A RFID-Based Personal Navigation System for Multi-story Indoor Environments

In this research, an active RFID-based personal navigation system for multi-story indoor environments is proposed. Without using complicated three-dimensional positioning algorithms, we employ an existing two-dimensional positioning engine and equip the system with the capability of seamless positioning handoffs between different floors. The handoff process is triggered by monitoring the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) value observed by the RFID reader deployed in the stairway. The usefulness of the proposed system is verified by conducting an experiment in a campus building. What distinguishes our work from other related works is that we focus on the capability of seamless positioning handoffs between floors, whereas none in the literature mentioned this feature, which we regard as a key to improve user experiences.