Indoor Location Tracking Will Be Widespread By 2013
“There are already tens of thousands of different location-aware apps for smartphones today,” said CEO of Micello Ankit Agarwal that furnishes gadget-friendly indoor maps to app-making companies. “All of those apps are going to be indoors too.”
Online and gadget-based indoor maps are just appearing themselves. In November 2011, the Google Maps developed indoor maps for Android devices which included very many houses in the USA and Japan. Another online map service, OpenStreetMap, is used by multiple applications and it works to do exactly the same thing as Google does. As those get better, developers are rapidly designing apps around the maps. By 2013, mobile gadgets will be fitted with the ability to situate, lead and sell things to people not only outdoors, via GPS, but in addition inside big-box stores like Walmart and other, malls, airports and so on.
"Big stores are single constituency that is particularly curious about apps which use indoor maps", said Josh Marti, the CEO of Point Inside, that co-operates with many stores to create different indoor apps. The easy-to-use indoor app could aid people more effortlessly find any department they need. Retailers in addition wish to come forward with the apps that offer deals according to where shoppers are located in their stores. Passing their cereal aisle when going to the dairy aisle? The indoor location-based app could surprise you with a nice two-for-one discount coupon for, let's say, raisin bran.
Using indoor map apps
"Probably all hospitals, with their branchy hallways and incalculable departments, are in addition good candidates for the usage of indoor map apps. Though most at their front desks are offering old paper maps, yet those maps are difficult to use for many people", Agarwal said. He was working with one hospital to design tablets which a barker could utilize to draw personalized maps and print them out for each guest to be able to reach the right room quickly.
"Wait for it to get the first smartphones that may come forward with the well-known “You Are Here” spots on indoor maps by 2013", Marti said. "The very first gadgets to obtain indoor-navigation aware apps can be Android-based", Josh added, "because Apple does not permit app developers to simply access their smartphones' Wi-Fi, which is vital for indoor mapping of any kind. “The reason is that they see an immense value in the indoor positioning technology. They know that Wi-Fi is the key for it,” he said. “They wish a monopoly.” He has a hope that with time, Apple will permit outside developers to instantly access the smartphone information they need to design indoor location tracking apps for iPhones and iPads.
How to protect your phone from tracking?
So you still have time to get ready for what comes really soon and be able to stop indoor navigation of your smartphone from tracking your location in case you don’t want to let the authorities spy on you even indoors. Oh, and don’t forget that your comments are always welcome here!
