Indoor Positioning via Beacon Triangulation and Activity Sensing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional geolocation systems, such as GPS, are unreliable indoors and consume high power, making them inefficient for monitoring an individual's activity and position within a building, especially in home care settings where continuous monitoring is required without frequent recharging.
Innovation Solution
A device comprising a mobile module worn by the user and beacons distributed within the environment, using short-range wireless connections to estimate distance and transmit activity and position signals to a central unit, allowing for remote monitoring of the user's status and position, while minimizing power consumption through strategic beacon placement and data transmission protocols.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If GPS-based geolocation systems are used for monitoring user position, then location tracking capability is provided, but reliability deteriorates indoors and power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the monitoring function into two parts: GPS for outdoor location tracking and indoor beacons for indoor position estimation. This segmentation allows each component to operate in its optimal environment, maintaining reliability while reducing overall power consumption since indoor beacons use low-energy short-range wireless communication
Solution Approach 2:
Indoor beacons act as intermediary elements between the mobile module and the central monitoring unit. These beacons receive transmission signals from the mobile module and relay position information to the central unit, enabling reliable indoor tracking without requiring the mobile module to maintain high-power continuous transmission
2Reliability
If GPS-based geolocation systems are used for monitoring user position, then location tracking capability is provided, but power consumption increases requiring frequent recharging
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the tracking approach by using GPS only when outdoors and switching to beacon-based triangulation indoors. This reduces the mobile module's power consumption significantly during indoor monitoring, extending battery operation duration while maintaining continuous location tracking reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The mobile module periodically transmits signals to nearby beacons rather than maintaining continuous high-power transmission. This periodic communication approach, combined with the beacons' ability to estimate position from signal strength, extends battery life while providing sufficient tracking reliability for home care monitoring
3Device complexity
If activity data is transmitted without contextualization, then data transmission is simple, but data variability increases reducing monitoring accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges activity data from sensors with position data from beacon triangulation to create contextualized monitoring information. This combination allows the central unit to distinguish between similar activities occurring in different locations, reducing data variability and improving monitoring accuracy without requiring complex transmission protocols
Solution Approach 2:
The central unit receives both activity signals and position signals, then processes them together to provide contextual feedback. This feedback mechanism helps reduce data variability by interpreting activity patterns in the context of location information, improving overall monitoring precision while maintaining relatively simple data transmission
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables accurate and efficient remote monitoring of a user's activity and position within a building, reducing data variability and improving analysis by contextualizing data with environmental factors, thus enhancing the accuracy of health monitoring and reducing the need for frequent recharging.
Implementation Method 1
The range-finding unit is configured to estimate, at different measurement times, a distance between the mobile module and each beacon whose transmission signal is received by the mobile module
Data Source
AI summary
A device, for monitoring the status of a user in an environment, includes a mobile module intended to be worn by the user. The mobile module includes an activity sensor and a processing unit. The processing unit is for establishing a status signal from an activity signal generated by the activity sensor. The device also includes beacons distributed in the environment. The beacons are configured to send a transmission signal to the mobile module via a short-range wireless connection. The processing unit is configured to establish a position signal as a function of at least one distance between the mobile module and a beacon. The transmission unit is configured to transmit the status signal and the position signal to a central unit.