A Smartphone Indoor Positioning System Using Hybrid Localization Technology

As smartphone built-in sensors, wireless technologies, and processor computing power become more advanced and global positioning system (GPS)-based positioning technologies are improving, location-based services (LBS) have become a part of our daily lives. At the same time, demand has grown for LBS applications in indoor environments, such as indoor path finding and navigation, marketing, entertainment, and location-based information retrieval. In this paper, we demonstrate the design and implementation of a smartphone-based indoor LBS system for location services consisting of smartphone applications and a server. The proposed indoor LBS system uses hybrid indoor positioning methods based on Bluetooth beacons, Geomagnetic field, Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensors, and smartphone cameras and can be used for three types of indoor LBS applications. The performance of each positioning method demonstrates that our system retains the desired accuracy under experimental conditions. As these results illustrate that our system can maintain positioning accuracy to within 2 m 80% of the time, we believe our system can be a real solution for various indoor positioning service needs.