Skip to main content

Asynchronous Ultrasonic Trilateration for Indoor Positioning of Mobile Phones

  • Conference paper

Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNISA,volume 7236)

Abstract

In this paper we discuss how the innate ability of mobile phone speakers to produce ultrasound can be used for accurate indoor positioning. The frequencies in question are in a range between 20 and 22 KHz, which is high enough to be inaudible by humans but still low enough to be generated by today’s mobile phone sound hardware. Our tests indicate that it is possible to generate the given range of frequencies without significant distortions, provided the signal volume is not turned excessively high. In this paper we present and evaluate the accuracy of our asynchronous trilateration method (Lok8) for mobile positioning without requiring knowledge of the time the ultrasonic signal was sent. This approach shows that only the differences in time of arrival to multiple microphones (control points) placed throughout the indoor environment is sufficient. Consequently, any timing issues with client and server synchronization are avoided.

Keywords

  • Indoor Mobile Positioning
  • Ultrasonic Trilateration
  • LBS

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (Canada)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (Canada)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (Canada)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Siciliano, B., Khatib, O.: Springer Handbook of Robotics. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)

    CrossRef  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Williams, B., Klein, G., Reid, I.: Real-Time SLAM Relocalisation. In: Computer Vision (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Wagner, D., Schmalstieg, D.: First Steps Towards Handheld Augmented Reality. In: 7th IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers. IEEE Computer Society (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Otsason, V., Varshavsky, A., LaMarca, A., De Lara, E.: Accurate GSM Indoor Localization. In: Pervasive and Mobile Computing (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Ferris, B., Hähnel, D., Fox, D.: Gaussian Processes for Signal Strength-Based Location Estimation. In: Robotics Science and Systems (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ekahau RTLS Overview, http://www.ekahau.com/products/real-time-location-system/overview.html (cited May 21, 2009)

  7. Zhou, S., Pollard, J.: Position measurement using Bluetooth. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 52(2), 555–558 (2006)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  8. Kolodziej, K., Hjelm, J.: Local positioning systems: LBS applications and services (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Addlesee, M., Curwen, R., Hodges, S., Newman, J., Steggles, P., Ward, A., Hopper, A.: Implementing a Sentient Computing System. IEEE Computer 34(8), 50–56 (2001)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  10. Hallberg, J., Nilsson, M., Synnes, K.: Positioning with Bluetooth. In: ICT (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Borriello, G., Liu, A., Offer, T., Palistrant, C., Sharp, R.: WALRUS: Wireless Acoustic Location with Room-Level Resolution using Ultrasound. In: Mobisys (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Peng, C., Shen, G., Zhang, Y., Li, Y., Tan, K.: BeepBeep: A High Accuracy Acoustic Ranging System using COTS Mobile Devices. In: SenSys (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Navizon Technical Paper (2007), http://www.navizon.com/Navizon_wifi_gps_and_cell_tower_positioning.pdf (cited January 11, 2009)

  14. Bossler, J., Jensen, J., McMaster, R., Rizos, C.: Manual of Geospatial Science and Technology, 1st edn. Taylor & Francis (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ghilani, C., Wolf, P.: Adjustment Computations: Spatial Data Analysis, 4th edn. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Filonenko, V., Cullen, C., Carswell, J.D.: Investigating Ultrasonic Positioning on Mobile Phones. In: Proc. of International Conference on Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation (IPIN). IEEE Xplore (2010)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Filonenko, V., Cullen, C., Carswell, J.D. (2012). Asynchronous Ultrasonic Trilateration for Indoor Positioning of Mobile Phones. In: Di Martino, S., Peron, A., Tezuka, T. (eds) Web and Wireless Geographical Information Systems. W2GIS 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7236. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29247-7_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29247-7_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-29246-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-29247-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)