SEOUL, April 02 (AJP) - Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed a foundational technology to build a nationwide Wi-Fi radio map, the prominent research institute said Thursday. The development could lay a stepping stone for a move expected to secure South Korea's "location sovereignty" and reduce reliance on global tech giants.
A radio map acts as a database linking Wi-Fi signals, which are wireless internet signals, to specific physical coordinates. By identifying unique signal patterns, mobile devices can pinpoint their location indoors or in dense urban areas where Global Positioning System (GPS) signals are often blocked by skyscrapers or thick walls. For South Korea, establishing an independent national radio map is a critical step toward ensuring that essential location data remains a domestic asset rather than depending on proprietary databases managed by foreign entities like Google or Apple.
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) said that a research team led by School of Computing Professor Han Dong-su has spent eight years perfecting this technology. The method automates the creation of these maps by pairing Wi-Fi signals collected by smartphones with existing address information.
The core innovation lies in its efficiency. Traditional methods of building radio maps require manual data collection, which is often too expensive and time-consuming to execute at a national scale. The new technique utilizes signals gathered through everyday smartphone app usage—such as during online shopping or making payments—and links them to merchant or delivery addresses. This allows for the rapid construction of a comprehensive database at a low cost.
This infrastructure has significant implications for public safety. During emergency calls to police or fire departments, the technology can drastically reduce the search radius for missing persons, such as elderly citizens with dementia, helping responders secure the "golden time" necessary to save lives. It can also prevent financial fraud by ensuring that digital payments only occur at verified physical locations, making remote hacking or identity theft much harder to execute.
The technology was recently validated in Daejeon, where researchers used a gas meter reading app to test the system. The demonstration confirmed that an average of 30 Wi-Fi signals could be detected in a single apartment unit, proving that a city-wide radio map could be built quickly using existing mobile traffic.
Beyond safety, the research team noted that precise location data is essential for the future of artificial intelligence (AI), including autonomous driving, robotics, and logistics. It also enables advanced services like GeoLLM, which integrates location data with large language models to provide contextual information about a user's environment and activities.
"Building a national-scale radio map is a task too large for any single company," Professor Han Dong-su said. "It requires a public-private partnership involving the government, telecommunications companies, and platform providers. Location infrastructure is a core asset directly linked to national data sovereignty."
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