Positioning Indoors Using Acoustic Signals

Prof. CHEN Ruizhi, Wuhan University

Abstract: Indoor positioning is a core technology enabling artificial intelligence (AI) applications and playing a pivotal role in AI solutions. Currently, various indoor positioning technologies are appealing in the market, such as the Ultra-Wideband (UWB), WiFi Round-Trip-Time(RTT), Bluetooth Angle of Arrival (AoA), Bluetooth Channel Sounding (BTCS) and AR-based localization et.al. This presentation will introduce an indoor positioning technology based on acoustic signals. It utilizes the microphone built-in wearable devices and smartphones as receivers, and offers a ranging accuracy of 0.12 meters and a positioning accuracy of better than 0.5 meters for smartphones and wearable devices without changing their hardware. This precise ranging technology has also been implemented in a single chip to support positioning tag development. It has been commercially deployed in airports, railway stations, convention centres in China. Together with GNSS technology, it enables a seamless indoor/outdoor navigation service.

Biography: Dr. Ruizhi Chen is a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. He is currently a Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing (LIESMARS) at Wuhan University, China. He used to be the director of LIESMARS, an Endowed Chair Professor at Texas A&M University Corpus Christ, US, and the Head & Professor of the Department of Navigation and Positioning at the Finnish Geodetic Institute, Finland. He also worked in Nokia as an Engineering Manager during 1998-2001. Dr. Chen’s research interests include indoor positioning and location-based services. He has published two books and 203 SCI papers. His research results were selected as cover stories two times in “GPS World”.