Situm is able to produce Indoor & Outdoor geolocations. When Situm yields Indoor geolocations, there are 3 main modes that can be used (explained in depth in the article "Indoor geolocation modes"): Situm Indoor, Calibrated Indoor GPS and Uncalibrated Indoor GPS.
Mode #1: Situm Indoor
Determines the user’s location in the calibrated areas based only on the WiFi/BLE signals detected (see this explanation for more detail). To activate this mode, you will need to deactivate the Positioning Setting "Use GPS for indoor location".
Under this mode, Situm Mapping Tool (see previous figure) allows you to select which one to use: 1) only WiFi, 2) only BLE, 3) both WiFi and BLE (recommended). WiFi and BLE are the most important sensors that can be used to yield a high accuracy experience. It is recommended that, if you have calibrated your building with WiFi and BLE, you use both signals for positioning. The following image represents a building that has been calibrated both with WiFi and BLE.
This can be useful to see, for instance, how Situm positioning will work in your building if you enable/disable one of them. In the Positioning menu, the number of WiFi APs and BLE beacons scanned is updated in real-time (1). By clicking on the dialog, you may see all the BLE beacon (2) and WiFi (3) scans, updated in real time.
Mode #2: Calibrated Indoor GPS
This mode determines the user’s location by fusing together the WiFi/BLE and GPS signals of the device, but only in those areas which have been previously calibrated (see this explanation for more detail).
To activate it, turn ON the "Use GPS for indoor location" option on the Positioning Settings. This will allow Situm to fuse the GPS information (with WiFi / BLE) all the time as another information source. When the smartphone is below roof, the GPS information will be of low quality and therefore will be of low importance, but when the GPS is under open sky, the GPS will become more important and help get a better location experience.
Like with WiFi / BLE, Situm will only render valid geolocations within calibrated areas. This means that you will need to calibrate outdoor areas such as roofs or parking lots where you want Situm to use GPS information. For example, in the following image we show how we calibrated not only the indoor areas where WiFi/BLE will typically be used, but also the parking lot where GPS will play an important role.
This method can be deactivated for all the smartphones in the building by setting a special custom field.
Mode #3: Uncalibrated Indoor GPS
This method also fuses GPS with WiFi/BLE signal to provide and Indoor Position, but contrary to the previous one, this method can provide positioning both in calibrated and uncalibrated areas. Uncalibrated areas have to be delimited by special geofences (blue areas in the following figure), where GPS will be used without needing to calibrate them. See this explanation for more detail,
Therefore, this method avoids the need for calibrating outdoor areas in general. For instance, in the previous section we explained how we had to calibrate some outdoor areas of the building, such as the parking lot. This time consumming task can be avoided with the "Uncalibrated Indoor GPS" method.
This method requires two simple preconfigurations. First, turn ON the "Use GPS for indoor location" option on the Positioning Settings.
Second, the building must contain geofences with a specific configuration in the outdoor areas where the GPS information will be used. After this, Situm will be able to fuse GPS intelligently not only within the calibrated areas, but also within the uncalibrated ones that have been delimited by these geofences.
Like the Calibrated GPS Indoor, this method can be deactivated for all the smartphones in the building by setting a special custom field.