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, supposed 20-30 meter accuracy and near 100% availability indoors and in dense urban areas, it is very complementary to GPS.
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Skyhook Developers Blog
Developers Blog. Locale Adds Skyhook for Better Location on Android. March 24th, 2009. Skyhook announced another partnership this week, with a company called two ...www.skyhookwireless.com/developers/blogSky Hook
The insights of the NBA's all-time leading leader scorer ... The skyhook. ... The L.A. Times has placed various advertisements on my blog page. ...latimesblogs.latimes.com/kareem/skyhook/index.htmlSkyhook Developers Blog " 2009 " January
You are currently browsing the Skyhook Developers Blog blog archives for January, 2009. ... Blog: Archive for January, 2009. Orbicule Parters with Skyhook for ...www.skyhookwireless.com/developers/blog/2009/01/Skyhook — Blogs, Pictures, and more on WordPress
Blog. Our Story. Advanced. Blogs about: Skyhook. Featured Blog. LBS: A Dream Continually Deferred ... tagged with "skyhook": Technorati Del.icio.us IceRocket ...en.wordpress.com/tag/skyhook/The Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Blog: Skyhook Archives
The skyhook. ... Search this blog: Captain Kareem ... April 2008. March 2008. February 2008. Recent Posts. How to shoot a skyhook ... after 50 ...kareemabduljabbar.com/blog/skyhook/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, supposed 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 100 million wi-fi access points and covers 70 percent of population centers in the United States and Canada.
Skyhook Wireless offers 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 in geotagging their pictures.
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.
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.
Skyhook hacking
An article was written describing how to use the Skyhook database with an iPhone and a laptop running Linux to identify the location of a MAC address.
There is also a video showing how to trick Skyhook's Location Service. The user searches Google for some other router's MAC address, sets his/her laptop to broadcast that fake MAC address, and thereby fool their iPhone or iPod Touch's Location Services into thinking it's at the original router's location. This article was also published in the 2008 summer edition of the magazine 2600.
An article was written exposing the underlying protocol to query the Skyhook database for the physical location of any MAC address.
References
- Boston business article
- USA Today article
- Terry Stenvold's Don't 'Locate Me' page
- 2600 Magazine Summer 2008
See also
- Hybrid positioning system
