GLOBAL - Nokia has begun trials for indoor positioning in 40 different buildings worldwide.

Indoor positioning is a concept that uses WLAN access points - often already installed in modern buildings as part of the network infrastructure - and their locations within a building to calculate the current location of a mobile phone and compare that position to the desired target location. Just like a regular GPS, only indoors. Nokia states that in the future, it should be possible to calculate the current position with an error margin of only a few meters within most buildings.

Examples of use for this technology might include airport guiding or finding a certain product in a large supermarket or a certain meeting room in a large office building. If the technology was to offer the ability to enter the sizes and shapes of points of interest and name them within a defined area, the possibilities for creating generic guides and maps would be potentially endless. In the long term, this might also be where the real challenge lies - a generic platform is needed so that data about all public places can be gathered and made available, but at the same time, providing a public and detailed map of a building also raises questions about security and privacy that need to be dealt with.

According to Nokia Conversations, a commercial trial for indoor positioning within a shopping mall is planned for Q4 and an application showcasing this technology is also being considered for Nokia Beta Labs.