Is it possible to build GPS maps for smaller areas like buildings?May sound funny but is it possible to create GPS maps of say different University buildings or office departments so that new students/employees can find their way using phones?
Jeroen Wijnands
Funny no but impractical. GPS needs a more or less clear view of the sky. It tends to work really badly or not at all in buildings.
Cesar
That would be great. Maybe there's an app for that already
A
GPS inside buildings has very poor accuracy, you're lucky to get the right building let alone where in the building someone is.
There are other positioning systems that work very well indoors but they are either expensive, would require people to carry special equipment around with them or both.
The most realistic option (it may require a custom app for the phone and some setup but no special hardware) is to use wifi signal strength.
If there are enough wifi base stations within the building then with a little effort mapping out their locations you can that information to give a reasonable estimate of location.
If you just assume that the only thing effecting the signal strength for each base is your distance from it then accuracy isn't great but could give you 10-15 meters accuracies depending on the number of base stations.
You can get very good accuracy if you map the signal strength for each base station at every point in the building. Unfortunately this takes a long time and as soon as someone to moves a filing cabinet or some other large metal item you have to re-do the survey for that area.
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