A smartphone indoor localization using inertial sensors and single wi-fi access point

Abstract

This study focuses on indoor localization of a smartphone (e.g., iPhone 7) by using its inertial sensors and a currently-connected Wi-Fi access point (AP). In the situations where the density of APs is low, the inertial sensors provide a way to localize the users smartphone, while the AP plays as a reference point and an additional source to provide a starting point for the user tracking its movements. We propose a new indoor localization scheme called the pedestrian dead reckoning with step compensation that can be implemented on mobile devices with limited resources. In order to test our localization scheme, we perform several experiments to track a mobile user in one of the largest shopping malls in Korea using public Wi-Fi network services. The results show that the successful localization percentage is about 92% within 2 m error, which is highly accurate with acceptable measurement errors. © 2019 IEEE.