Magnetic beacon self-localization using mobile device magnetometers

A computer-implemented method for determining position of a mobile device using magnetic beacons, comprising:

• storing, by the mobile device, location and an associated signature for each of a plurality of magnetic beacons in a data store of the mobile device, where each of the plurality of magnetic beacons is assigned a different associated signature;
• detecting, by a magnetometer in the mobile device, magnetic signals from two or more magnetic beacons, where the magnetic signals have a frequency in extremely low frequency band;
• selecting one of the two or more magnetic beacons as a selected magnetic beacon, where the selected magnetic beacon emitted a particular magnetic signal having the largest magnitude amongst the magnetic signals detected by the magnetometer and the particular magnetic signal from the selected magnetic beacon has a unique signature associated with the selected magnetic beacon;
• extracting, by the mobile device, the unique signature from the particular magnetic signal;
• comparing, by the mobile device, the extracted unique signature to each of the associated signatures stored in the data store;
• identifying, by the mobile device, a given magnetic beacon from among the plurality of magnetic beacons, where the associated signature for the given magnetic beacon matches the extracted unique signature;
• retrieving, by the mobile device, the location for the given magnetic beacon from the data store;
• and
• presenting, by the mobile device, the retrieved location on a user interface of the mobile device.