Wi-Fi Based Indoor Navigation System For Campus Directions

Abstract. Recent years have witnessed the rapid development of navigation systems. They gradually become the default way of navigating in our daily life. Despite benefiting from their convenience, we may be negatively influenced by them (Parush et al. 2007). Current navigation systems usually draw too much of users' attention to the mobile devices, which leads to users’ lacking interaction with the environment. It is often the case that people easily forget travelled route and get lost without navigation systems (Reilly et al. 2008). Empirical study shows that by dividing attention, navigation systems impair users’ spatial memory, and thus impact their navigation skills (Gardony et al. 2013). Since a higher engagement with the environment can improve users’ spatial knowledge acquisition without decreasing efficiency (Brügger et al. 2017), navigation systems should incorporate important environmental features.As objects of visual, cognitive or structural importance (Sorrows & Hirtle 1999), landmarks have been extensively studied, and considered as an important environmental feature to be incorporated into navigation systems (Nuhn & Timpf 2018, Richter 2017, Duckham et al. 2010, Raubal & Winter 2002). They serve as references to provide users with more natural and pleasant navigating experience (Richter & Winter 2014). However, most of landmark-related studies are in outdoor environment. Although researchers have attempted to classify and assess indoor landmarks (Ohm 2014, Viaene 2014), it is still very difficult to determine suitable ones. As a subset of semantic indoor landmarks, existing navigational aids (e.g. signs and floor plans) are designed to assist navigation. Among them, signs are most preferred by users (Wang et al. 2017). Being the signs that give necessary information to route users to possible destinations, directional signs contribute most to wayfinding (Gibson 2009). With route information explicitly presented by them, they are relevant environmental features to be incorporated into indoor navigation systems.In this study, we therefore propose to incorporate directional signs into indoor navigation systems, in order to guide users’ attention back to the environment, to facilitate their spatial learning and improve their spatial knowledge acquisition.We incorporated directional signs into a proof-of-concept indoor navigation system. First, we integrated directional signs and their semantics into a graph-based model. A directional sign was modelled as a node. Each destination on the sign was linked with the sign by an edge. In order to differentiate it from the normal edge, it was marked as semantic edge. Thus, the semantics of the sign was modelled directly into the graph, instead of being stored as attributes in a previous version of our study (Wang & Gartner 2018). Then, a top-K shortest path algorithm was employed to find candidate routes (Yen 1971). In the end, the route with the largest coverage of semantic edges was suggested to the user. The users would then be explicitly guided to follow the directional signs in the environment.In the next step, we will evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed navigation system by an empirical study with human subjects. Within the experiment, we will also investigate on whether this kind of guidance can succeed in drawing users’ attention back to the environment and support their spatial knowledge acquisition.

In the field of research for assistive technology, the advancement of navigational tools for those who are blind had emerged as a major concern. This article offers valuable insights for researchers working on assistive technologies for people who are blind or visually impaired, specifically focusing on indoor and outdoor navigation systems. To create such systems, it is important to study past research in this area, starting from early investigations on electronic travel aids to the more recent utilization of advanced artificial vision models. This paper aims to provide an effective vision for researchers to use in developing technological instruments for the visually impaired. This process involves a comprehensive evaluation of various technological approaches in order to achieve the challenging goal of creating an effective navigation system. We carried out a separate systematic review because papers in this field tend to focus more on software-based computer vision solutions than on hardware. We have analyzed 191 relevant studies published between 2011 and 2022 to create a comprehensive understanding of the topic at hand. This systematic mapping process will assist researchers, engineers, and practitioners in making informed decisions by identifying shortcomings in current navigation assistance technology and proposing new and improved smart assistant applications that can ensure the safety and accuracy of direction for people who are blind or visually impaired.

