Apple iBeacon Indoor Mapping Patent sheds more light on Future Location Services

Last April we posted a report titled "When it comes to iBeacon Readiness, iOS-7 iDevices Score 87% vs. Android Devices at a Paltry 2.5%," followed by a report in May titled "A Brief Overview of iBeacon Technology that could also be used in Future Home Automation" which also covered businesses. Both reports provided basic overviews of Apple's iBeacon technology along with graphics illustrating indoor mapping. Today the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals some of their intellectual property on the subject of indoor mapping using beacon technology. Apple's patent generally relates to techniques for monitoring device locations within buildings and enhancing user services with indoor traffic information. Finding your friends or kids in a mall, or a colleague at a crowed trade-show could be a new service that we could look forward to on our iDevices in the future.