Innovative Wireless Localization Techniques and Applications

Innovative methodologies for the wireless localization of users and related applications are addressed in this thesis. In last years, the widespread diffusion of pervasive wireless communication (e.g., Wi-Fi) and global localization services (e.g., GPS) has boosted the interest and the research on location information and services. Location-aware applications are becoming fundamental to a growing number of consumers (e.g., navigation, advertising, seamless user interaction with smart places), private and public institutions in the fields of energy efficiency, security, safety, fleet management, emergency response. In this context, the position of the user - where is often more valuable for deploying services of interest than the identity of the user itself - who. In detail, opportunistic approaches based on the analysis of electromagnetic field indicators (i.e., received signal strength and channel state information) for the presence detection, the localization, the tracking and the posture recognition of cooperative and non-cooperative (device-free) users in indoor environments are proposed and validated in real world test sites. The methodologies are designed to exploit existing wireless infrastructures and commodity devices without any hardware modification. In outdoor environments, global positioning technologies are already available in commodity devices and vehicles, the research and knowledge transfer activities are actually focused on the design and validation of algorithms and systems devoted to support decision makers and operators for increasing efficiency, operations security, and management of large fleets as well as localized sensed information in order to gain situation awareness. In this field, a decision support system for emergency response and Civil Defense assets management (i.e., personnel and vehicles equipped with TETRA mobile radio) is described in terms of architecture and results of two-years of experimental validation

Smart Signs: Showing the way in Smart Surroundings

This paper presents a context-aware guidance and messaging system for large buildings and surrounding venues. Smart Signs are a new type of electronic door- and way-sign based on wireless sensor networks. Smart Signs present in-situ personalized guidance and messages, are ubiquitous, and easy to understand. They combine the easiness of use of traditional static signs with the flexibility and reactiveness of navigation systems. The Smart Signs system uses context information such as user’s mobility limitations, the weather, and possible emergency situations to improve guidance and messaging. Minimal infrastructure requirements and a simple deployment tool make it feasible to easily deploy a Smart Signs system on demand. An important design issue of the Smart Signs system is privacy: the system secures communication links, does not track users, allow almost complete anonymous use, and prevent the system to be used as a tool for spying on users

AmIE: An Ambient Intelligent Environment for Assisted Living

In the modern world of technology Internet-of-things (IoT) systems strives to provide an extensive interconnected and automated solutions for almost every life aspect. This paper proposes an IoT context-aware system to present an Ambient Intelligence (AmI) environment; such as an apartment, house, or a building; to assist blind, visually-impaired, and elderly people. The proposed system aims at providing an easy-to-utilize voice-controlled system to locate, navigate and assist users indoors. The main purpose of the system is to provide indoor positioning, assisted navigation, outside weather information, room temperature, people availability, phone calls and emergency evacuation when needed. The system enhances the user's awareness of the surrounding environment by feeding them with relevant information through a wearable device to assist them. In addition, the system is voice-controlled in both English and Arabic languages and the information are displayed as audio messages in both languages. The system design, implementation, and evaluation consider the constraints in common types of premises in Kuwait and in challenges, such as the training needed by the users. This paper presents cost-effective implementation options by the adoption of a Raspberry Pi microcomputer, Bluetooth Low Energy devices and an Android smart watch.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl

Navigating MazeMap: indoor human mobility, spatio-logical ties and future potential

Global navigation systems and location-based services have found their way into our daily lives. Recently, indoor positioning techniques have also been proposed, and there are several live or trial systems already operating. In this paper, we present insights from MazeMap, the first live indoor/outdoor positioning and navigation system deployed at a large university campus in Norway. Our main contribution is a measurement case study; we show the spatial and temporal distribution of MazeMap geo-location and wayfinding requests, construct the aggregated human mobility map of the campus and find strong logical ties between different locations. On one hand, our findings are specific to the venue; on the other hand, the nature of available data and insights coupled with our discussion on potential usage scenarios for indoor positioning and location-based services predict a successful future for these systems and applications.Comment: 6 pages, accepted at PerMoby Workshop at IEEE PerCom 201

ANGELAH: A Framework for Assisting Elders At Home

The ever growing percentage of elderly people within modern societies poses welfare systems under relevant stress. In fact, partial and progressive loss of motor, sensorial, and/or cognitive skills renders elders unable to live autonomously, eventually leading to their hospitalization. This results in both relevant emotional and economic costs. Ubiquitous computing technologies can offer interesting opportunities for in-house safety and autonomy. However, existing systems partially address in-house safety requirements and typically focus on only elder monitoring and emergency detection. The paper presents ANGELAH, a middleware-level solution integrating both ”elder monitoring and emergency detection” solutions and networking solutions. ANGELAH has two main features: i) it enables efficient integration between a variety of sensors and actuators deployed at home for emergency detection and ii) provides a solid framework for creating and managing rescue teams composed of individuals willing to promptly assist elders in case of emergency situations. A prototype of ANGELAH, designed for a case study for helping elders with vision impairments, is developed and interesting results are obtained from both computer simulations and a real-network testbed

An Indoor Navigation System Using a Sensor Fusion Scheme on Android Platform

With the development of wireless communication networks, smart phones have become a necessity for people’s daily lives, and they meet not only the needs of basic functions for users such as sending a message or making a phone call, but also the users’ demands for entertainment, surfing the Internet and socializing. Navigation functions have been commonly utilized, however the navigation function is often based on GPS (Global Positioning System) in outdoor environments, whereas a number of applications need to navigate indoors. This paper presents a system to achieve high accurate indoor navigation based on Android platform. To do this, we design a sensor fusion scheme for our system. We divide the system into three main modules: distance measurement module, orientation detection module and position update module. We use an efficient way to estimate the stride length and use step sensor to count steps in distance measurement module. For orientation detection module, in order to get the optimal result of orientation, we then introduce Kalman filter to de-noise the data collected from different sensors. In the last module, we combine the data from the previous modules and calculate the current location. Results of experiments show that our system works well and has high accuracy in indoor situations