The NAO® Concept
Real-time, accurate positioning calculation
The NAO® product range has been developed to compensate for the weaknesses of GPS in urban environments and to allow indoor location. GPS has certain weaknesses in terms of startup time, accuracy and coverage in urban environments (especially for pedestrians). In addition, it is very unreliable inside buildings and is often inaccurate. In urban environments or in building complexes (ie. shopping centers, industrial sites, etc.), indoors and outdoors, NAO® allows safe, fully operational positioning.
Meeting the highest requirements
Thanks to their excellent performance (fast startup, accuracy) and seamless coverage throughout the city, NAO® products satisfy the most demanding applications including pedestrian navigation in urban areas and inside buildings, geotagging, electronic tourist guides, electronic guides for trade shows and exhibitions, firefighter security in pre-equipped sites, and guidance for the visually impaired, among others.
Software integrated into user terminals
NAO® products have been designed especially for general public mobile terminals (smart-type cell phones, PDAs, PNDs, laptops, netbooks, PC tablets) but they also are compatible with professional terminals (EDA, specific terminals). NAO® products function by combining GPS signals (and in the future, Galileo signals), Wi-Fi signals and cartographic data. They are designed for terminals equipped with GPS (or A-GPS) and Wi-Fi receivers or uniquely Wi-Fi terminals.
NAO® products consist of a software integrated into user terminals and exploiting an embedded data base. Calculations are made on the terminal to preserve data confidentiality and prevent any latency in the position calculation.
The NAO® product line includes the following products
NAO Campus®: Indoor location technology (including outdoor area around the building).
NAO City®: Outdoor location technology for urban and stringent environment (such as covered passages).
NAO Dual®: Combines NAO City® and NAO Campus® in a single software. NAO Dual® is a fast, accurate, available, continuous and seamless location solution, for indoors, deep urban canyons and open sky environments.
Figure 1. Mobile dialogue (user terminals) with NAO® architecture
