Location Fingerprinting With Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons
TL;DR: This work provides a detailed study of BLE fingerprinting using 19 beacons distributed around a ~600 m2 testbed to position a consumer device, and investigates the choice of key parameters in a BLE positioning system, including beacon density, transmit power, and transmit frequency.
Abstract: The complexity of indoor radio propagation has resulted in location-awareness being derived from empirical fingerprinting techniques, where positioning is performed via a previously-constructed radio map, usually of WiFi signals. The recent introduction of the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) radio protocol provides new opportunities for indoor location. It supports portable battery-powered beacons that can be easily distributed at low cost, giving it distinct advantages over WiFi. However, its differing use of the radio band brings new challenges too. In this work, we provide a detailed study of BLE fingerprinting using 19 beacons distributed around a $\sim\! 600\ \mbox{m}^2$ testbed to position a consumer device. We demonstrate the high susceptibility of BLE to fast fading, show how to mitigate this, and quantify the true power cost of continuous BLE scanning. We further investigate the choice of key parameters in a BLE positioning system, including beacon density, transmit power, and transmit frequency. We also provide quantitative comparison with WiFi fingerprinting. Our results show advantages to the use of BLE beacons for positioning. For one-shot (push-to-fix) positioning we achieve $30\ \mbox{m}^2$ ), compared to $100\ \mbox{m}^2$ ) and < 8.5 m for an established WiFi network in the same area.
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09 Sep 2019
TL;DR: Using indoor localisation and a long-term deployment to identify delays and timeliness in the steps that lead to a surgery, the hospital can better schedule surgeries to increase the up-time of ORs and reduce overall costs.
Abstract: Indoor localisation has been an active area of research for the last decades, and while substantial research aims to increase localisation accuracy, little has been done in developing localisation data analytics for indoor spaces. There is a wide range of scenarios and applications in which efficiency is of the essence and localisation data could be used to optimise the general flow of people. For instance, Hospitals' Operating Rooms (ORs) cost up to $1,5001 per hour even when not being used, and therefore improving staff and patients' flow to maximise OR utilisation is important. By using indoor localisation and a long-term deployment to identify delays and timeliness in the steps that lead to a surgery, the hospital can better schedule surgeries to increase the up-time of ORs. Likewise, moving heavy assets through multi-floored construction sites can result in injuries and high costs. Minimising these movements by studying the flow of workers and assets can potentially result in a safer and healthier working environment and in a lower overall costs. Museums, zoos, festivals, and other exhibit-based sites can benefit from a more streamlined deployment and analysis of people's flow and insights on historical data. As of now, the process to turn indoor localisation data to useful analytics is not straightforward, remains bespoke, and costly.
8 citations
Additional excerpts
...Tests[7] show clear advantages in using BLE technology with an error < 2....
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12 Feb 2018
TL;DR: This work adapts two RSSI based presence detection techniques and evaluates their performance in experiments, indicating that it is possible to achieve a 92% accuracy using BLE when compared to the ground truth.
Abstract: Knowledge about the presence of persons in a waiting line can help estimating the waiting time or guiding the decision about opening a second line. However, existing presence detection systems for waiting lines are either mounted at fixed positions, take a long time to deploy, need a power connection or require users to carry devices. Past research on the analysis of the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) of a radio transmission indicates that it can be used to detect the presence of persons. Here, the accuracy of the detection is directly linked to the quality of the radio link. Radio links based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) offer a stable connection, but implement a mandatory frequency hopping scheme, with the information about the current channel typically not accessible. In this work we extend the concept of passive presence detection to work on BLE radio links. We adapt two RSSI based presence detection techniques and evaluate their performance in experiments. The experimental results indicate that it is possible to achieve a 92% accuracy using BLE when compared to the ground truth.
8 citations
TL;DR: An adaptive multi-type fingerprint indoor positioning and localization method based on multi-task learning (MTL) and Weight Coefficients K-Nearest Neighbor (WCKNN), which integrates magnetic field, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth fingerprints for positioning and localized.
Abstract: The complex indoor environment makes the use of received fingerprints unreliable as an indoor positioning and localization method based on fingerprint data. This paper proposes an adaptive multi-type fingerprint indoor positioning and localization method based on multi-task learning (MTL) and Weight Coefficients K-Nearest Neighbor (WCKNN), which integrates magnetic field, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth fingerprints for positioning and localization. The MTL fuses the features of different types of fingerprints to search the potential relationship between them. It also exploits the synergy between the tasks, which can boost up positioning and localization performance. Then the WCKNN predicts another position of the fingerprints in a certain class determined by the obtained location. The final position is obtained by fusing the predicted positions using a weighted average method whose weights are the positioning errors provided by positioning error prediction models. Experimental results indicated that the proposed method achieved 98.58% accuracy in classifying locations with a mean positioning error of 1.95 m.
