Room measurement tool combining ultrasonic and inertial sensors in smartphones. (30th June 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kashimoto, Yukitoshi; Arakawa, Yutaka; Yasumoto, Keiichi
• Is Part Of: International journal of ad hoc and ubiquitous computing. Volume 31:Number 3(2019)
• Page Start: 189
• Page End: 199
• Publication Date: 2019-06-30
• Subjects: room measurement tool -- pedestrian dead reckoning -- inertial sensor -- smartphone -- ultrasonic sensor; Ubiquitous computing -- Periodicals; Embedded computer systems -- Periodicals; Electronic data processing -- Distributed processing -- Periodicals; Wireless communication systems -- Periodicals; Computer architecture -- Periodicals; 004.2
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1743-8225

Abstract

Obtaining accurate floor plans of buildings is critical for optimising indoor geographic information system (GIS) applications. In this paper, we present a room measurement tool that utilises a smartphone equipped with an ultrasonic sensor. To take measurements, users complete a lap along the walls of all of the rooms. Then the tool accurately estimates the shape and size of them by tracking the walking paths of users and measuring the distance from the path to the walls with ultrasonic sensors. To track walking paths, we utilise inertial sensors embedded in the smartphone to estimate walking steps and turns, and the ultrasonic sensors to estimate the stride length when walking toward the wall. To account for such adjacent objects as bookshelves that decrease the accuracy of room size estimation, we used a mixed Gaussian filter. Our experimental results show that our tool considerably improved the estimation accuracy of the room shape and size.