A Pedestrian Navigation System using Multiple Space-Identifying Devices Based on a Unique Identifier Framework

While car navigation systems today can meet our daily needs, pedestrian navigation systems available still fall short of practical needs. This is mainly because existing positioning methods such as GPS has limitation in terms of their applicability and accuracy. In this paper, a novel pedestrian navigation approach based on a unique identifier framework is proposed. The approach integrates ubiquitously-deployed multiple space-identifying devices including active and passive RFIDs, and infrared beacons to realize accurate navigation. The main advantage of this approach is the abstraction of space-identifying devices provided by the unique identifier framework, which realizes flexible and extensible device integration. Through this approach, users can be guided to their destination in various environments, including indoor or underground ones, where GPS signals are not available. A large-scale experiment, performed in GINZA, a prime shopping district in Japan in the first quarter of 2007, is reviewed, and the effectiveness and potential of our approach is discussed.