Indoor navigation is one of the core technologies of artificial intelligence in the future. This technology opens up a whole new world in indoor environments where GPS doesn’t work properly. Facing the increasing demand, indoor navigation technology has developed rapidly. It is becoming a research hotspot in the IoT industry and gradually plays a role in all walks of life, which has brought a certain impact on people’s daily life.
In today’s society, informatization and digitalization are everywhere. Wireless communication technology, navigation and ranging technology have been successfully applied to various fields. All aspects of our lives cannot be separated from the application of these technologies. 이 기사에서는, we will introduce you to indoor navigation in detail.
What Is Indoor Navigation?
Indoor navigation refers to the user in the building, who still can use this system to locate their own position and the locations of other facilities in the building. Unlike outdoor navigation, which relies on GPS signals, indoor navigation systems use various technologies to provide accurate location data inside buildings where GPS signals are weak or unavailable.
Indoor navigation is becoming increasingly important as more people spend time in large indoor environments, and businesses look for ways to enhance the user experience and improve operational efficiency.
How Does Indoor Navigation Work?
There is a whole process of how indoor navigation works. Firstly, an indoor map should be mapped. Every building, wall and room needs to be mapped accurately. Otherwise, navigation indoor will get wrong. 그 다음에, indoor navigation technology will be used. Taking Minew navigation beacons as an example, Bluetooth is a common technology that is widely used in indoor navigation.
Similar to the transceiver principle of GPS, indoor navigation works in the same way. Using various navigation beacons and location tags, the indoor navigation system estimates the position of the target object based on collected observational data. To track objects indoor, the fixed beacons are deployed to receive signals sent from mobile beacons attached to the objects being tracked. The anchors receive signals from the tags and forward them to a server, which then calculates the real-time location of the object.
8 Indoor Navigation Technologies
With the increasing development of wireless sensor networks, indoor positioning technologies have also made rapid progress, especially Bluetooth, ZigBee, 와이파이, RFID and UWB. In the field of indoor positioning, these have been widely used. Here is a detailed introduction of these technologies.
1. 지그비
ZigBee is a short-range, low-rate wireless networking technology that is somewhere between RFID and Bluetooth. It has its own radio standard, which coordinates communication between thousands of tiny sensors to achieve positioning. These sensors require very little energy to relay data from one sensor to another via radio waves, so their communication efficiency is very high. The most notable technical feature of ZigBee is its low power consumption and low cost.
2. WI-FI
Due to the popularity of WiFi network, it is a popular indoor navigation at present. The positioning accuracy can reach the meter level. 또한, low cost, wide signal sending and receiving range is large, and strong applicability are its advantages. 하지만, whether it is used for indoor or outdoor positioning, WiFi transceiver can only cover the area within a radius of 90 미터, and it is easily affected by other signals, which affects its accuracy, and the energy consumption of the locator is also high.
3. 블루투스
By using 블루투스 저에너지 (BLE) 비콘, these devices can broadcast a unique identifier. Smartphones or other devices can detect these signals to determine proximity to the beacon. Often used in conjunction with apps for indoor navigation. 높은 보안, low cost, low power consumption and small device size are the main advantages of the Bluetooth beacon. ~ 안에 Minew Store, Bluetooth beacons are the trustworthy products in indoor navigation solutions.
4. RFID
Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) uses radio frequency signals to exchange data in non-contact two-way communication to achieve the purpose of identification and positioning. This technique has a short working distance, usually the longest is tens of meters. It can get the information with centimeter-level positioning accurately within a few milliseconds, and the transmission range is large and the cost is low.
하지만, because its radio frequency signal does not have the ability to communicate, only the use of radio frequency identification technology can not be indoor positioning. It must be combined with other auxiliary technologies to complete.
5. UWB
Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology does not require the use of a carrier in traditional communication systems. It transmits data by sending and receiving extremely narrow pulses of nanoseconds or less. It has the advantages of strong penetration, low power consumption, high security, and low system complexity. But this indoor navigation technology is extremely expensive. It is not the option for civil indoor navigation.
6. Infrared Ray
By infrared transmitters, infrared ray positioning can locate the item’s location after optical sensors receive the ray emitted in the room. Infrared indoor positioning has high accuracy, but it can not penetrates obstacles and only propagate in a straight line. The effective distance is short and will be affected by indoor layout and lighting. The high cost is also the main hindrance to its application.
7. A-GPS
A-GPS (Assistant-GPS) is proposed by Qualcomm. By using of mobile phone base station signal and supplemented by remote servers, A-GPS can locate the position with the receiver. It is widely used in mobile phones with GPS functions. A-GPS is fast and accurate, but it needs to communicate with the server many times, which takes up A lot of communication resources.
8. Ultrasound
The ultrasonic wave is emitted and the echo generated by the measured object is received. The distance is calculated according to the time difference between the echo and the emitted wave. The positioning accuracy of ultrasonic is high and the structure is simple, but the ultrasonic will be greatly affected by multi-path effect and non-line-of-sight propagation. This indoor navigation technology requires a lot of investment in hardware facilities. The cost is too high.
Each indoor navigation technology is different, and the fields and markets involved are also different. In the specific scenario, it is necessary to consider many aspects to decide which scheme to use.
The general practical consideration points are in such following aspects:
Positioning Accuracy and Range, Number of Users, Equipment Installation, Power Consumption, Scalability, Systems Compatibility, Output Data Format, and Cost. So it can be said that there is no one technology in this field that can fit all scenarios and domains. Only according to the specific scenario and needs to make some trade-offs and judgments.
Why Indoor Navigation So Important?
