Indoor positioning using magnetic compass and accelerometer of smartphones

Traditionally location positioning was confided to outdoor environments, mostly using GPS. GPS signals require direct-line-of-sight for accurate positioning. Due to complexity of electromagnetic wave propagation in indoor environments, the GPS based approaches used for outdoor positioning become less effective for indoor location estimation. A novel approach for Wi-Fi based indoor tracking system is presented in this paper which uses the knowledge of magnetic compass and accelerometer in smartphones to locate users. The proposed system is purely software based with no additional hardware and costs. Experimental measurement results indicate that the proposed technique supports sub-meter positioning accuracy.