OpenLS for indoor positioning : strategies for standardizing location based services for indoor use

The combination of location positioning technologies such as GPS and initiatives like the US Federal Communications Commission's E911 telecommunication initiatives has generated a lot of interest in applications and services that are a function of a user's location, referred to as location-based services (LBS). However, despite GPS technology and the positioning capabilities of cellular network such as GSM, millions of square meters of indoor space are out of reach of these systems. A multitude of applications and services would also benefit from indoor (in-building) positioning and navigation. Fortunately, over the past decade, advances in location positioning technology have made it possible to locate objects indoors (in-building). These alternative technologies are now being introduced to the market enabling many kinds of indoor LBS applications. While a start, these standalone applications are unlikely to make a large impact on the marketplace, for a number of reasons discussed in this thesis. The argument of this thesis is that in order for indoor LBS to become widely used, there is a need for both the infrastructure investment and the "killer" application (or at least a collection of sufficiently valuable applications). Without the LBS application the market will not invest in infrastructure, and without the infrastructure, the market for valuable LBS applications and their business models will not exist. The thesis distinguishes four type of infrastructure: (1) communication, (2) positioning, (3) mapping, and (4) software (services); then it argues that indoor LBS applications will need more modularity and standardization across these infrastructures in order to reach critical mass.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Kolodziej, Krzysztof W., 1978-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Joseph Ferreira, Jr.

• Civil and Environmental Engineering.
• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/28343

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/28343