Apple is testing a new localization system inside buildings with the help of a special application called Indoor Survey, it being available at the moment in App Store, but only certain partners of the company Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), they have access to what it offers.
application Indoor Survey it is available for access and download by any person who has the direct link to it because in a simple search it is not displayed by the application store of those from Cupertino, so it is clear that we are talking about a project that was supposed to be secret .
According to the description made by the Apple company for the Indoor Survey application, she can do location inside buildings using the radio frequencies received by the iPhone, its integrated sensors, but also location information entered by users.
In 2013, Apple bought a company called WiFiSLAM which had technologies capable of locating inside buildings, and with the Indoor Survey application for iOS 9 we most likely see a first implementation of them in an Apple application.
By dropping 'points' on a map within the Survey App, you indicate your position within the venue as you walk through. As you do so, the indoor Survey App measures the radio frequency (RF) signal data and combines it with an iPhone's sensor data. The end result is indoor positioning without the need to install special hardware.
Separate from the acquisition of WiFiSLAM, Apple already had some patents that described methods by which people can be located inside buildings, and the iOS 9 APIs for the Maps application provide information through which developers can do this with their own applications.
Although the Indoor Survey application is available in the App Store and can be downloaded by anyone, access to its functionality is only offered to certain Apple IDs authorized by the Apple company, so for now we cannot know what is hidden inside it.
Even so, through Indoor Survey, the Apple company demonstrates for the first time that it is interested in developing localization systems inside buildings, which are the logical evolution of GPS localization systems.
The Indoor Survey application can be downloaded following this link.
