http://indoorlbs.com/Local_Positioning_Systems_Oct06.htm
Indoor Positioning: New Solutions for Challenging Applications This issue is dedicated to exploring the claims, theories, and realities of what GPS/Galileo can and cannot do. Location must be carried out in all the environments covered by the communication service, including the most constraining areas such as deep indoor environments where GPS lacks. There are plenty of reasons why GPS-like reception indoors might be useful. Sex-offences take place mostly indoors. Some people might want to know where the laptop is located, or the car that's been stolen (and is now parked in a garage) - coupled with a GSM module or other transmitter. Locating parts on a large warehouse could be done that way as well, rather than relying on expensive floor cabling. Your granny might fall down the stairs when no-one's at home and her beeper will work wherever she is, not just at home. There are several commercially deployed Local Positioning Systems (LPS) today (and many others in development) that either compliment or replace GPS. Nonetheless, GPS and Galileo are being improved and designed to compensate for the present GPS limitations -- indoor localization. The Bush administration announced the availability of new GPS capabilities; accuracy and reliability upgrades are taking place thanks to the new signal-known as L2C that is transmitted with a higher effective power so GPS receivers work “better” in urban areas and indoors. The reality is that you would have to re-negotiate the laws of physics (or maybe say, "well it's only a theory") to get GPS to work indoors. The fact is that users who need greater accuracy and indoor positioning integrity will need augmentation services, such as the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), and similar European and Japanese systems, the Local Area Augmentation System, commercial augmentation services, and advanced processing services. These services (will?) allow millimeter-level accuracy. SiRF already claims that with SirfstarIII, they have 200,000 correlators, giving them the ability to find satellite signals in almost any kind of urban environment (even indoors.) Beyond augmentation systems, current studies are directed on the hybridation or transfer possibilities between GNSS and other systems. One example is the hybridation of GNSS with inertial navigation systems. UWB technology is being considered as a good solution for deep indoors. This new research domain promises location and communication capabilities and can be envisaged as an indoor local element for Galileo. Best Regards, Kris Kolodziej Editor, Local Positioning Systems (LPS) Newsletter --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TELECOM-CITIES Current searchable archives (Feb. 1, 2006 to present) at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Old searchble archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
