Smartphone Sensor Based Indoor Positioning: Current Status, Opportunities, and Future Challenges

Abstract

The last two decades have witnessed a rich variety of indoor positioning and localization research. Starting with Microsoft Research pioneering the fingerprint approach based RADAR, MIT’s Cricket, and then moving towards beacon-based localization are few among many others. In parallel, researchers looked into other appealing and promising technologies like radio frequency identification, ultra-wideband, infrared, and visible light-based systems. However, the proliferation of smartphones over the past few years revolutionized and reshaped indoor localization towards new horizons. The deployment of MEMS sensors in modern smartphones have initiated new opportunities and challenges for the industry and academia alike. Additionally, the demands and potential of location-based services compelled the researchers to look into more robust, accurate, smartphone deployable, and context-aware location sensing. This study presents a comprehensive review of the approaches that make use of data from one or more sensors to estimate the user’s indoor location. By analyzing the approaches leveraged on smartphone sensors, it discusses the associated challenges of such approaches and points out the areas that need considerable research to overcome their limitations.