Zero-knowledge real-time indoor tracking via outdoor wireless directional antennas

—WiFi localization and tracking of indoor moving objects is an important problem in many contexts of ubiquitous buildings, first responder environments, and others. Previous approaches in WiFi-based indoor localization and tracking either assume prior knowledge of indoor environment or assume many data samples from location-fixed WiFi sources (i.e. anchor points). However, such assumptions are not always true, especially in emergency scenarios. This paper explores the possibility of real-time indoor localization and tracking without any knowledge of indoor environment and with realtime data samples from only few anchor points outside the building. By using a small set of synchronized directional antennas as outdoor anchor points to actively scan in various directions, a moving device inside the building can be localized and tracked from the received signal in real-time manner. The paper proposes an angle-of-arrival estimator for accurate localization and adaptive per-antenna angula...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: PERCOM
• Authors: Thadpong Pongthawornkamol, Shameem Ahmed, Klara Nahrstedt, Akira Uchiyama
• Keywords: Anchor Points, Computer Networks, Indoor Environment, Indoor Localization, PERCOM 2010