Indoors Navigation system Or How do I get to … Yoav Etsion & Tal Haramaty PostPC Computing 2002 Prof. Scott Kirkpatrick & Amnon Dekel

The problem How many times did you find yourself coming to a new location – building, campus, complex sites - not knowing where to go, how to get there, how to find your way through the maze of buildings, corridors, halls, rooms etc. The indoors navigation system is the solution you ’ ve been waiting for …

The idea A simple handheld unit that is downloaded with the info about the user ’ s destinations. Information kiosks – let the user define the destination and download it to the handheld unit. Infrastructure that deals with the location of the user. Server – communicate with the handheld and direct the user to the current destination.

The handheld unit LCD Current direction Current destination Programmable destinations Hard coded destinations The arrow will keep the right direction when the unit is turned around Example: “ Scott ’ s office, ROSS 104 ”. The text will blink when the user arrives to the location Up to 5 downloadable destinations. When a button is pressed, the destination text is shown. “ Show me the Way out ” “ Take me to the nearest Information Kiosk ” “ Take me to the nearest toilette ”

The handheld unit technology Memory. The destinations text and ID are stored in memory. The current destination is transmitted to the Server. Location. A cricket ultrasonic receiver will get it ’ s position from beacons spread around the campus. Orientation. The unit will receive the direction azimuth from the server. An inner compass will translate the azimuth to the dir of the arrow. Communication. The unit will communicate with the server with a simple card. Power. The unit will have a rechargeable battery that will be sufficient for 5 hours ’ work. The charging will take place in the Information Kiosk. Price. We suspect the unit will cost to manufacture around 25 $. (cricket up to 10$, wireless communication up to 7$, simple LCD unit up to 7$).

Information Kiosks Choosing destinations. The user will select (using touch screen and easy to use interface) the desired destinations. The data will be downloaded to the hand held unit when the user presses OK. Information Kiosks will be located at the entrance to the campus and in every building. The final deployment can be adjusted over time. The Kiosk will consist a station with an I/O base for the hand held unit. Initialization of the hand held unit will establish the connection between the unit and the server. A deposit will be taken at the entrance – will be returned upon unit recollection on the way out.

Information Kiosk Demo

Infrastructure The infrastructure is based on the cricket technology, developed and tested in MIT ’ s media lab. Wall and ceiling mounted Beacons are spread through the campus publishing information on an RF signal. The hand held unit has a compatible receiver. The cricket tech includes a compass in the receiver. Each corridor has a few beacons in it. The infrastructure is easy to deploy and not very expensive. Each beacon costs less then 10$. A big campus could be deployed in a few thousand $.

Server The server holds the campus map. The map is stored as a graph of segments. The server receives from the user its location and destination. A shortest path algorithm is activated to find the path from the user ’ s location to its destination. The server returns an azimuth to the hand held unit directing it towards the next segment on the path. The communication is done using

Server Demo

Technologies yet to be developed 2 different infrastructures are used in the project – cricket technology and communication. Each needs its infrastructure. Will they be merged in the future? The issue is being researched today by a few startup companies. The cricket technology isn ’ t mature and in the research phase. There is lot to be done here. The infrastructure can be a base for several applications, including security, maintenance etc.

Summary We believe the project is feasible within current technology. No doubt we shall see in the near future a few applications concerning indoors navigating systems. Our suggestion is one that could be deployed quite quickly and easily.