Jaccard analysis and LASSO-based feature selection for location fingerprinting with limited computational complexity

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method combining region segmentation, Jaccard index-based sub-region selection, and LASSO feature selection within a Bayesian framework to enable efficient and scalable indoor positioning with reduced computational load.

Contribution

The paper presents a new approach that significantly reduces computational complexity and data storage in fingerprinting-based indoor positioning systems by integrating segmentation, sub-region selection, and feature selection.

Findings

Achieved comparable positioning accuracy using only 10 features and 10 sub-regions.

Reduced processing time to about 1% of the full data set.

Validated approach with real-world data in an office environment.

Abstract

We propose an approach to reduce both computational complexity and data storage requirements for the online positioning stage of a fingerprinting-based indoor positioning system (FIPS) by introducing segmentation of the region of interest (RoI) into sub-regions, sub-region selection using a modified Jaccard index, and feature selection based on randomized least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO). We implement these steps into a Bayesian framework of position estimation using the maximum a posteriori (MAP) principle. An additional benefit of these steps is that the time for estimating the position, and the required data storage are virtually independent of the size of the RoI and of the total number of available features within the RoI. Thus the proposed steps facilitate application of FIPS to large areas. Results of an experimental analysis using real data collected in an office building using a Nexus 6P smart phone as user device and a total station for providing position ground truth corroborate the expected performance of the proposed approach. The positioning accuracy obtained by only processing 10 automatically identified features instead of all available ones and limiting position estimation to 10 automatically identified sub-regions instead of the entire RoI is equivalent to processing all available data. In the chosen example, 50% of the errors are less than 1.8 m and 90% are less than 5 m. However, the computation time using the automatically identified subset of data is only about 1% of that required for processing the entire data set.