Skyhook combines GPS and Wi-Fi for location

Skyhook Wireless announced Monday that it is integrating GPS into its geolocation service to get an even more accurate fix for location-based services.

Up until now, Skyhook's geolocation service, which is used on Apple's iPhone, among other services and devices, has used Wi-Fi hot spots to get a fix on location. The service works very well in densely populated areas where there are a lot of Wi-Fi radios transmitting signals. And it's great for locating places indoors or in cities with a lot of tall buildings, all places where satellite-based GPS, or Global Positioning System, technology has difficulty getting a location fix.

But for all of the benefits of Wi-Fi, it doesn't work in rural areas where hot spots are few and far between. This is where the GPS technology comes in.

"Our technology works great in populated areas," said Ted Morgan, co-founder and CEO of Skyhook. "But on the open road it's more difficult. Now with GPS integrated, iPhone users, for example, can get turn-by-turn navigation anywhere they go."

The way the Skyhook service originally worked is that it would triangulate and get a fix on location-based data on known Wi-Fi hot spots. The company has a database of where Wi-Fi hot spots all over the country are located. Specifically, it uses the Mac address, a unique identifier that every piece of hardware on the Internet must have, to identify the router, and it matches that identifier with the location. Using multiple signals in the same geographic location, the Skyhook technology is able to pinpoint a location.

Now Skyhook has integrated GPS into its technology, which it is putting in chipsets that go into mobile phones and other devices that also have GPS recievers. GPS will allow Skyhook to cover more ground with its geolocation technology. The Wi-Fi/GPS technology should also help services that used GPS only to get information about location more quickly. Because GPS uses three or four low-orbiting satellites to pinpoint a location, it can take a few seconds before it's able to calculate a location. Skyhook's Wi-Fi technology can get location information much faster.

So where might we see this new technology? The original Wi-Fi-based Skyhook technology is already on the iPhone. Morgan couldn't say for sure that the new "hybrid" Wi-Fi/GPS technology will be used on the iPhone 3G that comes out next week. But one of the upgrades in the new iPhone 3G is the addition of a GPS chip, so it would make sense that the Skyhook technology would be used on it. Morgan did say that Apple has access to all of its technology.

[dsstroud]

Does this work with the original iphone? It seems that my skyhook service is more exact than it was before, though not as exact as GPS of course.

[Norseman]

Just one question. If you have GPS in the phone, why do you need Skyhook to tell you where you are?

Phones are not dedicated GPS unit. GPS signals from the satalite are not very strong and are vulnerable to interference from buildings and other signals. Purely relying on the GPS signal consumes battery power and does not necessarily yield an accurate location.

Because of this phones use what is called assisted GPS. The phone connects with a backend service that has a better connection to GPS satalite. The phone is able to send what GPS data is has, as well as WiFi signal location and tower triangulation information. The backend service is able to quickly calculate the data and quickly give an accurate real time location. Without using the phones limited processing power or battery life.

[Noitacol]

Yes, GPS may not work everywhere and every time. In most cases, it requires at least 4 satellites visibility. This may be difficult in some city areas, for example. Therefore we have A-GPS. A-GPS is not good enough though. Then we have hybrid approaches which combine A-GPS with network positioning technologies, such as TOA, TDOA, .... see


http://to.swang.googlepages.com/lbs

[LBSgeek]

WiFi based solutions are not the best complements to A-GPS either. The iPhone may have in-built WiFi but not all other phones in the market today have WiFi capabilities. Even if new phones were to be shipped with WiFi capabilities, it would take years before they achieved a meaningful level of penetration. The reliability of WiFi based solutions is also worth thinking about since the Access Points (AP's) are always a moving target. In order to keep the information up-to-date one has to physically drive areas across the country periodically which turns out to be an expensive proposition.