see how many people you can get to walk straight into a wall.
You're correct. The scene is moving all through the store, but the hand seems locked in in one part of the picture, without any of the normal movement one would expect to see. Even if the camera were shoulder or arm mounted you would see some normal hand movement that is lacking here. This is clearly a mock-up. But that is to be expected when you are trying to sucker investors with a technology that can't really work. And, of course, I mean allegedly trying to sucker investors.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Reliable indoor positioning is probably one of the key pre-requisites to building workable augmented-reality apps like games and such. There's probably a real payoff for the long term, but maybe not for the group that invents the underlying concepts/tech, unless they find some way to see it through to applications.
...the basement. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
To be fair, you can't significantly alter the earth's magnet field with anything particularly portable... while the field strength of the earth's field is quite low compared to what we can generate artificially, the size of the field is so many orders of magnitude larger than anything man-made, that owing to how fast strength drops off with distance, I simply don't think there's too much to worry about with regards to man-made objects changing what the perceived field is unless you are within mere inches of an alternate magnetic field source.. Theoretically, at least, I think the general concept behind this is valid.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
You're correct. The scene is moving all through the store, but the hand seems locked in in one part of the picture, without any of the normal movement one would expect to see. Even if the camera were shoulder or arm mounted you would see some normal hand movement that is lacking here. This is clearly a mock-up. But that is to be expected when you are trying to sucker investors with a technology that can't really work. And, of course, I mean allegedly trying to sucker investors.
Maybe, just maybe they they didn't want everything in the shot jumping up and down like some amateur pornflick. /. really is braindead these days. Fuck, /. is braindead, let's leave it at that.
Hmmm, kinda ridiculous idea. The background noise level and jitter in the magnetic field is kinda high. For example if I turn the blower on my car fan from off to high, the car compass swings about 10 degrees. Doesn't seem like a steady or reliable, predictable phenomenon.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, what about the effect of objects that aren’t part of the original magnetic field map, such as cars, moving lifts, and electric motors? Who knows, though — perhaps the effect of these objects is negligible.
well, most everyone knows actually. the effects of even a slab of metal is significant. the effects of powered devices like a monitor, or an electric motor, or a stationary magnet are massive. anyone can see it. grab an app that displays the magnetic levels from your smart phone's sensor, and watch them fluctuate wildly as you move it past various electronic devices.
i guess it's okay though because places like malls aren't known for having electronic devices about ... oh wait. maybe they have some great technology to get around these problems, but TFA doesn't provide any inkling of that.
Whats with all of these recent indoor location articles? Cell tower trilateration and CCT cameras everywhere not orwellian enough?
I hate to break it to everyone but the Earth's magnetic field is not static and therefore can not be used to determine your position on Earth.
The magnetic north pole drifts all around Canada over a period of years and decades. The magnetic field is never standing still.
Arguing about malls distorting the earths magnetic field is pointless since the magnetic field is moving all over the place.
Make a pair of big coils, put some power through it, and you can make a big electromagnetic field. Depending on how you connect the coils, the magnetic field will have interesting properties. With simple electronics, you can vary the field strength between your coils.
I'll admit i wasn't sure exactly how to make those changes, but it would be hilarious none the less. Probably much easier to just put up a temporary wall that isn't on the phone's map. I'm sure some people would be so focused on starting at their phones that they would walk right into it. For wild animals, natural selection deals with that sort of obliviousness for any species that has predators. Sometimes I worry that technology lets us get away with being more incompetent that we should really be allowed to be.
This sounds like it might be an extension of the technology behind the Earth Inductor Compass that's been around since the early 20th century. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_inductor_compass
Uhm.. 3 of either would be fine for any reasonably small home. 4 if you want the details in 3D. I can see how a big warehouse might need more, but "thousands" for indoor navigation?
I suppose they modulate the magnetometer with a transphasic ringtone, while diverting power from the non essential functions to the positioning system, and firing a synchronized serie of photon beams trough the back facing camera's LED. To activate, just say: "Engage".
SeqBox
my phone has a couple of gyroscopes. is the error from these so bad that it can't keep track of my position while i'm inside a mall? if so, why is it there at all?
I thought the Earth's magnetic field isn't really stable, it changes slightly over time.
New things are always on the horizon
So basically they put a magnetic compass in a phone, big deal, who cares?
Its an interesting concept, but how long can the "magnetic maps" truly remain valid? One would think that not only could man made changes effect the maps (moving a trash can, new wiring, changing shelving arrangement) but the Planets magnetic field changes often due to earthquakes, solar storms, etc. The only way I could think to keep the magnetic mapping up to date would be to have employees wearing a device (smart phone, sensor, etc) which reported back an updated map periodically.