Skyhook Wireless

Infobox_Company
company_name = Skyhook Wireless
company_
company_type =
company_slogan =
foundation = 2003
founder =
location_city = Boston, Massachusetts
location_country = United States
locations =
key_people = Ted Morgan, CEO & Co-Founder
Mike Shean, VP of Business Development & Co-Founder
Nick Brachet, CTO
Farshid Alizadeh, CSO
Steve Solari, COO
Jed Rice, VP of Market Development
Kipp Jones, Senior Architect
num_employees =
industry =
products = Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) & Loki
services = Location Based Services & Positioning Technologies
revenue = undisclosed
homepage = [http://www.skyhookwireless.com/ Skyhook Wireless]
intl =

Skyhook Wireless (formerly known as Quarterscope) is a Boston-based company that has developed a technology for determining geographical location using Wi-Fi as the underlying reference system. Using the MAC addresses of nearby wireless access points and proprietary algorithms, WPS can determine the position of a mobile device within 20-30 meters. It provides service similar to GPS without GPS hardware and can also integrate with GPS-enabled devices to provide hybrid positioning. With sub-second time-to-first-fix, 20-30 meter accuracy and near 100% availability indoors and in dense urban areas, it is very complementary to GPS.

Skyhook's database includes more than 50 million wi-fi access points and covers 70 percent of population centers in the United States and Canada. [ [http://www.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2008/01/14/daily20.html Skyhook powers Apple's new location apps - Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology: ] ]

Skyhook Wireless offers Loki [ [http://www.loki.com Loki] ] , a free 'virtual GPS' toolbar that automatically integrates a user's location with web content such as Google Maps, Fandango, Weather.com, etc.

Skyhook announced a partnership to help users geotag their pictures. [ [http://www.skyhookwireless.com/press/skyhook_locr.php Skyhook Wireless ] ]

At the Macworld Conference & Expo in January 2008, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that both the iPhone and iPod touch will use Skyhook's WPS as the primary location engine for Google Maps and other applications. [ [http://www.macworld.com/article/131581/2008/01/iphoneupdate.html "More powerful maps, multi-person SMS lead new iPhone features"] at Macworld]

Public SDK

Skyhook offers a software development kit (SDK), which allows developers to create location-enabled applications. This uses Skyhook's software-only Wi-Fi Positioning System on the platform of their choice. The software development kit is compatible with all GPS NMEA applications, and provides excellent accuracy and confidence estimation.

The SDK supports Windows XP, Vista and Mobile, as well as Symbian OS, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms. [ [http://www.skyhookwireless.com/developers/sdk.php Skyhook SDK] ]

Skyhook Hacking

An article was written describing how to use the Skyhook database with a IPhone and a laptop running Linux, to identify the location of a MAC address. [ [http://thebmxr.googlepages.com/Don_t_Locate_me.pdf Don't 'Locate Me' article] ]

There is also a video showing the process of using google to search for a MAC address and using the found MAC address with Skyhook's databaseFact|date=September 2008. This article was also published in the 2008 summer edition of the magazine 2600.

References

* [http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2008/01/21/you_are_here/ Boston business article]
* [http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2008-01-22-skyhook_N.htm USA Today article]
* [http://thebmxr.googlepages.com/home2 Terry Stenvold's Don't 'Locate Me' page]
* [http://store.2600.com/summer2008.html 2600 Magazine Summer 2008]

See also

* Hybrid positioning system

External links

* [http://www.skyhookwireless.com Skyhook Wireless corporate website]