JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Q. What is IMES?

The inaugural IMES Consortium meeting, held in June 2011.

IMES (Indoor MEssaging System) is a technology that allows seamless indoor and outdoor positioning. During the process of developing the Quasi-Zenith Satellite-1, also known as MICHIBIKI, JAXA worked with private-sector company to develop this original Japanese technology. IMES uses the same frequencies as American GPS satellites, and provides information on a location’s longitude, latitude and height(Floor level) from a transmitter installed indoors.

MICHIBIKI’s purpose is to complement and support GPS, because in urban locations GPS signals are frequently blocked by buildings and other structures. These signals also cannot penetrate underground. So we wondered if we could come up with another system that would complement GPS indoors, in order to improve its effectiveness. Looking at how people behave in cities, at any given time around 70% are indoors. This made us think that providing location information indoors would be useful.

In June 2011, we set up the IMES Consortium as a place to share information in order to popularize and grow IMES. Our purpose is to build relationships to propagate IMES, and today we have around 200 members. Many of the members work for private-sector companies, more than 100, and many are considering creating new businesses.

Q. There are location information systems, for example, that use wireless LAN access points. How does IMES differ from other systems?

IMES receiver (left) and transmitter (right). (courtesy: GNSS Technologies Inc.)

What distinguishes IMES is that it uses the same frequencies as GPS satellites. This means that mobile phones capable of receiving a GPS signal can receive IMES location information. IMES location information contains longitude, latitude and height (the floor of a building where the transmitter is located on), and the IMES location information corresponds to Location Information Codes from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI). (The Location Information Code system divides all of Japan into 3-meter segments.) In addition, only IMES can provide information on height, to determine what floor of a building you are on. That’s particularly important, for example, when paramedics need to pinpoint exactly where a call came from. Now, they will be able to find out where to go.

Unfortunately, commercially available GPS-capable mobile phones do not currently have software to handle IMES information. For now, IMES users need a special receiver. To deal with that problem, we are testing a way to use Bluetooth to send data from an IMES receiver to a mobile phone.

Q. What kinds of test are being conducted with IMES?

Information board with a built-in IMES transmitter. (courtesy: GNSS Technologies Inc.)

We are about to test location information and advertising delivery in a shopping center. We are going to install around 130 transmitters on the first eight floors of the Futako Tamagawa Rise Shopping Center, run by Tokyu Corporation, and provide store information, advertising, etc. For example, customers can receive discount coupons on their mobile phones based on their proximity to certain stores. The project was accepted by the JAXA Space Open Laboratory, so we are preparing to conduct the test starting in December.

In addition, we anticipate IMES applications will be created for automated information systems at museums. Last year, a test was conducted to link IMES with the MICHIBIKI satellite at the Abashiri Prison Museum in Hokkaido. Softbank Mobile Corp., which assisted with this test, provided an app that participants used to figure out their position both indoors and outdoors, and to receive information about the exhibits based on their location.

Furthermore, there is an initiative to use IMES technology in medicine and home-care nursing. This is an experiment, led by Dr. Masakazu Aihara of Jichi Medical University, to install IMES transmitters at the entrance of a nursing patient’s home and in the room where nursing care is provided, and to record the nurse’s actions on a dedicated tablet device. Home-care services depend on a relationship of trust between local governments, nursing-care operators and patients, but unfortunately there are malicious nursing-care operators who send falsified reports to local governments, and receive subsidies even though they do not provide services properly. The IMES equipment will collect evidence showing whether or not home-care services are actually being provided. The goal is to ensure quality at-home services. So what we should pay attention to in this experiment is how the dedicated devices are used.

Q. What are the advantages of using a dedicated device?

Dedicated device recording a nurse’s actions. (courtesy: the Jichi Medical University Division of General Practice Center.)

Whether it’s IMES or the Quasi-Zenith Satellite, a dedicated device can easily take on new features suited to individual needs. With a commercially manufactured device, we would not be able to act as quickly because every time we wanted to add a new feature, we’d have to ask the manufacturer.

There are other advantages to a dedicated device. For example, many people say they want to have access to IMES in case there is a disaster underground. If we give clerks in underground stores dedicated devices, then, when a disaster happens underground, the local disaster center can send emergency information and evacuation routes to those devices. In this kind of situation, I think that emergency information sent to an individual’s mobile phone, combined with other information from personal contacts, can actually be confusing - there can be too much information, or erroneous advice. By contrast, the information sent to a dedicated device is limited, so store clerks will see only the necessary information, and will be able to help customers evacuate properly. We can use IMES to increase public safety.

Q. What are the issues involved in commercializing IMES?

LED light with IMES transmitter (courtesy: Ricoh Company, Ltd.)

The biggest issue is that mobile phones capable of reading IMES signals are still not commercially available. You can say the same thing about MICHIBIKI. Recently, American manufacturers have started selling receivers that can read MICHIBIKI’s signals, but mobile phones are still not compatible with the satellite. Many mobile phone chips have GPS receivers that use large-scale integration (LSI). Just rewriting the chip’s software a little can give the phone the ability to read Quasi-Zenith Satellite signals as well as IMES signals, but that hasn’t been done. All mobile network carriers are interested in IMES, but we cannot foresee how far the system can go commercially. No matter how wonderful it may be, I don’t think that businesses will believe in it unless we can show them a practical use for it, so I think it is important to provide more examples.

Plus, there is the problem of who will pay to install indoor transmitters. A transmitter is about as big as a business card, and costs tens of thousands of yen. This will cost money to install, because the transmitters need to be placed 5 to 10 meters apart, and wired. However, Ricoh Company, Ltd. recently came out with a prototype of a fluorescent LED lamp with a built-in IMES transmitter. With this kind of transmitter, there is no need for new wiring. The IMES Consortium would like to ask the Japanese national and local governments to install transmitters. This is because IMES technology can be used as a safety tool in disaster response. I don’t think that’s a bad proposition for governments, because if people use the transmitters for business and generate a profit, tax revenue will go up, which would help pay for the devices.

Q. Please tell us your vision of the future for satellite positioning systems.

I think of Quasi-Zenith Satellites and IMES as complementary systems. Ideally, we will use a single device for seamless indoor/outdoor positioning that can provide an accurate information whether inside a building or outdoors. I really want to create a society in which we can use one device to read positioning satellite signals - GPS, MICHIBIKI, IMES or whatever - to obtain the most correct location information anywhere we happen to be.