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Have you ever wished for clear directions for that one little shop in the heart of the mall that you can never seem to... Invensense: GPS for Indoors

Have you ever wished for clear directions for that one little shop in the heart of the mall that you can never seem to find?  What about when you are walking in the heart of a busy city with congested traffic and tall skyscrapers?

Today’s GPS systems work great on highways and in wide open spaces, but they don’t always do so well in busy cities likeNew York City.

Invensense: GPS for Indoors

 

InvenSense is a company that is trying to change that. They are designing a chip to go in smartphones that will detect changes in altitude such as escalators and move them through subway stations and to exact destinations even if they are indoors.

Currently, a version of the chip is being used in some tablets and can detect the position of the tablet to move images. It is also used in cameras to compensate for shaking hands and other motion to provide better photos.  Right now, InvenSense does not provide chips for Apple products, but that may change.  According to the CEO, the company is expected to provide sensor chips to all of the major players in the phone market.

This idea is part of a big trend at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show to help people track items and determine location with their smartphones and other gadgets. Visitors to the show saw tracking devices for luggage and many other innovations that would help owners keep track of their mobile and home devices. This is a concept that has now been labeled as perceptual computing by Intel.

InvenSense could pick up where GPS leaves off to help users get where they need to go. This technology could be used in many ways and the company is expecting to see an increase in demand. To prepare, they are tripling the capacity for production.

[Image via netbooknews]