Radio Map Generation Using Trustworthiness Metrics
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing indoor positioning systems face challenges in achieving accurate positioning and floor detection indoors due to signal penetration issues and the need for extensive infrastructure deployment, making them costly and difficult to scale globally.
Innovation Solution
A method that generates a radio map using WiFi and Bluetooth signals by ranking user-collected data for trustworthiness, ensuring accurate and reliable positioning by filtering out untrustworthy data and leveraging existing infrastructure in buildings and consumer devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual exhaustive radio surveying is performed to achieve accurate positioning and floor detection, then positioning accuracy and reliability are improved, but deployment time and costs increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables users to automatically contribute radio measurement data from their own devices during normal usage. The crowd-sourced data collection mechanism allows the radio map to be built and updated continuously without requiring dedicated surveying teams or manual intervention, thus achieving high positioning accuracy while minimizing deployment and maintenance time
Solution Approach 2:
The patent leverages existing multi-functional consumer devices (smartphones, tablets) that already possess WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities for other purposes. These devices are repurposed to collect positioning data during their normal operation, eliminating the need for specialized surveying equipment and reducing deployment costs while maintaining measurement precision
2Measurement precision
If manual exhaustive radio surveying is performed to achieve accurate positioning and floor detection, then positioning accuracy and reliability are improved, but deployment costs increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Users automatically contribute radio measurement data from their own devices during normal usage. The crowd-sourced data collection mechanism allows the radio map to be built and updated continuously without requiring dedicated surveying teams or manual intervention, thus achieving high positioning accuracy while minimizing deployment and maintenance time
Solution Approach 2:
The system utilizes inexpensive, widely-available consumer devices with existing WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities as data collection nodes. By leveraging these cheap, ubiquitous devices instead of expensive specialized surveying equipment, the system achieves cost-effective deployment while maintaining the ability to collect high-quality positioning data
3Area of stationary object
If crowd-sourced data from all users is used to generate radio map, then coverage and data volume increase, but data quality and reliability deteriorate due to untrustworthy data
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where measurement data from multiple users at the same location is aggregated and compared. Consistent measurements across multiple devices reinforce data reliability, while outliers are identified and filtered out. This feedback loop enables the system to maintain high data quality standards while expanding coverage through crowd-sourced data
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines measurement data from multiple independent sources (different users' devices) at the same physical location. By merging these independent observations, the system achieves both expanded coverage and improved reliability through data validation and consensus building, filtering out untrustworthy individual measurements
4Ease of manufacture
If existing WiFi and Bluetooth infrastructure is used for positioning, then deployment costs are reduced and scalability is improved, but positioning accuracy and floor detection reliability face challenges due to signal penetration issues
Solution Approach 1:
The patent leverages existing multi-functional consumer devices (smartphones, tablets) that already possess WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities for other purposes. These devices are repurposed to collect positioning data during their normal operation, eliminating the need for specialized surveying equipment and reducing deployment costs while maintaining measurement precision
Solution Approach 2:
The system combines measurements from multiple WiFi and Bluetooth sources simultaneously, using data fusion techniques to compensate for individual signal weaknesses. By merging observations from multiple devices and multiple radio access points, the system achieves accurate positioning and reliable floor detection using only existing infrastructure
Data Source
Figure 1
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Figure 3b~3c
AI summary
Inter-alia, a method is disclosed comprising: obtaining one or more pieces of fingerprint information at least indicative of one or more identifiers of one or more radio nodes (140); obtaining one or more pieces of metrics information, wherein each piece of metrics information of the one or more pieces of metrics information is at least indicative of a trustworthiness associated with a respective piece of fingerprint information of the one or more pieces of fingerprint information; and generating a radio map at least partially based on the one or more pieces of fingerprint information and the one or more pieces of metrics information, wherein the trustworthiness associated with the one or more pieces of fingerprint information determines whether or not a respective piece of fingerprint information of the one or more pieces of fingerprint information is used in the generating of the radio map.