Software turns laptops into navigators

A Boston company is giving away software that can turn nearly any laptop computer into a global positioning system, enabling users to find the nearest restaurant, hospital, or gas station at the touch of a button.

Skyhook Wireless Inc.'s new Loki service uses the popular WiFi wireless data networking system in a radical new way. The company has created WiFi maps of the nation's 100 largest cities, with precise locations for five million wireless data signals. Loki uses these wireless signals to tell users with WiFi laptops where they are -- and where they can obtain a variety of products and services. Anybody with a WiFi-equipped portable computer that runs Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system can use Loki, which is available for download at www.loki.com.

Skyhook's chief executive, Ted Morgan, said Loki is designed to complement the global positioning system, which uses radio signals from satellites to pinpoint locations on earth. ''As a user, you don't care whether it's coming from satellite or WiFi," he said. ''You just want the best possible location."

GPS often doesn't work in cities, because tall buildings may block satellite signals. US cities, however, are blanketed by millions of short-range radio signals from WiFi routers in homes and businesses. Each router broadcasts a unique ID code and is located at a precise point on the earth. So they can serve as homing beacons.

Skyhook Wireless hired people to drive down every street in America's 100 biggest cities. Their cars were loaded with WiFi detection gear, as well as GPS satellite receivers. A computer in the vehicle identified each unique WiFi signal, and linked it to latitude and longitude data from the GPS system. The result is a map showing the location of nearly every WiFi router in town.

The Loki network will be completely remapped once a year, Morgan said, to account for routers that have been switched off or moved, and for new routers.

With the Loki toolbar, anybody with a WiFi-equipped laptop and Internet access can instantly look up his latitude and longitude and see the location on a map or satellite photograph from Google.

In addition, the Loki toolbar links to dozens of geographic search tools on the Internet. At the touch of a button, the user can find the nearest hospitals, movie theaters, car repair shops, or restaurants. He can also read local news headlines and get a local weather forecast.

The Loki system uses people's WiFi routers without their permission. But Morgan said this doesn't raise privacy problems, because Loki does not listen in on the data being transmitted by the routers. It merely detects the router's unique ID number and location.

''It's in the public airwaves," Morgan said of the WiFi signals. ''Once you communicate over the public airwaves, you don't have any rights over it."

Skyhook hopes that by giving away the software, they can prove that the technology works, and that it has value to consumers. Then, Skyhook hopes to license the technology to wireless phone companies and other businesses.

Loki for laptops is just the beginning: Skyhook plans to add its software to WiFi equipped hand-held computers and cellphones.

Mike Liebhold, an expert on digital-location technology at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, Calif., said Loki opens the door to a new era: ''Eventually, everything you carry with you will be location-aware," he said.

Already, most cellphones contain chips that can pinpoint the caller's location to within a few dozen yards. But so far, most cellphone providers use this service only to aid emergency workers. Liebhold said Loki could spur the growth of location-aware systems.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.