Sony joins In-Location Alliance as a founding member

We’re excited to introduce the In-Location Alliance, launched today by 22 technology companies with the goal of driving the innovation and development of indoor positioning. As a founding member, we feel it’s important to continue supporting the innovation of indoor mapping. It’s also a relevant continuation to our ongoing work here at Sony Mobile, as mentioned in our previous indoor maps blog post. Read on for more details on what this unique collaboration means to the mobile community.
The Accurate Mobile Indoor Positioning Industry Alliance is founded by companies representing different roles in the ecosystem – chipset vendors, mobile operators, system integrators, handset manufacturers, application developers, solution vendors, and technology vendors. The Indoor Alliance’s main task is working toward the adoption of interoperable indoor positioning solutions and technologies. The indoor positioning system (IPS) technology will primarily be based on enhanced Bluetooth™ low-energy and Wi-Fi® standards.
For Sony, this is especially important, since the Alliance will work together to define specifications and ensure open interfaces and standards for interoperability between vendors, we can ensure that the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi® connectivity already present in Sony smartphones and tablets will continue to follow industry standards.
Magnus Persson, Positioning Specialist at Sony Mobile, is not only a key evangelist for indoor mapping technology; he is also the Sony spokesperson for the Alliance. Magnus believes that Sony has much to offer by becoming involved with the In-Location Alliance.
- We’ve already demonstrated our interest and know-how in indoor positioning technologies by creating our own indoor navigation service, so we’re eager to share our knowledge and work with and learn from other Alliance members on how to address positioning issues, such as availability and accuracy limitations.”

Magnus Persson, Positioning Specialist.

Benefits of indoor positioning
Through accurate indoor positioning, the Alliance hopes to achieve a solid technical base that anyone can use to create indoor location-based mobile services on top of it. For consumers, this could mean receiving directions to personalised product promotions in stores, getting real-time navigation in a museum or other public place, or even getting the precise location of patients or doctors in hospitals.
For local service providors, indoor positioning could increase customer satisfaction by deploying resources to where and when it is needed.
If you’re planning to create and indoor navigation solution of your own, or if you already have experience from creating indoor maps, we encourage you to join the Alliance. Or if that is not an option for you, make use of the results from the Alliance. This way, you directly make an impact and help out in the work to create a globally interoperable and user friendly indoor positioning experience!