By Zia Askari
As WiFi is fast becoming mainstream means of enabling communication between devices and even networks, Apple Inc has received a patent which hints that the Cupertino based company is looking towards packing 'WiFi enabled 3D Navigation' capabilities into its next release.
Apple’s latest, US Patent 8700060, 'Determining a location of a mobile device using a location database', covers a phone-stored location database that Apple can remotely update from its servers.·WiFi access points are located within a 50×50 meter geographic grid, and according to the patent filing, this system can automatically update the user’s location as users move between squares on the grid.
'The mobile device can host the location database, which can store locations associated with access points. The locations can be distributed in a group of cells of a geographic grid. When the mobile device moves and connects to an access point associated with a location that is outside the group of cells, the mobile device can request an update of the location database. The mobile device can calculate a current location of the mobile device using current access points that are within a communication range of the mobile device by performing a lookup in the location database using identifiers of the current access points. The mobile device can calculate the current location using the locations corresponding to the current access points in the location database,' the abstract from the patent confirms.
As global smartphone competition is getting hot, innovative feature are set to further drive the adoption ahead and this is where Apple has been scoring over its rivals.
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