- On the occasion of the Mobile World Congress 2016, Telefónica has developed a new solution so that users, both private and professional, can make the most of a more advanced, indoor location service, the great pending issue of geopositioning.
- The innovative multi-sensory geolocation combines smartphone sensors, 4G connectivity and the computing capacity available in the cloud of Telefónica in order to launch a new range of services aimed at businesses and private customers.
Madrid, February 24th, 2016.- In the environment of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Telefónica has presented an innovative multi-sensory Geolocation solution that will enable customers to improve their positioning in confined spaces where location currently has proven to be weaker and with major problems of position estimation.
Currently, the most developed technologies in terms of positioning are intended for outdoor use, such as GPS or Galileo. Telefónica, in collaboration with SITUM Technologies, a Galician technology company of its start-ups ecosystem, Telefónica Open Future_, has developed an innovative technology to give an accurate pinpoint position of people and devices in indoor areas. To achieve this, the service makes use of the measurements of all the smartphone’s sensors, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, magnetometer, gyro or accelerometer, and obtains the position more accurately than compared to other solutions on the market.
Using a simple application, the Smartphone picks up the variations along a specific path from all the information gathered by the sensors. As the user moves, the smartphone sends all these readings using the 4G network to a server in the cloud of Telefónica and, with a series of artificial intelligence algorithms, selects the most relevant data according to the scenario, it correlates al the information and is capable to estimate the position and user behaviour with the best possible accuracy. In this case, Telefónica puts all its abilities at the service of the customer for a better personal and professional user experience, and thus open up a new world of possibilities.
SITUM Technologies, a company part of the Telefónica Open Future_ Galicia initiative, has carried out a first deployment in the Galician healthcare service (Sergas). This innovative technology company has won several international awards, at the Singularity Summit, the South Summit and at the USC.
Geopositioned Marketing, Business Intelligent, Resource Optimisation
In addition to the mentioned case of use in large hospitals, where the solution helps the user to find the place of their consultation, this initiative can be implemented in other fields such as the retail sector or large coach terminals, trains or airports, as to prevent ‘hotspots’, alert about waiting times, prevent typical accumulations in often-travelled places, or analyse the mobility of users by zone, time of day or day of the week
The new world of possibilities brought by multi-sensory geolocation also includes geopositioned marketing solutions allowing for example, to send users advertising associated with the place in which they are, measure the impact of a live marketing campaign, or adjust the contents of billboards or advertising screens to a certain profile of people at the right time. It can contribute to indoor navigation, to guide users to that area of the hospital and what appointment they need to go to: x-rays, CT, blood tests, navigation up to the boarding gate in an airport; how to get to the seats, the service area or the assistance positions in a sports stadium; or the way to a specific store in a shopping centre.
For logistics issues in a factory or on large surfaces, this solution also enables a professional use to locate the closest staff in case of incidence, it can help to improve the efficiency in the allocation of staff, keep track of the various tasks assigned to factory workers, or even perform localisation tasks and monitoring of machinery and other valuable items.
In Telefónica’s exhibition stand in the MWC 2016, located at Hall 3 of the Fira Barcelona Gran Vía, visitors will have the chance to know more about different demos recreating these different uses Telefónica wants to give to multi-sensory Geolocation in order to get the best indoor location.
