Mobile indoor navigation system

Abstract

With the help of Global Positioning System (GPS) and Google Maps API, satisfactory outdoor navigation service could be easily provided in many applications. However, most of indoor navigations still rely on the hard-coded floor plan diagrams that physically distributed in a building. There are two main causes that make indoor navigation could not be developed as easy as the outdoor ones. GPS could not provide satisfactory localization accuracy in indoors, and the floor plan information that used in indoor navigation system is difficult and time-consuming to construct. Apart from that, most of indoor navigation applications now available are specifically designed for one building only. This is due to the complicated and technical floor plan data setup process of a building. However, it is not convenient for users as they would need to install different navigation applications for different buildings. This project aims to develop a system that acts as a collection of indoor navigations for different buildings. The system is required to help people to quickly and easily set up their buildings in a database, and then by making use of these data to allow people who are inside the buildings to easily find their location in the building and obtain guidance to walk from a point to another point (destination) within the same building. Apart from the challenge of indoor positioning and navigation, this project would also require to overcome the difficulty of providing a floor plan data entry process that is easy-to-use and generic to all buildings. In order to achieve the aim, it is required to review current technologies and mobile applications on indoor positioning and navigation. Then define software requirements on the applications. Next, design a Floor Plan Manager Application that allow floor plan providers to manage the floor plans, and an indoor navigation mobile application that locate user and direct user to places where they want to go in a building. After that, implement the design to a computer application and a mobile Android application respectively. Finally, evaluate the effectiveness of the applications in user's point of views.