Indoor Positioning technology & advanced features
Core Technology & Advanced Capabilities
Indoor positioning enables realtime location of smartphones, badges, and connected assets inside buildings—where GNSS cannot operate. It powers a new generation of smart services including geofencing, analytics, counting, indoor navigation, asset tracking, and safety applications. With Pole Star, these services become highly accurate, reliable, and easy to integrate into your business applications.
How Indoor Positioning works
The Fundamentals
Inside buildings, GNSS signals (GPS, Galileo) are weak or unavailable. Indoor positioning relies instead on radio signals and sensors in the environment—such as BLE, WiFi, and UWB—as well as sensors embedded in devices (accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, barometric pressure).
A positioning engine aggregates, filters, and interprets these signals (calibration, sensor fusion) to compute a precise, stable, and continuous position, delivered in real time through SDKs, APIs, or system connectors.
Key techniques used
- Trilateration / Triangulation using signal strength (RSSI), TimeofFlight (ToF), or AngleofArrival (AoA)
- Radio Fingerprinting, ideal for complex environments, analyzing electromagnetic signatures to recognize a device or tag
- Sensor Fusion, combining radio and motion sensors for enhanced stability
- Inertial Positioning using onboard motion sensors to estimate trajectory
- Digital Indoor Mapping including floorplans, levels, zones, and points of interest
Typical architecture
- Sensors & Infrastructure: BLE beacons, WiFi/BLE access points, listeners/gateways
- Devices / Tags: smartphones, badges, lowpower connected objects
- Location Engine: calibration, computation, filtering, AI, deep learning
- Platform: site configuration, maps, geofences, access rights
- APIs / SDKs / Connectors: integration with mobile apps, MES/ERP/CMMS/BMS, BI tools
Key features enabled by Indoor Positioning
These are the most requested features by our customers and technology partners (integrators, VARs, OEMs). Each module can be activated independently and combined as needed.
Geofencing
Create smart zones (areas, floors, restricted rooms) and trigger automated actions: notifications, alerts, access control, workflows, safety rules, counting events.
Examples: restrictedarea intrusion alerts, contextual greetings, automatic ticket creation, proofofpresence, automatic acknowledgments, object/person detection.
Benefits: Responsiveness, automation, safety
Analytics & Flow Intelligence
Analyze movement patterns, dwell times, density, wait times, and bottlenecks. Visualize heatmaps and export analytics to your BI systems.
Examples: visitor flow optimization, staff allocation, patient/visitor experience improvement.
Benefits: Datadriven decisions, operational optimization
Counting & Space Occupancy
Measure in real time or in batch: space occupancy, availability, and threshold compliance.
Examples: meeting rooms, waiting areas, workshops, retail zones.
Benefits: Better space utilization, service quality, compliance
Indoor Navigation
Provide turnbyturn guidance inside complex facilities: hospitals, cruise ships, airports, rail stations, industrial sites, malls, campuses, museums.
Examples: accessible routes, multifloor itineraries, POIs, travel time estimates, contextual guidance, assistance for people with disabilities, geolocated alerts.
Benefits: Enhanced user experience, reduced delays, greater autonomy
Asset Tracking
Track critical equipment in real time, reduce search time and losses, and automate inventory.
Examples: medical & biomedical equipment, tools, carts, parcels, containers.
Benefits: Cost reduction, traceability, higher availability, better asset utilization
Safety & Security
Improve response times and strengthen site security: SOS alerts, restrictedarea presence detection, muster points, emergency management, evacuation, lone worker protection (PTI/DATI).
Benefits: Personnel safety, compliance, fast response
Why choose Pole Star?
Proven large scale deployments
Hospitals, industrial sites, cruise ships, airports, metros, railway stations, major events, malls, department stores, museums. Reliable realtime accuracy and stability in complex environments.
Independence & control
• Works with your existing infrastructure (can be enhanced as needed)
• Modular: activate only what you need
• Scalable: from pilot to multisite deployments
Easy integration for integrators, VARs & OEMs
• NAO SDKs, APIs, connectors
• Full interoperability with mobile apps, web apps, IoT, enterprise systems
Privacy & compliance
• Privacy by design: minimization, pseudonymization, controlled retention
• Access control and full auditability
• GDPR aligned
• Cybersecurity: NAO Suite is fully ISO 27001 compliant, audited annually
Use cases
Healthcare
Indoor navigation, biomedical equipment tracking, elopement prevention, staff safety, patient flow analytics, wait time analysis.
Airports, rail & metro
Asset tracking (baggage carts, wheelchairs, equipment), emergency response, geolocated SOS, staff location for supervision systems, navigation for passengers and contractors.
Cruise ships, maritime & defense
Crew safety, muster and evacuation, lone worker protection, passenger navigation, child safety, drydock maintenance operations.
Industrial sites & logistics
Tool & parcel tracking, ATEX zone geofencing, counting, emergency management, evacuation, PTI.
Offices & campus
Space occupancy, navigation, room availability, staff safety.
Retail & malls
Flow analytics, contextual messaging, navigation, incident management.
Museums & events
Thematic tours, heatmaps, realtime capacity.
Integration & data
- Developer Tools: NAO SDK (iOS/Android), NAO Map Web SDK, REST APIs
- Mapping: floorplans, levels, POIs, version management
- Connectors: ERP, MES, CMMS, BMS, IoT platforms, BI tools
- Quality & Observability: beacon monitoring, RF diagnostics, performance metrics
- Security: authentication, roles & permissions, encryption in transit/at rest
FAQ
How accurate is the system?
Accuracy depends on sensor density and the RF environment. The solution adapts to your use case—from a few meters to roomlevel accuracy.
Do I need additional beacons?
Thanks to Pole Star’s unified infrastructure approach, existing WiFi or smartbuilding multisensor access points can often be reused.
Additional NAO infrastructure (BlueSpot, BlueListener, Dongle) can enhance critical zones when needed.
A lightweight standalone infrastructure can also be deployed.
How is privacy handled?
Privacy by design: data minimization, access control, pseudonymization, controlled retention, full traceability.
What about cybersecurity?
All NAO Suite components comply with ISO 27001, verified through annual audits.
How long does a pilot take?
From a few days to 2–3 weeks depending on site size and enabled features (plans, installation, calibration, integration, testing).