Mobile Localization Techniques Oriented to Tangible Web

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel indoor localization system combining Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons and Human Body Communication to improve accuracy for assistive art-related services, aiding people with disabilities and the elderly.

Contribution

It introduces a new localization approach that integrates Beacons with Human Body Communication to enhance indoor positioning accuracy.

Findings

Localization accuracy improved using combined Beacons and Human Body Communication.

The system supports assistive services in cultural heritage environments.

Potential for aiding disabled and elderly users in perceiving art.

Abstract

We implemented a system able to locate people indoor, with the purpose of providing assistive services. Such approach is particularly important for the Art, for providing information on exhibitions, art galleries and museums, and to allow the access to the cultural heritage patrimony to people with disabilities. The system may provide also very important information and input to elderly people, helping them to perceive more deeply the reality and the beauty of art. The system is based on Beacons, very small and low power consumption devices, and Human Body Communication protocols. The Beacons, Bluetooth Low Energy devices, allow to obtain a position information related to predetermined reference points, and through proximity algorithms, locate a person or an object of interest. The position obtained has an error that depends from the interferences present in the area. The union of Beacons with Human Body Communication, a recent wireless technology that exploits the human body as a transmission channel, makes it possible to increase the accuracy of localization. The basic idea is to exploit the localization derived from Beacons to start a search for an electrical signal transmitted by the human body and to distinguish the position according to the information contained in the signal. The signal is transmitted by capacitance to the human body and revealed by a special resonant circuit (antenna) adapted to the microphone input of the mobile device.