New chip tracks smart-phone locations down to the inch, even indoors [View all]

[MelissaB]

New chip tracks smart-phone locations down to the inch, even indoors

By Kathleen Hickey
Apr 26, 2012

In 2010, GCN’s Kevin McCaney speculated that soon everyone would have a Marauder’s Map, the magical parchment that allowed Harry Potter and his friends to see in real time the location of everyone on Hogwarts school grounds.

That fantasy — dreamed up by J.K. Rowling over a decade ago — could now be a reality. Broadcom Corp. has begun shipping a new smart-phone-tracking microchip, Broadcom BCM4752, which aims to pinpoint a user’s location down to a few centimeters — even indoors. It also tracks your vertical position, so it can tell which floor you are on in a building.

By combining sensor technologies, wireless protocols and multiple satellite feeds in a small, low-power chip, Broadcom, the largest supplier of Global Positioning System chips to cell-phone manufacturers, claims the BCM4752’s speed and accuracy are 10 times better than competing products.

The chip uses a range of sensor technology — Wi-Fi (including recently announced 5G Wi-Fi), Bluetooth, Near Field Communication and radio — for indoor tracking.

More here: http://gcn.com/articles/2012/04/26/broadcom-gps-tracking-chip-precise-to-the-inch.aspx