Pressure-Pair-Based Floor Localization System Using Barometric Sensors on Smartphones

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Electrical Engineering
• Ubiquitous Computing

Background:

• Indoor positioning is crucial for smartphones, with floor localization being a key challenge.
• Existing methods using barometers, accelerometers, BLE, and Wi-Fi signals lack near 100% accuracy.
• Advancing smartphone technology necessitates more precise indoor localization solutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel method, FloorPair, for highly accurate smartphone floor localization.
• To address the limitations of current indoor positioning techniques, particularly in floor determination.
• To develop a sustainable and accurate floor localization system.

Main Methods:

• Developed FloorPair, a pressure-pair based method for relative floor localization.
• Marginalized sensor drift and unreliable absolute pressure values by pairing barometer readings from adjacent floors.
• Employed an iterative optimization method to maintain accuracy over time and ensure sustainability.

Main Results:

• FloorPair demonstrated near 100% accuracy in floor localization.
• Extensive field experiments in diverse buildings validated the method's effectiveness.
• The approach proved to be both accurate and sustainable for indoor positioning.

Conclusions:

• FloorPair offers a significant advancement in smartphone indoor positioning accuracy.
• The pressure-pairing technique effectively overcomes limitations of existing floor localization methods.
• This method provides a sustainable and highly accurate solution for determining smartphone user location by floor.