Zane Starr (zcs), GeetaShroff (gshroff), Brian Loo (bloo), Priya Narasimhan (priya)Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~ece549/spring07/team9/index.html

What is LINS?

LINS : Localized Information Navigation System

LINS Architecture

An Implementation of LINS

Context = Localized + Personal Information Results & Future Work

LINS: Localized Information Navigation SystemIndoor navigation system that uses localized contextual information to dynamically adapt to individual user needs

Motivation:Many situations exist where context is critical to the user’s successful or timely arrival

Goals:Improve quality of indoor navigation systemsContribute to the field of accessibility researchProvide a platform for collaborative for local information sharing

Where does context come from?

Admin provides initial context:Example: Admin adds gender label to relevant information nodes (restroom).

User provides preferences:Example: User selects gender preference

What is an i-Node?

An information node (i-Node) is any device or item that can provide a unique identification number to the user’s mobile device

LINS Our Implementation Implementation featuresi-Nodes Passive RFID tags Low-cost

i-Node Interpreter RFID Reader Light-weight

User device PDA Small form factor

Admin-side features

Persistent storage of multimedia context for i-Node

Easy to use graphical interface

Scalable in size of deployment area

User-side features:Add multimedia content to i-Node

Voice navigation prompts

Small memory footprintBluetooth Access Point

802.15.4BFireflymodule

UPC Barcode

Passive RFID Tag

Active RFID Tag

Demo of admin side application Demo of user side application on PDA

User-side Application:

i-Map retrievalContextual path planningAllows for user preferencesAllows for information sharing

Admin-side Application:

Map planningi-Node placementProvides initial contexti-Map storage

Database:Stores i-Map

i-Node:Unique

Identifier

User GUI:Navigates

User

i-Node Interpreter:

Reads i-Node

Pathfinding:Context aware

Admin GUI:Creates Map

LINS

How is context used?

User preference creates context-based heuristic or cost function

Examples: Shortest path, accessibility-centric, etc.

How does context fit into path planning?

A* path planning algorithm dynamically adapts to user preference heuristics and cost functions

Demonstrating the reading of an i-Node labeled as a fire alarm

Conclusion:Using localized information to provide context for our indoor navigation provides better quality paths to the user.

Future Work:We look forward to improving the localized information framework to enhance the current implementation to incorporate richer multimedia for a better experience.

Applications: Navigation of the blindEmergency responders Physically challengedGuided grocery shoppingSelf-guided tours

In the above scenario, the wheel chair accessibility preference was selected. The shortest accessible route was then generated as the navigable path. This path is longer than the normal shortest path.

Hardware used in our implementation