KakaoNavi Launches LTE Signal-Based Indoor Positioning Technology Pilot Service

Accurate Navigation in GPS-Dead Tunnels
First Applied to Three Tunnels on Gangnam Sunhwan-ro

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] Kakao Mobility announced on the 6th that it has applied the LTE signal-based indoor positioning technology ‘FIN’ to Kakao Navi and started the 'Kakao Navi FIN pilot service' in three tunnels on the Gangnam Beltway.

With this pilot service, users will be able to receive accurate navigation guidance even in tunnels where GPS signals do not reach.

FIN is a technology implemented to find precise locations by comparing and analyzing LTE signal patterns. After building a map of LTE signals, it measures the location by comparing and analyzing the LTE signal patterns from the user's smartphone. This is the first time the location accuracy has been improved to a level applicable to actual navigation services and commercialized.

Although research on LTE signal-based indoor positioning technology has been continuously conducted, commercialization was difficult due to unstable location accuracy. This is because securing the technology to accurately match LTE signal patterns must be accompanied by the construction of a large-scale location database such as an LTE signal map.

To develop the FIN technology, Kakao Mobility has been jointly researching with Dr. Taek-jin Lee’s team at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) since October 2018, and independently built a large-scale signal pattern database, successfully commercializing the technology.

Kakao Mobility is first launching the Kakao Navi pilot service with FIN technology applied in three tunnels on the Gangnam Beltway (Gwanak Tunnel, Bongcheon Tunnel, Seocho Tunnel). Kakao Navi users will be able to receive accurate guidance at junctions within the pilot service tunnel sections. This service is available on Kakao Navi Android app version 3.42 or higher.

Kakao Mobility has set a goal to expand the sections so that Kakao Navi equipped with FIN technology can be experienced in all tunnels nationwide, and to improve the technology’s precision to a level where vehicle location confirmation and navigation immediately after exiting are possible even in underground parking lots.

Dr. Sang-hoon Jeon, head of the Kakao Mobility Intelligence Division in charge of the FIN technology pilot service, said, "In addition to LTE, we plan to continuously advance location estimation technology by integrating sensor information such as visual positioning."