Software configures through automatic crowd sourcing

According to the Edinburgh based firm, the technology cheaply and dynamically creates an 'almost limitless' proprietary global rf location database that self corrects with use. The software has been designed to allow social networks, device manufacturers and app developers to capitalise on the potential of accurate indoor location – considered by many to be the next big frontier for phone companies, social networks and apps developers. Traditionally, solutions have been inaccurate, require manual recalibration to remain accurate or are expensive and tied to individual buildings. sensewhere, like similar existing indoor location systems, uses whatever hybrid rf location reference information the end device can receive to fix a location. The system checks signals against its own database of fixed location reference points, then uses proprietary low power algorithms to provide an indoor location. However, this system relies on the accuracy of the database that drives it and reference points can often be disconnected, moved or changed. The sensewhere system takes a new approach by uploading updated reference point information as it fixes a location. By cross referencing information from different sources, at different times, it is designed to improve the accuracy of indoor location over time, autonomously mapping rf reference points in a way that is self correcting. It is updated by every device that determines its own position and, according to the company, is more accurate than other solutions on the market. Rob Palfreyman, sensewhere's ceo, said: "This is the first time in the world anyone has produced this kind of automatically self improving location network, requiring no input from the user. This represents the next stage in the evolution of location. sensewhere is less expensive, less time consuming, and more accurate than more traditional methods of location database building, such as 'war driving' or 'fingerprinting'. List most of the major problems experienced with even the best indoor location networks to date; accuracy; reliability; automation; cost effectiveness: sensewhere has provided the ideal balance of these considerations for economical, accurate real world deployment. "This is the first system capable of offering the level of indoor accuracy and reliability required for, say, storefront virtual advertising or voucher provision, while remaining a realistic commercial proposition for use nationwide. It has no physical infrastructure or setup costs in terms of installing dedicated reference points. Organisations simply need to 'tie into' sensewhere's software, and let sensewhere's backend systems do the work." The company has also produced front end apps for iPhone, Android and Symbian, TrackPoint and PinPointer, that allow users to track and share their location and personal points of interest.