Location

based services without a GPS receiver

Location based services without a GPS receiver

A Boston company is giving away software that can turn nearly any laptop computer into a global positioning system, enabling users to find the nearest restaurant, hospital, or gas station at the touch of a button.

Skyhook Wireless Inc.’s new Loki service uses the popular WiFi wireless data networking system in a radical new way. The company has created WiFi maps of the nation’s 100 largest cities, with precise locations for five million wireless data signals. Loki uses these wireless signals to tell users with WiFi laptops where they are — and where they can obtain a variety of products and services. Anybody with a WiFi-equipped portable computer that runs Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system can use Loki, which is available for download at www.loki.com.

Skyhook’s chief executive, Ted Morgan, said Loki is designed to complement the global positioning system, which uses radio signals from satellites to pinpoint locations on earth. ‘’As a user, you don’t care whether it’s coming from satellite or WiFi,” he said. ‘’You just want the best possible location.”

GPS often doesn’t work in cities, because tall buildings may block satellite signals. US cities, however, are blanketed by millions of short-range radio signals from WiFi routers in homes and businesses. Each router broadcasts a unique ID code and is located at a precise point on the earth. So they can serve as homing beacons… more