Indoor Navigation Using a Mobile Phone

Abstract

This paper describes the Innovation system for indoor navigation using a mobile phone. A tool such as this requires a method of storing building data and routing information on the phone, as well as the ability to automatically track phone location as users walk around. We describe two alternative approaches to mapping building data along with a routing database design that make the project viable despite the limited storage, processing power and battery life of the phone. In particular, we compare GUI building plan annotation on a desktop computer with pedometer-based mapping of a building using the accelerometer on a mobile phone. Experiments indicate that users found plan annotation usable and database size scaled well for large buildings. The accelerometer-based approach to mapping a building was not acceptable due to inaccurate distance estimates, however this was adequate for tracking and directing users through a building, since small imprecisions were easily accommodated by users - they appreciated that directions would not give exact distances and were able to follow instructions to their destination in all test cases.