Property Modifiable Discreet Active Landmarks

This paper explains the design and implementation of a discreet landmark capable of modifying its properties in order to be able to differentiate itself from its surrounding environment. In this case, differently from common devices, our landmark does not make use of neither light, wave reflection, or radio frequencies, but it makes use of temperature properties of a peltier device which is able to increase or decrease its temperature. By having different characteristics from its surroundings, in this case a temperature landmark can be robustly found and tracked in complex indoor environments using thermo infrared cameras. The proposed system composition and configuration, landmark finding, extraction and tracking methods are also explained and effectiveness of this system is described and evaluated.