SiRFusion enables accurate indoor location without new infrastructure

Technology News | November 19, 2014

By eeNews Europe

To address this issue without the need for any infrastructure, the SiRFusion™ Software Development Kit (SDK) for Android application developers from CSR enables indoor positioning for Android developers looking to create next-generation apps.

Developers can now leverage the SiRFusion library to rapidly integrate new location-based capabilities and services such as indoor location tagging and analytics for social networking applications, indoor navigation, lone worker efficiency and safety capabilities, as well as indoor asset tracking and targeted e-commerce services.

To enable the SDK to work, Google has provided the Fused Location Provider in its latest Android implementations. The Fused Location Provider enables developers to interact with location information. Instead of having an app talk to different location data sources, Google provides a single programmable interface that feeds cellular, WiFi, GPS, and sensor data to developers’ applications. In contrast with iOS, CSR says that this data is not readily available to enable software driven indoor location, thus SiRFusion for Android can only be integrated into any app running on Android version 4.4 or later.

SiRFusion provides the accurate indoor position fixes needed to make continuous indoor navigation a part of everyday life. The system automatically crowd-sources a venue’s indoor Wi-Fi signatures as consumers walk through the location, and it has also been architected to accommodate future proximity and location technologies such as Bluetooth® Smart beacons, Wi-Fi Round Trip Time (RTT), and Indoor Messaging System (IMES).

“Offering indoor positioning accurate enough to be useful has been a challenge that the industry has been trying to solve for many years,” said Anthony Murray, Senior Vice President, Business Group at CSR. “But with consumers coming to expect anytime-anywhere positioning wherever they are, our customers have continued to express a growing interest for accurate indoor positioning without the need for additional infrastructure.”

Dave Huntingford who is responsible for the Indoor Location Product Line at CSR comments, "SiRFusion combines real-time Wi-Fi signals, satellite positioning information, pedestrian dead reckoning. This first implementation is pure software, not tied to our silicon, later we will have silicon Android interfaces good for Wi-Fi scan, GPS and MEMS data."

According to Dave Huntigford, CSR is looking at silicon implementations of SiRFusion for Android around Q4 2015 that will incorporate a MEMS gateway to connect sensors directly to the SiRFusion silicon. Connecting MEMS sensors to the application processor would not result in an optimal implementation. Silcon version will still use the Android interface for Wi-Fi and GPS data.

Accuracy is relative, but CSR claim that they will typically get 5-m accuracy with the SDK 50 percent of the time. With a fully ‘learned’ cloud-based CSR Positioning Center database an accuracy of 3-m can be obtained.

Dave Huntingford adds that the database will generate as users walk through the location using SiRFusion-based apps. The database is dynamic and continuously regenerates as typically, CSR has found that 3 percent of access points are on the move. The cloud-based database sends the required potion of information pertaining to a particular location to the the user’s device to calculate accurate indoor locations.

SiRFusion for Android can be integrated into any app running on Android version 4.4 or later. The SDK will be available for download from the CSR’s website in Q1 2015, and will include the SiRFusion™ library, API descriptions, and a developer’s guide.

www.csr.com