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Tag localization is crucial for many context-aware and automation applications in smart homes, retail stores, or warehouses. While custom localization technologies (e.g RFID) have the potential to support low-cost battery-free tag tracking, the cost and complexity of commissioning a space with beacons or readers has stifled adoption. In this paper, we explore how WiFi backscatter localization can be realized using the existing WiFi infrastructure already deployed for data applications. We present a new approach that leverages existing WiFi infrastructure to enable extremely low-power and accurate tag localization relative to a single scanning device. First, we adopt an ultra-low power tag design in which the tag blindly modulates ongoing WiFi packets using On-Off Keying (OOK). Then, we utilize the underlying physical properties of multipath propagation to detect the passive wireless reflection from the tag in the presence of rich multipath propagations. Finally, we localize the tag from a single receiver by forming a triangle between the tag reflection and the LoS path between the two WiFi transceivers. We implement TagFi using a customized backscatter tag and off-the-shelf WiFi chipsets. Our empirical results in a cluttered office building demonstrate that TagFi achieves a median localization accuracy of 0.2m up to 8 meters range.
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LOCATER: Cleaning WiFi Connectivity Datasets for Semantic Localization
This paper explores the data cleaning challenges that arise in using WiFi connectivity data to locate users to semantic indoor locations such as buildings, regions, rooms. WiFi connectivity data consists of sporadic connections between devices and nearby WiFi access points (APs), each of which may cover a relatively large area within a building. Our system, entitled semantic LOCATion cleanER (LOCATER), postulates semantic localization as a series of data cleaning tasks - first, it treats the problem of determining the AP to which a device is connected between any two of its connection events as a missing value detection and repair problem. It then associates the device with the semantic subregion (e.g., a conference room in the region) by postulating it as a location disambiguation problem. LOCATER uses a bootstrapping semi-supervised learning method for coarse localization and a probabilistic method to achieve finer localization. The paper shows that LOCATER can achieve significantly high accuracy at both the coarse and fine levels.
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- PAR ID:
- 10251139
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment
- ISSN:
- 2150-8097
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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