The development of Indoor navigation is so fast that many companies now are investing in this technology for its powerful functions. It is mainly around two parts:
Enhanced User Experience
It helps users find their way in complex indoor environments like shopping malls, airports, 병원, and large office buildings, improving their overall experience and satisfaction. It saves time by providing the most efficient routes to a destination. Like hospitals, indoor navigation can help patients to figure out the different departments and reduce the absent appointment.
Good for Business Benefits
Unlike outdoor navigation, navigation indoor is not equipped widely. There are over ten million users using navigation function. If companies offer the same service in indoor areas, there will be a big selling point and huge potential opportunity for these businesses. Businesses are able to collect data on foot traffic patterns, which can be used to optimize layouts, improve services, and target marketing efforts more effectively. Like stores and shopping malls, location-based promotions and advertisements can be provided to the users to enhance customer engagement and potentially increase sales.
The Application of Indoor Navigation
Nowadays, indoor navigation has been put into practical application in specific industries. And it has achieved certain application results and has a good application prospect. With the improvement of its performance, this technology will have more applications and will become an indispensable part of our lives.
Basic Indoor Location Service
Indoor location service has been applied in large shopping malls, cinemas, exhibition halls, airports and other indoor environments. With the development of indoor navigation technology, there are many indoor location applications that comes up to provide services like indoor navigation, searching, car finding and location socializing.
예를 들어, in large supermarkets with complex layouts, users can find the location and surroundings that can help them better determine the route for shopping. Supermarkets can also provide corresponding product recommendation services according to the user’s location, and advertising and location search services have high commercial value.
Public Security
Indoor positioning plays an important role in administrative law enforcement, emergency rescue and fire fighting. In an emergency rescue environment such as an indoor fire, indoor positioning can obtain the location of firefighters, rescue workers and other personnel, which can better protect the safety of firefighters and trapped people, and help rapid development.
Social Networking Services
Social network has become a part of people’s life and has an impact on people’s information acquisition, thinking and life. Ubiquitous location is at the heart of social networking, and in indoor environments, where around 80% of people’s lives are spent, true and accurate location can connect friends with activities.
Intelligent Transportation System
Connecting with outdoor navigation, cars can get the navigation from the road to the parking lot. Car finding service of indoor parking lot is an important application of indoor positioning technology, which solves the problem of finding cars in large and complex underground parking lot.
Safe Medical
Not just knowing the department location, location tracking of medical staff and patients is also becoming increasingly important in hospitals. The specific application in new-born infants can protect them from being stolen. For the mental patients, the nurses will clearly know their positions due to indoor navigation. It enhances the convenience in hospital and healthcare solutions.
Location Tracking and Analysis
Indoor navigation is also crucial in ensuring the safety of people and objects in some industries. In underground mines, it can monitor workers’ positions in real time and locate trapped people quickly for timely rescue when an accident happens. In terms of warehouse and factory, indoor navigation technology can help enterprises effectively manage materials and monitor the location and trend of goods.
The Challenge of Indoor Navigation
Compared with outdoor positioning, indoor navigation is facing various challenges due to the indoor space complexity and navigation function expectations:
1. 정확성
Different industries have different requirements for accuracy. 예를 들어, finding a particular item in a supermarket or warehouse may require an accuracy of 1 meter or less. But in shopping malls, there are only 5-10 meter needed for finding a shop or restaurant. In different indoor situations, the more complex the indoor space, the more difficult to keep the accuracy. This is one of the main challenges now indoor navigation faces.
2. Coverage
The coverage points to what extent coverage can be provided with sufficient accuracy. How to ensure specific accuracy with wide coverage? This is not only needs the specific facilities but also indoor navigation technologies.
3. 신뢰할 수 있음
We mention that the indoor environment is always changing. One thing that also changing is the facilities like WiFi and other basic settings. So the reliability of indoor navigation becomes a difficulty that needs to be handled.
4. 비용 & Complexity
Cost is always the point that will be taken into consideration. Like Bluetooth navigation technology, 블루투스 비콘 are needed to achieve positioning functions. So there is always a huge cost to deploy the hardware. Complexity means deployment and maintenance. These are also related to the cost.
5. Consumption
The consumption of power is a very important indicator. 지금, Bluetooth Low Energy beacons are widely used, which greatly reduces battery consumption. But it still consumes a lot of power, especially in space using many beacons. So the researchers are finding out how to reduce the consumption now.
6. Response Time
There is a time that the system updates the location for users. Different applications have different response times, such as mobile users and navigation applications that need fast location updates. To keep the same response time in more complicated spaces and clouds of users, it will be a huge challenge for technicians.
Future of Indoor Navigation: The Development Trends
As the demand for indoor positioning continues to increase, combined with the purpose of people’s life services, the development of indoor positioning related research and technology will show the following trends:
1. Due to the advantages and accuracy of various indoor navigation different aspects, the technology based on Bluetooth Low Energy will gradually become mainstream.
2. Multiple indoor navigation technologies will combine together to adapt to the change in the indoor environment and meet the needs of different application scenarios. For now, the researchers are finding a solution. This solution combines WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS together to seamlessly switch indoor and outdoor navigation.
3. The separation of situational detection and indoor localization is also a development trend. This function will decrease the usage of the processor, which can lower the consumption.
4. Integration of positioning application scenarios will enhance the service quality in the future. Try to imagine that a complete indoor navigation solution will connect all the indoor scenarios together. These solutions will offer free indoor maps, positioning and navigation, commercial advertisements, message push services, 그리고 더.
결론
결론적으로, the importance of indoor navigation cannot be overstated. As technology continues to advance, indoor navigation systems will become even more precise and integral to our daily lives. We can know that more and more technologies are being used and the future of development is coming on the way.
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