Satellite phones don’t work indoors (scriptwriters for 24 take note) but it looks like Nokia might just have found a way to get GPS-like navigation going behind closed doors.

Never again do you have to risk not finding the toilet in time in a strange house in the middle of the night. It also has other practical uses too – like helping you hone in on products in the supermarket without the need to ever talk to the sales staff.

Kimmo Kalliola, Nokia’s research leader for Wireless Systems and Services gave an update on Indoor Positioning at the Way We Live Next conference that’s currently being held at Nokia central in Espoo, Finland.

One of the key things to getting it to work is using wireless networks inside buildings to help find your way around. The biggest challenge, however, is actually mapping out locations – although that could be helped by community submissions.

Nokia is currently trialling indoor positioning in over 40 of its offices worldwide and there’ll be a commercial trial in a shopping centre in Helsinki later in the year. It’s also considering releasing it through Beta Labs, so everyone can have a play with it and see what they think.

(via Nokia Conversations)