This work designs and develops indoor and outdoor navigation architecture for accurate positioning in small areas. It combines sophisticated technologies, including GPS, Google Maps API, and spatial and descriptive data, to create a precise and user-friendly navigation solution. In addition, maintaining an updated database and integrating interactive features facilitates the adoption of future advanced technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Wi-Fi networks for improved accuracy in indoor navigation. This architecture is applied at the University of Mosul to guide students and visitors aboard the large university with many campus facilities. The application allows users to find specific colleges and facilities, look for destinations, and find the shortest way to reach their desired location. The testing results show that the application is efficient regarding location accuracy and response speed, with a 95% user satisfaction rate.

The development of indoor navigation systems should utilize advanced teleinformation, geoinformation and cartographical knowledge. The authors analyzed available specifications of prototypes of indoor navigation systems and drew conclusions about how to enhance the use of cartographical methods in the whole process of designing a new system. The analysis proves that cartographical methodology is still very limited in the process of designing indoor navigation systems. Researchers focus mainly on improving the positioning accuracy, and they often neglect the issue of developing spatial databases and the rules of their effective visualization. The process of designing indoor navigation systems, just like in the case of outdoor navigation systems, consists of a number of tasks that can be supported by the theory and practice of cartography. This article presents the issues of determination of spatial database model appropriate for an indoor system, improvement of accuracy of positioning algorithms utilizing spatial data and methodology of generating graphical and voice directions for indoor navigation. In the authors’ opinion, the discussed cartographical methods and techniques may considerably enhance indoor navigation systems and accelerate their development. The fundamental knowledge of cartographical methods should be within the interest of designers of these systems. At present the first attempts in this field may be observed, although they are still not mature and complex

Joint Charging and Routing Optimization for Electric Vehicle Navigation Systems

This paper describes construction of the M-CubITS pedestrian WYSIWYAS navigation system both in outdoor and indoor areas, toward realization of the M-CubITS pedestrian WYSIWYAS navigation environment. In outdoor navigation, we construct the experimental Saitama University campus outdoor navigation system "CamNavi" using ordinary mobile phone terminals as users' terminals and the i-application platform provided by Japanese NTT DoCoMo. Here, our studies on the outdoor system are mainly based on image processing for outdoor M-CubITS elements and a user interface for the mobile phone terminals. On the other hand, in indoor navigation, we also introduce the route guidance using the Dijkstra method and study databases. Then, we construct an experimental system at the seven-storied buildings in the faculty of engineering, Saitama University, and check the system operation

Because of its high time-domain resolution, ultra-wideband (UWB) technology is capable of precise range measurement and has been applied in many accurate indoor positioning systems. This paper presents a practical indoor positioning and navigation system using the UWB modules we developed based on Decawave UWB chipset. In order to enhance the performance of the system in NLOS scenarios, a neural network approach is integrated. The feasibility of the combined approach is analysed and its accuracy is evaluated. The experiment results indicate that the neural network can maintain a stable accuracy no matter whether it is in an NLOS scenario and it is capable to identify the locations on two trajectories which are next to each other with very high confidence.

People generally find themselves lost while visiting a new indoor location because they are unaware of the building’s architecture, especially when it is a large one or a shopping mall. The Global Position System (GPS) does not work properly in the indoor environment because of the satellite signal attenuation. In this paper, to assist people in finding their path, a Li-Fi (Light-Fidelity) based Indoor Positioning System (IPS) is proposed. A framework is developed based on a Li-Fi LED lamp transmitter and a dongle receiver connected to an Android smartphone to decode the received sequence. The pathfinding graph-based algorithm is proceeded in a REST architecture by a Web service consulting the graph-path database both installed on a Raspberry pi 4. The proposed solution is a low cost and does not require any additional infrastructure. It is easy to implement in most indoor environments like hospitals, buildings, and campuses. A short survey of techniques and algorithms for indoor positioning and navigation with the help of smartphones is also presented.