8 citations
Cites background from "Location Fingerprinting With Blueto..."
...Today, there have been many studies on MF fingerprint [14,15] positioning and localization [16,17], Wi-Fi fingerprint positioning and localization [18,19], as well as Bluetooth fingerprint positioning and localization [20,21], but studies on...
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01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: This work evaluates experimentally the performance of a proximity-based indoor positioning system built with off-the-shelf beacons in a realistic environment and proposes an online algorithm based on moving average forecasting and evaluates the algorithm in the presence of human mobility.
Abstract: Bluetooth Low Energy beacons are small transmitters with long battery life that are considered for providing proximity-based services. In this work we evaluate experimentally the performance of a proximity-based indoor positioning system built with off-the-shelf beacons in a realistic environment. We demonstrate that the performance of the system depends on a number of factors, such as the distance between the beacon and the mobile device, the positioning of the beacon as well as the presence and positioning of obstacles such as human bodies. We further propose an online algorithm based on moving average forecasting and evaluate the algorithm in the presence of human mobility. We conclude that algorithms for proximity-based indoor positioning must be evaluated in realistic scenarios, for instance considering people and traffic on the used radio bands. The uncertainty in positioning is high in our experiments and hence the success of commercial context-aware solutions based on BLE beacons is highly dependent on the accuracy required by each application.
8 citations
Cites background from "Location Fingerprinting With Blueto..."
...One of the first works on BLE beacon accuracy for indoor positioning is presented in [8]....
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01 Nov 2017
TL;DR: This paper shows that the high sensitivity of BLE4.0 to fast fading makes infeasible the use of radio propagation models to directly estimate the distance between a reference transmitter and the mobile device, and argues that the mean error can be improved up to 28% configuring the two main parameters.
Abstract: The increasing interest on deploying ubiquitous context-based services has spurred the need of developing indoor localization mechanisms Such systems should take advantage of the large amount of wireless networks and radio interfaces already incorporated in most mobile consumer devices Among the existing radio interfaces, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 40 is called to play a major role in the deployment of energy efficient ubiquitous services In this paper, we first show that the high sensitivity of BLE40 to fast fading makes infeasible the use of radio propagation models to directly estimate the distance between a reference transmitter and the mobile device We then explore the use of supervised learning algorithms towards the development of radio maps of beacons analysing in-depth two metrics accuracy and mean error Our approach also explores two main parameters: (i) Transmission power (Tx) of the BLE40 beacons; and (ii) Physical characteristics of the area Based on our results, we argue that the mean error can be improved up to 28% configuring the two main parameters
8 citations
Cites background from "Location Fingerprinting With Blueto..."
...Beacon uses 40 channels, each 2 MHz wide....
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...In order to avoid interferences with Wi-Fi devices, beacon mainly uses channels 37 (2402 MHz), 38 (2426 MHz) and 39 (2480 MHz) [11]....
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References
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01 Nov 2007
TL;DR: Comprehensive performance comparisons including accuracy, precision, complexity, scalability, robustness, and cost are presented.
Abstract: Wireless indoor positioning systems have become very popular in recent years. These systems have been successfully used in many applications such as asset tracking and inventory management. This paper provides an overview of the existing wireless indoor positioning solutions and attempts to classify different techniques and systems. Three typical location estimation schemes of triangulation, scene analysis, and proximity are analyzed. We also discuss location fingerprinting in detail since it is used in most current system or solutions. We then examine a set of properties by which location systems are evaluated, and apply this evaluation method to survey a number of existing systems. Comprehensive performance comparisons including accuracy, precision, complexity, scalability, robustness, and cost are presented.
4,123 citations
"Location Fingerprinting With Blueto..." refers background in this paper
...Indoor positioning is a mature research field, with many proposed technologies and techniques—comprehensive overviews can be found in [2], [18], [19]....
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06 Jun 2005
TL;DR: The Horus system identifies different causes for the wireless channel variations and addresses them and uses location-clustering techniques to reduce the computational requirements of the algorithm and the lightweight Horus algorithm helps in supporting a larger number of users by running the algorithm at the clients.
