If you just simply google for "indoor gps" you'll see there are many companies developing these technologies. It's all very new, and usually based on WiFi triangulation, but there are others that use *all sorts* of random techniques. I looked at one that uses ambient radio tower signals. Like the TV station in the next town, and the cell tower a mile away, and all random noise they can find in the air. They claimed they could identify a 3D location inside any building as precise as 10'x10'x10' room. Some products are available now, and others just coming out.
Also - this blew me away - An intern who works for me got one of those cheap-ass Boost mobile phones for $50 and some ridiculously cheap data plan, I think he pays $5/mo. He installed a background-running app that just reads the GPS location and posts it to a website every 30 seconds or so. AKA, instant tracking device to spy on someone. Of course neither of us would use it that way, but it was cool and he showed it to me, and let me borrow it for a week to test it out. The GPS chip in that thing was so good, it could track my movements inside my home, inside my office (a 16 story concrete building)... I put it in my glovebox, I buried it under a stack of books in the trunk of my car. It never lost signal. So I will also suggest that you consider high-end GPS devices. They may actually get adequate coverage indoors, and in office buildings, to suit your needs. Unless anyone has recent personal experience with some of these indoor GPS products or companies, it's all changing and developing so fast, it's definitely a cutting-edge moving target. I think you're destined for a lot of learning curve and quickly obsolete knowledge, and plenty of legwork to get a decent understanding and solution implemented. > -----Original Message----- > From: discuss-boun...@lopsa.org [mailto:discuss-boun...@lopsa.org] On > Behalf Of da...@lang.hm > Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 2:02 AM > To: LOPSA Discuss List > Subject: [lopsa-discuss] indoor replacement for GPS? > > I am looking for something that I can use instead of GPS indoors where > GPS > can't reach. > > specifically I am looking for something that I can use as a position > locater for mapping the wifi coverage inside commercial structures. I > am > willing to reposition the components as needed while mapping, and it > only > needs to support finding/tracking the position of one user. > > I'm willing to pay a couple hundred bucks for special hardware to do > this, > but not too much (it's coming out of my pocket) > > anyone have any thoughts on how to do this? > > David Lang > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@lopsa.org > http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > http://lopsa.org/ _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lopsa.org http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
