Indoor Positioning - Everything You Need to Know

Indoor positioning systems are experiencing an enormous boom in popularity, powered by the increasing performance, cost-effectiveness, and user demand for such technology. In this guide, we’ll explore everything you’ll need to know when embarking upon a journey to understand indoor location more thoroughly, including many of the common questions we at Pointr have become used to fielding in our decade as market-leaders in the space.

• What is indoor positioning?
• How does indoor positioning work?
• How accurate does indoor positioning need to be?
• Why is an IPS important?
• What are the most popular positioning technologies?
• What density of sensors are needed for high accuracy indoor blue dot?
• What types of buildings typically use indoor location?
• What sets Pointr's indoor positioning apart?

What is indoor positioning?

Indoor positioning is, simply put, the ability to pinpoint a device or sensor’s location accurately when in an indoor environment. Also referred to as indoor location or indoor blue dot (after the commonly used icon to show a user’s position), indoor positioning aims to replicate the functionality of outdoor positioning systems such as Google Maps, but without GPS, which typically powers outdoor positioning systems but that generally can’t work effectively indoors, thus necessitating the need for an alternative solution.

Indoor positioning, once a system has been built, can take a variety of forms and be displayed in a number of different ways. The most common of these are in smartphone apps, which can display the indoor positioning data layered on top of a map, in order to help the user navigate through the indoor environment by seeing their position relative to the map in real time.

How does indoor positioning work?

There are numerous different ways in which different companies are attempting to solve the indoor positioning riddle (more on this in our section on the competing technological solutions), but the majority of the leading solutions nowadays use a number of sensors positioned strategically throughout an indoor space which then broadcast signals. When a user device, most often a smartphone, moves through this space and receives a number of these signals, the number and strength of these signals can be interpreted by the device and used to effectively triangulate the device’s location. Different types of sensors and signals offer various pros and cons, such as signal strength and the amount of data they’re able to broadcast.

Of course, this is only the most basic setup, and accounting for more advanced considerations - such as the user’s orientation, or potential obstacles interfering with or obstructing the sensor signals - requires far more sophisticated calculations and technological solutions. Pointr’s Deep Location® technology has multiple patents powering its state of the art, high precision engine, and is the result of years of work producing systems for some of the world’s biggest companies.

How accurate does indoor positioning need to be?

One of the key reasons that GPS is rarely adequate for indoor positioning - even if it was able to penetrate ceilings, which is the main impediment to it working effectively for indoor positioning systems - is that it tends to only offer precision of around 10 meters.

In outdoor contexts, ~10 meter accuracy is generally adequate, particularly when paired with navigation systems that can add additional data and sometimes ‘predict’ a user’s location (which is why in-car navigation systems will often fail to recognize for several seconds when a car has left the proposed navigation route - the system is partially using GPS, but is also ‘predicting’ where it thinks the car will go). Imagine driving down a road, knowing that shortly, you’ll need to turn. Even if the position provided by GPS is off by 10 meters, it’s highly unlikely that this will impact the user’s ability to tell which turning is which, thanks to other landmarks and the space between roads.

Indoors, however, it’s an entirely different story. A 10 meter inaccuracy can be the difference between being in one room or another, a room or a corridor, or even, in extreme cases, an entirely different building! 

The precise accuracy needed for indoor positioning differs from use case to use case. Systems aiming to help navigate people through a workplace needn’t be as accurate as a retail stock picking system, for example, which may need to be able to guide users to highly specific locations in order to find what they’re looking for. 

In general, however, for most consumer-facing indoor positioning systems, accuracy of within 3m is adequate, when combined with other factors like orientation and algorithms like Pointr’s Deep Location®, to provide a strong user experience.

Why is an IPS important?

Outdoor positioning technologies such as Google Maps now work so well and are so ubiquitous that we often take them for granted. With this in mind, it’s natural to ask why an indoor positioning system (IPS) is necessary or important for modern locations. 

Firstly, as covered in our previous section, the need for an indoor-specific system is down to the fact that the technology that powers the vast majority of outdoor mapping and blue dot systems - GPS - is unable to work effectively in most indoor environments. The technical reasons for this are outlined in this post.

Secondly, the ‘why’ of indoor positioning systems is down to more and more businesses realizing the potential of such systems. We now use outdoor positioning technology so regularly that consumers are coming to naturally expect the same types of systems when they’re navigating complex or large indoor spaces. Providing such systems serves as a differentiator for businesses who want to show they’re willing to go the extra mile to deliver a truly outstanding visiting experience for their guests or customers. They also have plenty of practical, logistical purposes, such as aiding staff to locate certain products in a retail store or pieces of equipment in a hospital.

What are the most popular positioning technologies?

A number of technologies have been used in indoor positioning deployments since they first started appearing just over a decade ago. The following are some of the most popular indoor location technologies in use currently:

Bluetooth

Bluetooth’s popularity in indoor positioning is multi-faceted. It’s cost-effective, with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons now very affordable. It’s extremely widespread; every modern smartphone comes with Bluetooth, and many people have their Bluetooth switched on as a matter of course (or will know how to turn it on), meaning there’s no need for specialized user devices in order to access the system - most people can just use their phones. Finally, while not the most accurate signal type, Bluetooth, when combined with an advanced location algorithm like Pointr’s Deep Location®, is capable of achieving the sub-3 meter accuracy needed for an effective system.

You can read more about Bluetooth in an indoor location context here.

5G

5G is a promising, but unfortunately still highly limited, alternative to Bluetooth. Like Bluetooth, it’s included by default in many modern smartphones (although it will likely be several years before it can be assumed that ‘most’ smartphones have 5G capabilities). It also - under the correct conditions - can achieve accuracy of 1m or less.

