ABC NEWS: “Taking Mobile Technology to the Next Level”

ABC NEWS: “Taking Mobile Technology to the Next Level”

ABC News story on “Taking Mobile Technology to the Next Level” features an interview with Indoor Atlas‘ Founder & CEO, Dr. Janne Haverinen, Ph.D. discussing the new frontier in location–indoor mapping & positioning, and how Indoor Atlas’ technology using smartphones and the earth’s magnetic fields is changing how we see the great indoors.   

SAN FRANCISCO — From Facebook to Angry Birds, your phone is hardly about making phone calls anymore. In San Francisco on Wednesday, a conference all about your mobile phone yielded some big product announcements.

Over just a few years, the Mobile Beat conference has really grown. Put on by the tech website VentureBeat, it now spans long hallways full of meeting rooms, and ballrooms packed with booths. So how do you find your way around this mess? Well, not with GPS.

That’s why Indoor Atlas — a company from Finland — is here showing off their technology. They showed us a video of a cellphone navigating from aisle to aisle in a grocery store. This, they say, is the next frontier in location. And unlike solutions that Google and Apple are working on, theirs doesn’t require Wi-Fi.

“GPS doesn’t work inside. So this is the big thing,” said Dr. Janne Haverinen, the CEO of Indoor Atlas.

“Our approach is based on small magnetic field variations which are very typical of modern houses and buildings, inside of buildings,” said Haverinen.

And how do you measure that? Using your phone’s built-in compass, of course. The possibilities are endless.

“Like airports, finding gates, and also shopping malls, and campuses, finding your friends,” said Haverinen.

The conference is becoming a place for major product announcements, like a brand new tablet which is built to take some serious abuse. You can throw it on the ground and get it wet and it will still work.