Fireground location understanding by semantic linking of visual objects and building information models

This paper presents an outline for improved localization and situational awareness in fire emergency situations based on semantic technology and computer vision techniques. The novelty of our methodology lies in the semantic linking of video object recognition results from visual and thermal cameras with Building Information Models (BIM). The current limitations and possibilities of certain building information streams in the context of fire safety or fire incident management are addressed in this paper. Furthermore, our data management tools match higher-level semantic metadata descriptors of BIM and deep-learning based visual object recognition and classification networks. Based on these matches, estimations can be generated of camera, objects and event positions in the BIM model, transforming it from a static source of information into a rich, dynamic data provider. Previous work has already investigated the possibilities to link BIM and low-cost point sensors for fireground understanding, but these approaches did not take into account the benefits of video analysis and recent developments in semantics and feature learning research. Finally, the strengths of the proposed approach compared to the state-of-the-art is its (semi -)automatic workflow, generic and modular setup and multi-modal strategy, which allows to automatically create situational awareness, to improve localization and to facilitate the overall fire understanding

Positioning Techniques with Smartphone Technology: Performances and Methodologies in Outdoor and Indoor Scenarios

Smartphone technology is widespread both in the academy and in the commercial world. Almost every people have today a smartphone in their pocket, that are not only used to call other people but also to share their location on social networks or to plan activities. Today with a smartphone we can compute our position using the sensors settled inside the device that may also include accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers, teslameter, proximity sensors, barometer, and GPS/GNSS chipset. In this chapter we want to analyze the state-of-the-art of the positioning with smartphone technology, considering both outdoor and indoor scenarios. Particular attention will be paid to this last situation, where the accuracy can be improved fusing information coming from more than one sensor. In particular, we will investigate an innovative method of image recognition based (IRB) technology, particularly useful in GNSS denied environment, taking into account the two main problems that arise when the IRB positioning methods are considered: the first one is the optimization of the battery, that implies the minimization of the frame rate, and secondly the latencies due to image processing for visual search solutions, required by the size of the database with the 3D environment images

Evaluating indoor positioning systems in a shopping mall : the lessons learned from the IPIN 2018 competition

The Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation (IPIN) conference holds an annual competition in which indoor localization systems from different research groups worldwide are evaluated empirically. The objective of this competition is to establish a systematic evaluation methodology with rigorous metrics both for real-time (on-site) and post-processing (off-site) situations, in a realistic environment unfamiliar to the prototype developers. For the IPIN 2018 conference, this competition was held on September 22nd, 2018, in Atlantis, a large shopping mall in Nantes (France). Four competition tracks (two on-site and two off-site) were designed. They consisted of several 1 km routes traversing several floors of the mall. Along these paths, 180 points were topographically surveyed with a 10 cm accuracy, to serve as ground truth landmarks, combining theodolite measurements, differential global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and 3D scanner systems. 34 teams effectively competed. The accuracy score corresponds to the third quartile (75th percentile) of an error metric that combines the horizontal positioning error and the floor detection. The best results for the on-site tracks showed an accuracy score of 11.70 m (Track 1) and 5.50 m (Track 2), while the best results for the off-site tracks showed an accuracy score of 0.90 m (Track 3) and 1.30 m (Track 4). These results showed that it is possible to obtain high accuracy indoor positioning solutions in large, realistic environments using wearable light-weight sensors without deploying any beacon. This paper describes the organization work of the tracks, analyzes the methodology used to quantify the results, reviews the lessons learned from the competition and discusses its future

Toward a unified PNT, Part 1: Complexity and context: Key challenges of multisensor positioning

The next generation of navigation and positioning systems must provide greater accuracy and reliability in a range of challenging environments to meet the needs of a variety of mission-critical applications. No single navigation technology is robust enough to meet these requirements on its own, so a multisensor solution is required. Known environmental features, such as signs, buildings, terrain height variation, and magnetic anomalies, may or may not be available for positioning. The system could be stationary, carried by a pedestrian, or on any type of land, sea, or air vehicle. Furthermore, for many applications, the environment and host behavior are subject to change. A multi-sensor solution is thus required. The expert knowledge problem is compounded by the fact that different modules in an integrated navigation system are often supplied by different organizations, who may be reluctant to share necessary design information if this is considered to be intellectual property that must be protected

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