Nokia, Samsung, Sony Mobile and Qualcomm are among the founder members of an alliance of 22 companies aimed at driving innovation and market adoption of high-accuracy indoor positioning technology and related services.

The In-Location Alliance will help develop highly accurate and usable technology with low power consumption. The main technologies used will be enhanced low energy Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi, both of which are commonly used in mobile handsets.

The Alliance will also promote open interfaces and a standard-based approach in order to create a multi-vendor environment. The hope is that this work will create an ecosystem that accelerates the uptake of indoor positioning technology and drives innovation around it.

The work should pave the way for services such as directions to particular products in shops, real-time navigation inside buildings, location of people and items, and increasing security in emergency situations. For local service providers it could increase local customer identification, improve product placement and help them deploy resources in appropriate places.

Member organisations will pilot the most promising services and present the resulting data to the Alliance. Pre-commercial pilots and business model verification will start this year with handset vendors likely to implement the first consumer applications in 2013.

"The aim of the In-Location Alliance is to act as a pioneer opening up new business streams for indoor environments. Indoor positioning is the next frontier of mobile services, offering great opportunities to enhance consumer experiences,” a statement said.

The other founding members of the alliance are Broadcom, CSR, Dialog Semiconductor, Eptisa, Geomobile, Genasys, Indra, Insiteo,
Nomadic Solutions, Nordic Semiconductor, Nordic Technology Group, NowOn, Primax Electronics, RapidBlue Solutions, Seolane Innovation, TamperSeal AB, Team Action Zone and Visioglobe.