Wearable Sensor Activity Recognition for Indoor Location Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for recognizing a user's location within a house face challenges such as high installation costs for infrastructure-based sensors, limited smartphone availability, and power consumption issues with wearable devices, which hinder effective location tracking.
Innovation Solution
A user terminal device utilizing built-in sensors of a wearable device, including acceleration, microphone, gyroscope, and geomagnetic sensors, to determine location through activity recognition, leveraging Bluetooth and Wi-Fi communication to identify user presence and proximity, and employing a statistics Markov model for location determination.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If sensors are installed throughout the house infrastructure, then user location can be grasped accurately, but installation costs and complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The wearable device uses its own built-in sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, microphone) to detect user activities and infer location, eliminating the need for external infrastructure sensors. The device serves itself by leveraging its existing hardware capabilities for location recognition.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of having the environment (house infrastructure) detect the user, the invention inverts the approach by having the user's device detect the environment and user activities. The wearable device actively senses user behaviors and infers location from activity patterns rather than passively being detected by fixed sensors.
2Measurement precision
If Wi-Fi signal collection is performed periodically for location tracking, then user location can be determined, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs Wi-Fi signal collection and sensor data gathering periodically rather than continuously. The wearable device collects activity data at intervals and only communicates with the smartphone when changes in location or activity patterns are detected, reducing overall power consumption while maintaining location tracking accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces continuous Wi-Fi scanning (high power consumption) with sensor-based activity recognition (lower power consumption). By using the accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer to detect user activities and infer location, the system reduces reliance on continuous Wi-Fi signal collection, thereby conserving battery power.
3Measurement precision
If smartphone is used for location tracking, then comprehensive location information can be obtained, but the method fails when smartphone is not carried inside the house
Solution Approach 1:
The wearable device is designed to perform multiple functions: it acts as both an activity sensor and a location tracker. By integrating various sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, microphone) and combining them with Wi-Fi capabilities, the device can function independently of the smartphone for basic location tracking, while still communicating with the smartphone when available for enhanced accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The wearable device serves as an intermediary between the user and the location tracking system. It continuously monitors user activities and can determine location independently using its sensors, while also acting as a mediator to transfer data to the smartphone when the user carries it, thereby bridging the gap when the smartphone is not always present.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a system for recognizing a user location using sensor-based activity recognition. The system includes a mobile device which includes a sensor module configured to sense information about at least one of a user state and surrounding environments, a first processor configured to extract activity information based on the sensed information, and a first communication module configured to transmit the extracted activity information; and a user terminal device which includes a second communication module configured to receive the activity information from the first communication module, and a processor configured to determine a user location in a user space corresponding to a user activity based on the received activity information. By determining a user's location in a user space corresponding to a user activity, it is possible to control electronic devices corresponding to the user activity or provide a service of monitoring activities of the old and weak and the child.