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EDIPS: an Easy to Deploy Indoor Positioning System to support loosely coupled mobile work

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Abstract

Loosely coupled mobile work is characterized by nomadic workers collaborating in sporadically and on-demand ways. Supporting nomadic workers’ interactions requires knowing the location of the potential collaborator; therefore, indoor/outdoor positioning systems play a key role. Locating persons in outdoor environments is well addressed by Global Positioning Systems (GPS); however, for the indoor scenario, the solution is not so clear. Although several proposals for indoor positioning have been reported in the literature, most of them demand important setup efforts. This article presents the Easy to Deploy Indoor Positioning System (EDIPS), a WiFi-based system able to support the typical location requirements involved in loosely coupled mobile work. EDIPS is aimed for fast deployment and real-time operations rather than for location accuracy. The system was preliminary evaluated as a support for locating medical interns’ in a simulated hospital. The results obtained indicate the solution is able to locate nomadic workers in an indoor scenario, with enough accuracy to support loosely coupled mobile work, while requiring minimal setup effort.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by Fondecyt (Chile), grant No 1110241, LACCIR grant R1210LAC002, and Proyecto Enlace VID 2010 (University of Chile), Grant ENL 10/10.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Universidad de Chile, Av. Blanco Encalada 2120, 3er Piso, Santiago, Chile

    Rodrigo Vera & Sergio F. Ochoa

  2. Applied Research Associates, Inc., Champaign, IL, USA

    Roberto G. Aldunate

  3. Facultad de Ingenieria, Universidad Catolica de Temuco, Temuco, Chile

    Roberto G. Aldunate

Authors
  1. Rodrigo Vera
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  2. Sergio F. Ochoa
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  3. Roberto G. Aldunate
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Correspondence to Sergio F. Ochoa.

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Vera, R., Ochoa, S.F. & Aldunate, R.G. EDIPS: an Easy to Deploy Indoor Positioning System to support loosely coupled mobile work. Pers Ubiquit Comput 15, 365–376 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-010-0357-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-010-0357-x

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