Indoor Positioning Using Visible LED Lights

Abstract

Visible light LEDs, due to their numerous advantages, are expected to become the dominant indoor lighting technology. These lights can also be switched ON/OFF at high frequency, enabling their additional use for wireless communication and indoor positioning. In this article, visible LED light--based indoor positioning systems are surveyed and classified into two broad categories based on the receiver structure. The basic principle and architecture of each design category, along with various position computation algorithms, are discussed and compared. Finally, several new research, implementation, commercialization, and standardization challenges are identified and highlighted for this relatively novel and interesting indoor localization technology.

A State-of-the-Art Survey of Indoor Positioning and Navigation Systems and Technologies

“…This led to the discovery of white LED for indoor applications. White LED has advantages over existing incandescent and fluorescent lamps which include longer lifespan, energy efficiency, high tolerance to humidity, minimal heat generation and data modulation (Komine & Nakagawa, 2004;Hassan, Naeem, Pasha, Jadoon, & Yuen, 2015). Because LED is gradually becoming popular, it is gaining popularity in indoor positioning research.…”

“…While various researches have been done using visible light, the working operation is the same even though they consist of different but similar hardware, architecture and techniques applied (Hassan et al, 2015). For example, H. S. Kim et al (2013) developed an LED positioning system based on Carrier Allocation VLC (CA-VLC) to alleviate inter-cell interferences, using trilateration technique.…”

“…In the same vein, while some installations may not require additional cost of infrastructure for LED positioning systems (Lim, 2015), others may require a complete overhaul to LED lighting. For such installations that require a complete overhaul, the initial cost of the system deployment may be high due to the infrastructure cost, installation cost, maintenance cost and training cost (Hassan et al, 2015;Cǎilean & Dimian, 2016). However, the overall system cost becomes cost effective over time when compared to fluorescent lamps.…”

“…In areas where lights are not switched on continuously in a day, other positioning methods or a hybrid method with VL is then an alternative. Furthermore, while different standards for VLC exist, there is still a lack of a cohesive, universal, acceptable and comprehensive standard covering all aspects of VLC, LED and their corresponding positioning systems (Ndjiongue et al, 2015;Hassan et al, 2015;Armstrong et al, 2013).…”

Attenuation Model for Error Correction of Ultrasonic Positioning System

“…Positioning systems using light have also be studied. Some earlier systems rely on infrared signals (6) , while some recent systems utilize visible LED lighting infrastructure (7) . Also, computer vision technologies enabled positioning from images taken by cameras fixed in the room (8) or installed in the positioning targets (9) .…”