PORTLAND, Ore. — Just as in-vehicle navigation systems have already revolutionized finding street addresses, pedestrian navigation systems aim to revolutionize finding in-door locations.

To actualize a whole range of pedestrian navigation applications, Sensor Platforms in San Jose, Calif. — the software specialists licensing motion algorithms — has added Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) to its FreeMotion Library of algorithms.

Sensor Platforms' PDR system uses 10-axis sensor fusion on the data from micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) sensors — accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers and barometric pressure sensors (for altitude) — to calculate the distance traveled by a user as well as the user's direction (bearing), working from the last known waypoint as read off a global position systems (GPS) chip.

By calibrating to the user's context, Sensor Platforms claims its PDR solution provides accuracy within a few percent of the distance traveled from the last known waypoint.

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