A ideia é usar os sensores de campo magnético (bastante comuns nos smartphones modernos) para mapear as diferenças no campo magnético e determinar a posição de acordo com o campo medido.
Researchers from the University of Oulu in Finland has created an indoor navigation system (IPS) that uses the Earth’s innate magnetic field to ascertain your position — just like a homing pigeon or spiny lobster. According to IndoorAtlas, the company spun off by the university to market and sell the tech, its system has an accuracy of between 0.1 and 2 meters.
The Finnish IPS technology is ingenious in its simplicity. Basically, every square inch of Earth emits a magnetic field — and this field is then modulated by man-made concrete and steel structures. If you have a map of these magnetic fields, and a magnetometer (compass), accurate navigation is very simple indeed — and all you need to make a magnetic field map, or to navigate one, is a modern smartphone[...]
O principal objectivo é permitir a navegação no interior de edifícios, mas não será demais imaginar um sistema de navegação que integre GPS, sinais rádio e agora os sensores magnéticos.
Na verdade, GPS e sensores magnéticos já estão quase em todo o lado!
Tudo isto integrado com os mapas que já conhecemos, mais os mapas de interior que já começam a surgir.
Tempos porreiros, estes.
