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Startup Skyhook Wireless this week will launch its flagship product, the Wi-Fi Positioning System, which is an alternative to GPS technology. WPS is client software that includes a reference database of more than 1.5 million private and public Wi-Fi access points, along with their locations.
The WPS client software uses this reference database to calculate a devices location to within 20 to 40 meters. Database coverage includes the 25 most populated cities in the United States, where GPS signals are sometimes muddled by interference, officials said.
“Were taking advantage of the fact that there have been 20 to 30 million access points purchased in the past few years,” said Ted Morgan, founder and CEO of Skyhook. “There are so many signals in metropolitan areas that they have overlapped in large numbers. We have physically scanned every street in these areas.”
WPS is available now on Windows XP and Windows Mobile devices and will be available on Palm OS devices this summer, Morgan said. Pricing depends on configuration.
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