Named data networking (NDN) is a new and promising Internet architecture, which aims to replace the current transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP)-based Internet. The NDN internet architecture has introduced several benefits in numerous applications. An NDN-based indoor positioning and navigation system can further optimize existing localization technologies with reduced the server load and faster response time. In this study, an NDN-based approach for the existing Wi-Fi fingerprinting-based indoor positioning and navigation was investigated. Among the many features of NDN, the network-level caching can reduce the computational load and response time of the localization and navigation server. The theoretical analysis of the runtime complexity shows that the NDN's network-level caching performance is better than those of the conventional algorithms. In this paper, naming methods for different services and a server-side algorithm for handling the NDN requests are proposed. The real-world implantation and testing results show a better overall performance than that of TCP/IP. This network-level optimization for indoor positioning and navigation opens new opportunities because it can be combined with other application-level optimization techniques for more efficient indoor positioning and navigation in the future.

Innovative technologies have been incorporated into intelligent transportation systems (ITS) to improve sustainability, safety, and efficiency, hence revolutionising traditional transportation. The combination of three-dimensional (3D) indoor building mapping and navigation is a groundbreaking development in the field of ITS. A novel methodology, the “Three-Dimensional Routing Information Framework “(3D RIF), is designed to improve indoor navigation systems in the field of ITS. By leveraging the Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS), this framework can produce three-dimensional routing data and incorporate sophisticated routing algorithms to handle the complexities associated with indoor navigation. The paper provides a detailed examination of how the framework can be implemented in transport systems in urban environments, with a specific focus on optimising indoor navigation for various applications, including emergency services, tourism, and logistics. The framework includes real-time updates and point-of-interest information, thereby enhancing the overall indoor navigation experience. The 3D RIF’s framework boosts the efficiency and effectiveness of intelligent transportation services by optimising the utilisation of internal resources. The research outcomes are emphasised, demonstrating a mean enhancement of around 25.51% in travel. The measurable enhancement highlighted in this statement emphasises the beneficial influence of ITS on the efficiency of travel, hence underscoring the significance of the ongoing progress in this field.

GPS-based navigation systems have been developed to support the walking of visually impaired people. However, their use in station premises and malls presented difficulties due to radio wave interference. In such places, an indoor navigation system (IDNS) was indispensable. Recently, an IDNS using geomagnetism that did not require the installation of new infrastructure attracted our attention. It incorporated technology to detect self-position by association with a geomagnetic fingerprint (GMFP) database, which included the geomagnetic vector of the current position, stored in advance on the cloud. However, to realize navigation over an entire floor, a detailed geomagnetic map of the floor was needed, taking a lot of time and labor to measure the geomagnetic field. In this research, we proposed a novel method that limited the area of the GMFP to places above braille blocks and linked the geometric maps to braille block maps. The main features of our system were as follows: (1) Reduction of labor and time required to make the GMFP; (2) Realization of a real-time navigation system with little error in estimated position; (3) A high-resolution geomagnetic map database could be easily made by walking with a nearly fixed stride length without any specific equipment. To confirm the principal operation of our system, we made a prototype system. We then evaluated the performance of our system under various experimental conditions. Finally, we demonstrated a simple navigation system. As a result, we were able to confirm that our system could estimate self-position in real-time with little error and provide simple navigation for visually impaired people.

Accurate and fast indoor Location-Based Services (LBS) is very important for daily life and emergency response. Indoor map is the basis of indoor LBS. The model construction and data organization of indoor map are the key scientific problems that urgently need to be solved in the current indoor LBS application. In recent years, hybrid models have been used widely in the research of indoor map, because they can balance the limitations of single models. However, the current studies about hybrid model pay more attention to the model accuracy and modeling algorithm, while ignoring its relationship between positioning and navigation and its practicality in mobile indoor LBS applications. This paper addresses a new indoor map model, named Building Information Modeling based Positioning and Navigation (BIMPN), which is based on the entity model and the network model. The highlight of BIMPN is that it proposes a concept of Step Node (SN) to assist indoor positioning and navigation function. We developed the Mobile Indoor Positioning and Navigation System (MIPNS) to verify the practicability of BIMPN. Results indicate that the BIMPN can effectively organize the characteristics of indoor spaces and the building features, and assist indoor positioning and navigation. The BIMPN proposed in this paper can be used for the construction of indoor maps and it is suitable for mobile indoor positioning and navigation systems.

