The latest update of Situm’s SDK for a more precise indoor positioning with floor detection improves indoor navigation experience. It allows to take full advantage of the smartphone barometer and increase the speed of floor detection in a building by 50%.
One of Situm’s main strengths is that it works without the need for a dedicated infrastructure. What does this mean? That to perform an accurate indoor positioning, Situm combines the data from the buildings’ existing signals (WiFi, Bluetooth, magnetic fields) with other that we all carry in our pockets: the data collected by our smartphones’ inertial sensors. This way, Situm provides a solution for indoor navigation and indoor tracking with high precision, minimal infrastructure and fast deployment.
Despite having a robust core technology that is both flexible and adaptable to multiple contexts, not all buildings are the same, and not everyone has the same smartphone. When this indoor navigation is done while transitioning between the floors of a building, going up or down in an elevator for example, the floor determination could be slow. In addition to this, some smartphones without a barometer had difficulties in differentiating between heights.
Barometer use for a better indoor positioning SDK with floor detection
The solution to these difficulties lies within the inertial smartphone sensors, as those are the tools we need for a quicker, more fluid floor detection for our indoor positioning system. Situm’s algorithm technical improvements are focused on making the most of the data provided by the cell phone barometer. By gathering and interpreting this data with an altimeter, we are able to increase by 50% the speed of the floor detection. This way we achieve significant improvements in the user experience by avoiding mismatches during the location and navigation process.
Situm’s indoor positioning technology is available to any user who wants to try it out this link. You can try it yourself or request a customized demo at. If you want to try our indoor positioning SDK with floor detection visit developers.situm.com