Using Magnetic Fields to Improve Smartphone Location Accuracy →
The technology is accurate to between 10 centimeters and two meters, uses your phone's compass, and no upfront infrastructure is needed:
Indoor Atlas's technology works by analyzing the magnetic field inside a building. The structure of a building causes disturbances to the Earth's magnetic field. Once these disturbances are mapped, people can be pinpointed within them through their phone's magnetometer. Indoor Atlas's product arose from research findings that showed the signature magnetic field within buildings was sufficiently varied and stable to be used for navigation, says company founder and computer science professor Janne Haverinen.
If this works as advertised, the possibilities are endless. An app could route you around a store based on your shopping list, automatically checking off the items as you go. Or let you find exactly where your friend is in a busy shopping mall. And businesses don't have to drop the dough to fill the place with WiFi or NFC antennas. I often use the excellent aisle411 app for in-store navigation at my local Kroger. But the lack of a "blue dot" showing my present location within in the store results in me staring too long at my phone, trying not to block the isle.
This would dramatically improve geofencing too. I constantly take advantage of the nearby contexts features of Omnifocus for iPhone, such as setting reminders for leaving or arriving at my work and home. It's also great for setting specific searches as locations, such as "Grocery Store" or "Walgreens" (I look forward to giving the just released, "iOS Reminders on streoids" app, Checkmark, a spin too). There's a constant vexation with this geofencing though. To save battery, it doesn't use full GPS. So it isn't accurate enough, especially indoors. I find myself only setting "arriving" reminders, because the "leaving" reminder to grab the package I need to take to FedEx doesn't end up going off until I'm already in my car and heading down the road. But add integration with this Indoor Atlas technology, and the alert could go off the second I step out the front door. We're at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the potential of geofencing, and as a impressively forgetful person, I can't wait to see this take off.