Finding out your exact location when outside is a relatively simple thing to do these days thanks to several GPS satellites orbiting the earth. Knowing your position relative to your surroundings whilst indoors is actually a more challenging problem for the end user because there isn’t an existing framework like GPS you can just tap into and get your coordinates.
The Localino uses as a chip made by decaWave, a semiconductor company that develops ICs for use in indoor positioning systems. The exact type of chip used in the Localino isn’t mentioned in the Tindie description but it is likely the DW1000 IC. This is an impressive chip that boasts location of objects to a precision of 10cm whilst moving at up to 5m/s. Due to the short packet duration used, this chip can handle 11,000 tags in a 20m radius. That isn’t a typo, eleven thousand tags in about 1,200 square meters. This raises the question, could you physically fit that many tags in that space? It is really impressive regardless!
For around $200 you can build DIY kits like the Localino which include three ‘anchors’ and one ‘tag’. Obviously, the anchors don’t move, they are used only to localize the position of the tags. Check out the YouTube video below showing the Localino in action. The results are very promising and open up a whole host of possibilities for mapping and tracking related projects.
