Dirk Elias

Finally, a solution that allows accurate indoor navigation with existing smartphones! ULF-MC will enable you to navigate indoors and receive location-based information relevant to you and your friends. It is as easy as using satellite-based navigation today. By extending outdoor navigation systems with simple, low-cost infrastructure for indoor areas, ULF-MC provides you with exact positions and related information via modulated magnetic fields and the mobile internet. The system is based on relative location IDs that are transferred to absolute positions involving the last GNSS fix. This technology has been designed for use on existing smartphones through utilisation of their threeaxis hall sensors (electronic compasses). ULF-MC’s primary application areas include:

  • Indoor navigation
  • Mobile payment apps for POS & ATM
  • Individualised advertising

Though designed for indoor use by humans, ULF-MC can also be used to extend the reach of GNSS to tunnels for car navigation or to increase outdoor accuracy related to points of interest (e.g. for blind people). The technology has been tested and a demo is under development. A patent is pending in Europe and the United States.

“We were delighted to win the Galileo Masters in 2012. It has helped us a lot in getting in touch with a very significant amount of companies to discuss future products that could make use of ULF-MC. Best of all, winning the competition has been our ticket to joining an alliance of companies seeking to achieve more standardization in the field of indoor positioning systems, which we consider the most important step in bringing about a broad implementation of seamless indoor navigation in the future!”

Contact:
dirk.elias@fraunhofer.pt
www.fraunhofer.pt, www.fe.up.pt