It seems that companies have been developing indoor navigation on the DL, as it comes out of the woodwork when Google announced Maps 6.0 with indoor nav. Sony Ericsson has posted on its developer blog that it's been working on two Android apps for indoor navigation, and has mapped its Lund, Sweden offices, allowing the 3600 employees there with Androids to easily find their way to conference rooms and the like.
Nokia Research has also been working on an indoor version of its renowned Nokia Maps navigation software for quite a while, but now it wants to take it to the next level. In the video below you can see the promo, but now the Finns have reached out to more than 30 service providers and chip makers in the hope to merge this with Wi-Fi networks, and include Location Extension protocol in BT 4.0. The company hopes this body would be able to come up with a common standard for indoor triangulation and mapping in 18 months or so.
We are well on our way to never be lost, as Google's Eric Schmidt envisioned it, but also to stop having to remember anything as long as we have a smartphone with us.
Nokia is talking about this since a long time. Google has a different approach and is trying to do slightly different.
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