Location indoors

One of the more interesting technology demos at Nokia World covered indoor navigation.

At first glimpse, it may be hard to see the point of this, but think about the number of times you've struggled to find a particular room in a large hospital, your friends at a concert or even the sock section of a department store. Check out the video after the break for the full story.

As you can see, the technology feels like regular GPS to the user. But obviously your device can’t see any GPS satellites within an exhibition hall. Instead, the devices are connecting to a single transmitter which can be contacted from up to 200 yards away and can figure out the angle at which your device is linking from.

The expectation is that buildings will be constructed with the transmitters already installed to allow its users to find their way round using their mobile devices. It’s also a one-way, receive only technology, so there aren’t the privacy worries that go alongside some kinds of location services.

Neat stuff. Soon, the misery of not being able to find the pickle section in the supermarket will be gone forever. But perhaps you can think of some more interesting uses to which this technology could be put?