- Navizon
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Mexens Technology, Inc 
Type Inc Industry Telecommunications Founded 2005 Founder(s) Cyril Houri Headquarters New York, NY, United States Key people Cyril Houri, CEO Products Navizon Virtual GPS Services Location-Based Services & Positioning Technologies Website http://www.navizon.com Navizon is a hybrid positioning system combining GPS, Wi-Fi and Cellular triangulation techniques. It calculates the geographic location of a wireless device by analyzing the signals from nearby Wi-Fi access points and cellular towers and comparing it against a database of known data points. Moreover, Navizon has the ability to run in the background, allowing the user to open other applications on his device at the same time. The software can be installed on several platforms such as Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, iPhone, Symbian S60 and some Java ME phones. Navizon was the first virtual GPS available for a jailbroken iPhone and the most downloaded through Installer.app The software uses a unique technology to improve the coverage and accuracy of the system and covers the U.S., Europe and urban areas worldwide.
Contents
Applications
Navizon includes some built-in features such as the Buddy Finder, the Alert System (also known as Geofencing), trail logging capability and MobiFindr that lets a user get a device's location just by sending a text message to it.
Technology
Navizon is an open system with a collaborative approach: it uses the data collected by users with a GPS device to improve the coverage and accuracy of the system when used in Wi-Fi or Cellular positioning modes. It can be used as an Assisted GPS by switching to Wi-Fi or Cellular positioning modes when GPS signals are weak or unavailable such as in an indoors environment. It can also be used as an alternative to GPS on devices that don't have a GPS chip but have a Wi-Fi or Cellular radio. It can also be used to improve the time of acquisition of a position fix which can take up to 5 minutes with a standard GPS and less than one second with Wi-Fi or Cellular triangulation.
Mexens Technology Inc has received a Patent for its “System and Method for Enabling Continuous Geographic Location Estimation for Wireless Computing Devices” (US Patent No. 7397424).
Community
Navizon's strong growing community is unique by its diversity of cross-platforms and cross-carriers users. 700,000 people are registered worldwide thus improving every day the precision of the navigation system. Contributors are rewarded when they discover new Wi-Fi access points or new cell towers. This is one of the key factor of the community growth.
Development
The Navizon Software Development Kit (SDK) allows developers to include the Navizon positioning system into their own application. The application runs in the background of the device allowing the location to be updated while other applications are running.
See also
References
- Gizmodo September 2007 -Navizon faux GPS Hacks for IPhone works and is awesome
- Engadget Mobile June 2008 -"Navizon's Mobfindr gets your phone to text home"
- Techcrunch June 2008 - "Location Technologies Primer"
- Navizon updates
- Navizon Patent
External links
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