Guoguo: Enabling Smartphone-based Fine-grained Indoor Localization

Summary

Since our daily activities are dominantly indoor, as smartphones emerge as the most popular personal computing companions, major IT companies recently launched aggressive investment on mobile indoor location services and positioning systems, e.g., on iOS or Android mobile devices. However, one major hurdle has not been conquered yet: smartphone-based high-resolution indoor localization. In this project, we propose a practical and accurate solution that fills the long-lasting gap for the first time (foot-level vs. meter-level with GPS, WiFi, or RSS). Without additional hardware components/extensions on users’ smartphones, the proposed Guoguo algorithm and system leverages pervasive microphones and adopts acoustic signals for smartphone-based fine-grained indoor localization. Experimental results demonstrate that the Guoguo system achieves high-accurate localization of 6cm and significantly outperforms most existing smartphone-based indoor localization schemes. For the first time, we can pinpoint a smartphone user within one foot, ushering in the dawning of enormous mobile indoor location and navigation services and applications.

Guoguo Video Demo

MobiSys13 Presentation

System Video Demo

Related Publication

Liu, K., Liu, X., and Li, X. (2013) “Guoguo: Enabling Fine-grained In-door Localization via Smartphone.” The 11th ACM International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (MobiSys 2013), Taipei, Taiwan. (Acceptance: 33/210 = 15.7%) [ACM Library] [pdf] [MobiSys13 Presentation] [MobiSys13 Program]

Liu, K., and Li, X. (2013) “Guoguo: Smartphone-based High-precision Indoor Location Ecosystem and Services.” MobiSys 2013 Ph.D Forum, Taipei, Taiwan. [pdf]

Liu, K., Li, X., et al, (2013) “Towards Accurate Acoustic Localization on a Smartphone.” The 32st IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM 2013) Mini-Conference, Turin, Italy. [IEEE Xplore] [pdf]

Liu, K., Liu, X., and Li, X. (2012) “Acoustic Ranging and Communication via Microphone Channel.” IEEE GLOBECOM 2012, Anaheim California, USA. [IEEE Xplore] [pdf]

Related Patent

Li, X., Liu, K., “Apparatus, method, and software systems for smartphone-based fine-grained indoor localization,” (WO 2014089040 A1) (Licensed by three companies). [Google Patent] [WIPO] [News]

Related Grant

(NSF) I-Corps: iLooc-Commercialization Feasibility Research and Implementation of Indoor Smartphone Localization via Indoor Positioning Satellites and Opportunistic Sensing.