Abstract: We present the design and implementation of the Horus WLAN location determination system. The design of the Horus system aims at satisfying two goals: high accuracy and low computational requirements. The Horus system identifies different causes for the wireless channel variations and addresses them to achieve its high accuracy. It uses location-clustering techniques to reduce the computational requirements of the algorithm. The lightweight Horus algorithm helps in supporting a larger number of users by running the algorithm at the clients.We discuss the different components of the Horus system and its implementation under two different operating systems and evaluate the performance of the Horus system on two testbeds. Our results show that the Horus system achieves its goal. It has an error of less than 0.6 meter on the average and its computational requirements are more than an order of magnitude better than other WLAN location determination systems. Moreover, the techniques developed in the context of the Horus system are general and can be applied to other WLAN location determination systems to enhance their accuracy. We also report lessons learned from experimenting with the Horus system and provide directions for future work.
1,631 citations
"Location Fingerprinting With Blueto..." refers background in this paper
...Here the focus is on radio positioning, specifically using the empirical fingerprinting techniques [3], [15], [17], [22] that avoid the need to model the complex radio propagation environment indoors by patternmatching to a previously surveyed map of radio signal strengths....
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TL;DR: It is concluded that PDR techniques alone can offer good short- to medium- term tracking under certain circumstances, but that regular absolute position fixes from partner systems will be needed to ensure long-term operation and to cope with unexpected behaviours.
Abstract: With the continual miniaturisation of sensors and processing nodes, Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) systems are becoming feasible options for indoor tracking. These use inertial and other sensors, often combined with domain-specific knowledge about walking, to track user movements. There is currently a wealth of relevant literature spread across different research communities. In this survey, a taxonomy of modern PDRs is developed and used to contextualise the contributions from different areas. Techniques for step detection, characterisation, inertial navigation and step-and-heading-based dead-reckoning are reviewed and compared. Techniques that incorporate building maps through particle filters are analysed, along with hybrid systems that use absolute position fixes to correct dead-reckoning output. In addition, consideration is given to the possibility of using smartphones as PDR sensing devices. The survey concludes that PDR techniques alone can offer good short- to medium- term tracking under certain circumstances, but that regular absolute position fixes from partner systems will be needed to ensure long-term operation and to cope with unexpected behaviours. It concludes by identifying a detailed list of challenges for PDR researchers.
749 citations
"Location Fingerprinting With Blueto..." refers background in this paper
...fingerprints with other sources to form hybrid systems, many of which are based on the idea of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) [10], [16] being applied to pedestrian dead reckoning [13]....
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01 Feb 2000
TL;DR: This paper analyzes shortcomings of the basic system, develops and evaluates solutions to address these shortcomings, and describes several new enhancements, including a novel access point-based environmental profiling scheme, and a Viterbi-like algorithm for continuous user tracking and disambiguation of candidate user locations.
Abstract: We address the problem of locating users inside buildings using a radio-frequency (RF) wireless LAN. A previous paper presented the basic design and a limited evaluation of a user-location system we have developed. In this paper, we analyze shortcomings of the basic system, and develop and evaluate solutions to address these shortcomings. Additionally, we describe several new enhancements, including a novel access point-based environmental profiling scheme, and a Viterbi-like algorithm for continuous user tracking and disambiguation of candidate user locations. Using extensive data collected from our deployment, we evaluate our system’s performance over multiple wireless LAN technologies and in different buildings on our campus. We also discuss significant practical issues that arise in implementing such a system. Our techniques are implemented purely in software and are easily deployable over a standard wireless LAN.
608 citations
01 Jun 2010
TL;DR: NTP version 4 (NTPv4), which is backwards compatible with NTP version 3 (N TPv3), described in RFC 1305, as well as previous versions of the protocol, are described.
Abstract: The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is widely used to synchronize computer
clocks in the Internet. This document describes NTP version 4 (NTPv4),
which is backwards compatible with NTP version 3 (NTPv3), described in
RFC 1305, as well as previous versions of the protocol. NTPv4 includes
a modified protocol header to accommodate the Internet Protocol
version 6 address family. NTPv4 includes fundamental improvements in
the mitigation and discipline algorithms that extend the potential
accuracy to the tens of microseconds with modern workstations and fast
LANs. It includes a dynamic server discovery scheme, so that in many
cases, specific server configuration is not required. It corrects
certain errors in the NTPv3 design and implementation and includes an
optional extension mechanism. [STANDARDS-TRACK]
605 citations
"Location Fingerprinting With Blueto..." refers methods in this paper
...Before each experiment, each clock was manually synchronized using a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server [20]....
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