Complex buildings such as airports, train stations, and fairs are challenging areas where people struggle with orientation and finding their desired destinations. Often, these orientation problems lead to bad experiences, such as when a family member or even a child cannot be found, or if a connecting flight is missed due to losing time while finding the desired gate. Fortunately, indoor navigation systems similar to the well-known and widely used GPS outdoors are now available. However, these systems require a high level of expertise for planning and installation and struggle with the necessary scalability when a large number of users are involved.
To address this, Pinpoint developed an Ultra-Wideband (UWB) based, easy-to-install positioning system that hides all the complexity of positioning technology. This allows system integrators and device manufacturers without expert knowledge to design new products with location awareness.
The system uses a decentrally organized mesh network that employs UWB as the radio technology. Within this network, each building satellite transmits UWB beacons and can wirelessly synchronize to 1-nanosecond accuracy using a patented algorithm. UWB-enabled smartphones and positioning modules can receive these UWB beacons to synchronize themselves to the network time and calculate their own position with an accuracy of 30 cm. With this technology, the aforementioned use cases can be realized by integrating the building satellite modules into existing building devices, such as light bulbs or fire detectors, and the positioning modules into objects, such as Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), employee badges, or simply by using UWB-enabled smartphones.