SIRF Walk Indoor GPS - Coming To A Smartphone Near You

If you've ever gotten lost in a mall and had to spend time searching for one of those "directions" kiosks, then help is on the way. SIRF Walk, an indoor positioning system created by CSR, will be able to help you find your destination, even when you are inside and out of satellite view. The system will use a phone's accelerometer, gyroscope, and even a barometer.

SIRF walk would be counting on companies like TomTom, Garmin, or Google to store building schematics. That way, the system would be able to tell if you're on the first or fifth floor using a barometer, and how many steps you have taken, using the accelerometer. And you don't need to worry about the technology being fooled by the phone bouncing around in your purse or pocket. "We can work out context," Raj Gawera, VP of Marketing for CSR, told the blog PocketLint: "There is some really smart processing going on to combat the phone's movements."

Though the technology is close to being ready now, the holdup will be getting all of the building schematics mapped. Of course, companies would have a vested interest in getting that done, since they want you to find their store and spend money there. The company expects the technology to be available to manufacturers by the end of the year, so we could see this technology on phones in 2012. Which phones? Gawera would not confirm, but said they are working with Nokia, Samsung, LG, and BlackBerry.

[via Pocketlint]