Localization of a vehicle is a key component for driving assistance or autonomous navigation. In this work, we propose a visual positioning system (VPS) for vehicle or mobile robot navigation. Different from general landmark-based or model-based approaches, which rely on some predefined known landmarks or a priori information about the environment, no assumptions on the prior knowledge of the scene are made. A stereo-based vision system is built for both extracting feature correspondences and recovering 3-D information of the scene from image sequences. Relative positions of the camera motion are then estimated by registering the 3-D feature points from two consecutive image frames. Localization of the vehicle is finally given by the reference to its initial position. I. INTRODUCTION Localization and tracking of a vehicle are major compo- nents for providing positions, directions and travel informa- tion to the driver. They also serve as key technologies for building autonomous navigation systems. Many approaches have been proposed for locating a mobile robot or a ve- hicle based on various techniques. The most commonly used methods include dead-reckoning techniques, navigation using active beacons, landmark-based navigation, map-based navigation, global positioning system (GPS), and vision- based positioning. Dead-reckoning is a procedure for determining the present location of a vehicle by advancing some previous position through known path and velocity information over a given period of time. Since an odometer and optical sensors for wheel direction detection are easily installed on a vehicle, dead-reckoning is usually a less expensive method for vehicle localization. However, the integration of incremental motion information over time will lead to accumulation of errors. In the case of long distance travel, accumulation of orientation error will make position errors diverge as the increase of driving time. Active beacons such as laser, sonar or radio can be used as media for vehicle or mobile robot navigation. These approaches use triangulation to measure the distance between a number of beacons and the mobile platform and then deter- mine the current location. The problems associated with this technique are the inaccuracy of the distance measurement caused by time-delay of the signals, and the installation and maintenance cost of a large number of beacons required for an area. Satellite based differential global positioning system (DGPS) is probably the most advanced and accurate method for identifying the position and orientation of an object. However, DGPS does not work well if the satellite signals are blocked. This situation commonly happens in the indoor environments, or urban areas with tall buildings, etc. In this work, we propose a visual positioning system (VPS) for vehicle or mobile robot navigation. Different from general landmark-based or model-based approaches which rely on some predefined known landmarks or ap rioriinfor- mation about the environment (e.g., 3-D models of buildings, objects, etc.), no assumptions on the prior knowledge of the scene are made. A stereo-based vision system is built for both extracting feature correspondences and recovering 3- D information of the scene from image sequences. A robust feature tracking method based on simultaneously considering the inter-frame images from the same camera and the stereo image pair from different cameras at a fixed time instant is developed. The relative position of the camera motion is then estimated by registering the 3-D feature points from two consecutive image frames. Our system includes the following basic modules:

This paper deals with navigation of mobile device in outdoor and indoor environment by only navigation system or application. In the paper, the navigation system is proposed in the light of seamless navigation service. Main parts of the system from positioning point of view are based on GPS and WifiLOC system. WifiLOC is an indoor positioning system based on Wi-Fi technology. The proposal of the system will be described in detail. The system is implemented at the University of Zilina as a pilot, noncommercial project; therefore it is called University Mobile Navigation System (UMNS). The navigation system can be characterized as real-time system, that is, the system operations cannot be significantly delayed. Since delay of the system depends significantly on communication platform used for map information downloading or communication with the localization server. We decided to investigate an impact of the used communication platform on the time needs for some of the functions implemented in navigation system. Measurements were performed in the real-world application. Next experiment is focused on testing of the accuracy of used indoor positioning system. Outdoor positioning accuracy is not tested because GPS is utilized in outdoor, and this system was already exhaustively investigated.

Universal navigation is accessible primarily through smart phones providing users with navigation information regardless of the environment (i.e., outdoor or indoor). Universal Navigation for Smart Phones provide the most up-to-date navigation technologies and systems for both outdoor and indoor navigation. It also provides a comparison of the similarities and differences between outdoor and indoor navigation systems from both a technological stand point and users perspective. All aspects of navigation systems including geo-positioning, wireless communication, databases, and functions will be introduced. The main thrust of this book presents new approaches and techniques for future navigation systems including social networking, as an emerging approach for navigation.