Jaewoo Chung, Matt Donahoe, Chris Schmandt, Ig-Jae Kim, Pedram Razavai, Micaela Wiseman

Abstract

We present an indoor positioning system that measures location using disturbances of the Earth's magnetic field caused by structural steel elements in a building. The presence of these large steel members warps the geomagnetic field in a way that is spatially varying but temporally stable. To localize, we measure the magnetic field using an array of e-compasses and compare the measurement with a previously obtained magnetic map. We demonstrate accuracy within 1 meter 88% of the time in experiments in two buildings and across multiple floors within the buildings. We discuss several constraint techniques that can maintain accuracy as the sample space increases.