However, these conditions are difficult and very costly to achieve. 5G signals are particularly susceptible to being blocked, to the point where simply relying upon common cellular 5G networks is unlikely to ever result in the coverage needed to achieve an accurate system. Instead, buildings looking to install a 5G-based system would likely need to invest in their own private network - a potentially extremely costly venture. Even then, the signal's inability to pass through even relatively minor objects will mean that for many buildings, 5G will never be a truly viable solution.

You can read more about 5G positioning here.

Ultra Wideband (UWB)

Ultra wideband is, like 5G, able to achieve extremely precise accuracy under the right conditions, making it a popular technology for indoor positioning systems where accuracy is paramount, such as in manufacturing. 

However, it also suffers from some similar setbacks - namely, the expense that goes along with setting up a localized UWB network. A further addition to this cost is the lack of consumer devices compatible with UWB, meaning that for most UWB-based systems, not only is it necessary to pay for and install infrastructure, but also to buy specialized devices with which to receive the UWB signals. 

Because of this, currently UWB indoor location is largely restricted to highly specialized, closed-to-the-public environments.

More information about UWB positioning can be found here.

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi has previously been a popular technology for indoor location, though its usage has dropped markedly in recent years. It was a popular choice for one of the same reasons as Bluetooth - every smartphone has a Wi-Fi connection built in, meaning potentially very low barriers to adoption. Additionally, many buildings such as workplaces already had Wi-Fi installed, meaning that in theory, if the coverage was good enough, then buildings and businesses wouldn’t need to invest in further infrastructure or sensors in order to unlock indoor positioning.

However, Wi-Fi has several major drawbacks. The accuracy it’s able to achieve - even under good conditions - is almost never enough to create a solid indoor blue dot experience. Furthermore, those conditions are rarely achieved purely by having solid Wi-Fi coverage, meaning that those that did pursue a Wi-Fi-based system often found themselves in the position of needing to install further access points, which tend to have a much higher cost-per-unit basis than BLE beacons.

You can read more about Wi-Fi-based systems here.

No hardware (geomagnetic)

Finally, the ultimate panacea for the indoor positioning system is one which needs no additional hardware at all. As discussed, this generally cannot be achieved through GPS. Instead, some companies attempt to deliver no hardware solutions via geomagnetic solutions. This involves a process called fingerprinting, where a map is created of a location, marking the relative geomagnetic readings in a number of different positions within an indoor environment. These readings can then theoretically be used as a chart to figure out where a user device is.

However, geomagnetic systems come with various significant drawbacks, including the time and cost it takes to map the fingerprinting readings, and the speed with which the systems go out of date and lose accuracy. You can read a full rundown of the pros and cons of such systems by clicking here.

Summary of positioning technologies

What density of sensors are needed for high accuracy indoor blue dot?

The efficacy of an indoor positioning system is highly dependent on a number of factors, including the ceiling height (assuming that’s where beacons are located), the number of obstructions such as pillars or walls, and the density of beacons. With this in mind, it’s not possible to categorically state a definitive density of sensors or beacons that is able to achieve high accuracy indoor blue dot results every time.

That said, based on hundreds of different deployments Pointr have conducted for a huge number of different clients, including several Fortune 100 companies, we have found that one sensor per 800 to 1,600 sqft of indoor space is sufficient to ensure a high quality positioning experience.

What types of buildings typically use indoor location?

Indoor location has countless applications, from simply giving visitors or customers an outstanding experience through to highly specialized uses such as asset tracking in hospitals to keep track of expensive portable medical devices. Some of the most common use cases include:

• Workplaces - Large office complexes regularly have guests and visitors, and will need to ensure that these visitors are given a first class experience that guides them exactly where they need to go, for business and for security reasons. Workplaces also lose a huge amount of productive time to staff looking for meeting rooms or spare desks - indoor positioning can be tied to occupancy numbers, meaning building management systems can tell when a room is at capacity and guide those looking for a meeting room to one that's free.
• Hospitals - Indoor positioning can serve both a patient- and staff-facing purpose in healthcare facilities such as hospitals. Patients will often need to navigate a complex building with hundreds of rooms, and will need to do so in a timely manner. Indoor positioning, when twinned with navigation, can help achieve this by calculating the user's position from where they're scheduled to be and alerting them when they should leave their current position in order to make their appointment in time. Staff, meanwhile, can use location systems twinned with asset tracking to search for medical devices and locate the nearest one to cut down on time spent looking for equipment.

• Retail - In-store maps for retail apps are becoming increasingly popular, and indoor location represents the next stage of that trend. Not only can users now use store apps to see a map of their local store, but using indoor location, they can see their current location within the store and be routed directly to their desired department or even product, with the navigation instructions adapting if they veer off course to look at anything else along their journey.

What sets Pointr’s indoor positioning apart?

As you’ve seen above, there are plenty of options when it comes to indoor positioning systems. So why use Pointr?

• We’ve been in the business for over a decade, and our solutions have been tested and trusted by some of the world’s biggest companies
• Our indoor location system is the ideal blend between precision and cost, meaning you’ll get the accuracy you need for an effective system, but using technology that keeps costs lower than many other competing options
• Unlike some indoor location providers, we provide an end-to-end solution, including the indoor mapping platform upon which indoor location can be layered, and intuitive wayfinding technology, to enable users to not only see their location, but dynamically navigate their way through complex locations. No need to worry about integrating multiple different systems or potential incompatibility problems
• Not only do we offer beautiful, interactive 3D maps, but our MapScale engine is the world’s only scalable indoor map creation tool - which means that once you’ve seen the impact of our maps and indoor location system in one building, we can roll it out to hundreds or even thousands of other locations
  

Interested in speaking to us about your indoor positioning needs?