Meet the Game Changer in Indoor Mapping

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Your phone can already use a combination of signals to determine where you are indoors. A new wifi standard will become a game changer for indoor mapping — especially in large facilities. Much like GPS is able to track your precise location outdoors, the 802.11mc Wi-Fi standard will be able to do something similar indoors. There are numerous practical applications to this phone technology. Navigating through an unfamiliar mall, as well as museums, warehouses, large supply stores, and other similar facilities. In fact, the technology will be especially useful in hospitals, evaluates howtogeek.com. Most hospitals are big, confusing places. Indoor navigation will make it a breeze to get to where you’re trying to go.

Ma be this indoor mapping technology could even be applied by first responders trying to find their way in complex buildings during a mission, or even military units operating urban warfare tasks.

This could also have various home uses, for example, if you have multiple smart devices in your house — smart lights, etc. — you could ask a digital assistant to “turn on the lights” and it would be able to pinpoint which room you’re in and only turn those lights on without the need for you to say “turn on the lights in the master bedroom.”

How does the 802.11mc track your location? Basically, it measures the time it takes for a signal to travel between your device and the access point. When multiple access points are part of the equation, it can use the data from all these together to triangulate your location. This feature is generally referred to as RTT, or “Round Trip Time.” In theory, the phone wouldn’t even need to be connected to the Wi-Fi for this to work.

Regarding privacy, devices that use 802.11mc should require location tracking to follow the same protocols as outdoor tracking. Apps will need to request location permissions and this data will be anonymous just like with outdoor tracking.

Google has already added support for the 802.11mc in its Android P, allowing apps to measure the distance to nearby WiFi access points and determine exact indoor location.