Magnetic positioning

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Magnetic positioning is an IPS (Indoor positioning system) solution that takes advantage of the magnetic field anomalies typical of indoor settings by using them as distinctive place recognition signatures. The first citation of positioning based on magnetic anomaly can be traced back to military applications in 1970. [1] The use of magnetic field anomalies for indoor positioning was instead first claimed in papers related to robotics in the early 2000. [2] [3]

Contents

Most recent applications can employ magnetic sensor data from a smartphone used to wirelessly locate objects or people inside a building. [4]

According to Opus Research magnetic positioning will emerge as a “foundational” indoor location technology. [5]

Companies

GiPStech

Independent research brought in 2011 a team of researchers to focus on anomalies to the geomagnetic field as a possible naturally available field to be used for localization of consumer electronic devices.

After some years of research and tests they were able to implement an indoor localization platform that, based on the fingerprinting of a building geomagnetic field and of advanced sensor fusion, was able to precisely locate a device and its user without any infrastructure. Moreover, the platform was also able to compensate most of known issues of local magnetic field variability.

In 2014 the team founded GiPStech [6] - as academic spin-off of Università della Calabria - to complete the R&D and commercialize the platform.

Indoor Atlas

Professor Janne Haverinen and Anssi Kemppainen worked also on the magnetic approach. [7] Noticing that buildings' magnetic distortions were leading machines astray, they eventually turned the problem around and focused attention on the magnetic interferences caused by steel structures. What they found was that the disturbances inside them were consistent, creating a magnetic fingerprint unique to a building. [8]

Professor Janne Haverinen founded the company IndoorAtlas in 2012 to commercialize the magnetic positioning solution with dual headquarters in Mountain View, CA and Oulu, Finland. [9]

Issues

The local magnetic field is affected by moving metal objects like lifts or metal cabinets. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geophysics</span> Physics of the Earth and its vicinity

Geophysics is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists, who usually study geophysics, physics, or one of the earth sciences at the graduate level, complete investigations across a wide range of scientific disciplines. The term geophysics classically refers to solid earth applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational, magnetic fields, and electromagnetic fields ; its internal structure and composition; its dynamics and their surface expression in plate tectonics, the generation of magmas, volcanism and rock formation. However, modern geophysics organizations and pure scientists use a broader definition that includes the water cycle including snow and ice; fluid dynamics of the oceans and the atmosphere; electricity and magnetism in the ionosphere and magnetosphere and solar-terrestrial physics; and analogous problems associated with the Moon and other planets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Atlantic Anomaly</span> Region where Earths magnetic field is weakest relative to an idealised dipole

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earth's magnetic field</span> Magnetic field that extends from the Earths outer and inner core to where it meets the solar wind

Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun. The magnetic field is generated by electric currents due to the motion of convection currents of a mixture of molten iron and nickel in Earth's outer core: these convection currents are caused by heat escaping from the core, a natural process called a geodynamo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geomagnetic storm</span> Disturbance of the Earths magnetosphere

A geomagnetic storm, also known as a magnetic storm, is temporary disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere caused by a solar wind shock wave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motion capture</span> Process of recording the movement of objects or people

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnetic anomaly</span> Local variation in the Earths magnetic field

In geophysics, a magnetic anomaly is a local variation in the Earth's magnetic field resulting from variations in the chemistry or magnetism of the rocks. Mapping of variation over an area is valuable in detecting structures obscured by overlying material. The magnetic variation in successive bands of ocean floor parallel with mid-ocean ridges was important evidence for seafloor spreading, a concept central to the theory of plate tectonics.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vine–Matthews–Morley hypothesis</span> First key scientific test of the seafloor spreading theory of continental drift and plate tectonics

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earth science</span> Fields of natural science related to Earth

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">North magnetic pole</span> Earths magnetic pole in the Northern Hemisphere

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">South magnetic pole</span> Point on Earths Southern Hemisphere

The south magnetic pole, also known as the magnetic south pole, is the point on Earth's Southern Hemisphere where the geomagnetic field lines are directed perpendicular to the nominal surface. The Geomagnetic South Pole, a related point, is the south pole of an ideal dipole model of the Earth's magnetic field that most closely fits the Earth's actual magnetic field.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space climate</span> Branch of solar physics and aeronomy

Space climate is the long-term variation in solar activity within the heliosphere, including the solar wind, the Interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), and their effects in the near-Earth environment, including the magnetosphere of Earth and the ionosphere, the upper and lower atmosphere, climate, and other related systems. The scientific study of space climate is an interdisciplinary field of space physics, solar physics, heliophysics, and geophysics. It is thus conceptually related to terrestrial climatology, and its effects on the atmosphere of Earth are considered in climate science.

References

  1. US 3789351,Feldman, David W.&Slone, James C.,"Guidance system",published 1974-01-29, assigned to United States Secretary of the Navy
  2. Suksakulchai, S.; Thongchai, S.; Wilkes, D. M.; Kawamura, K. (October 2000). "Mobile robot localization using an electronic compass for corridor environment". SMC 2000 Conference Proceedings. 2000 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics. 'Cybernetics Evolving to Systems, Humans, Organizations, and their Complex Interactions' (Cat. No.00CH37166). Vol. 5. pp. 3354–3359 vol.5. doi:10.1109/ICSMC.2000.886523. ISBN   0-7803-6583-6. S2CID   14204871.
  3. Aboshosha, Ashraf; Zell, Andreas; Tübingen, Universität (2004). "Disambiguating Robot Positioning Using Laser and Geomagnetic Signatures". In: Proceedings of IAS-8. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.2.6715 .
  4. Haverinen, Janne; Kemppainen, Anssi (31 October 2009). "Global indoor self-localization based on the ambient magnetic field". Robotics and Autonomous Systems. 57 (10): 1028–1035. doi:10.1016/j.robot.2009.07.018.
  5. Miller, Dan. "Analysis & Expertise in Conversational Commerce". Opus Research. Retrieved 2014-08-02.
  6. redazione (2018-09-05). "Indoor localization and navigation company home page". GiPStech. Retrieved 2020-10-23.
  7. "Homepage of Janne Haverinen". Department of Computer Science and Engineering. University of Oulu. Archived from the original on 2014-02-26. Retrieved 2014-08-02.
  8. Truong, Alice (2013-09-25). "IndoorAtlas Hopes to Unlock the "Holy Grail of Advertising" With Magnetic-Field Mapping". Business + Innovation. Fast Company. Retrieved 2014-08-02.
  9. Clark, Liat (9 July 2012). "Finnish startup can locate you indoors using magnetic field anomalies". Wired UK . Retrieved 2014-08-02.
  10. Li, Binghao; Gallagher, Thomas; Dempster, Andrew G.; Rizos, Chris. How feasible is the use of magnetic field alone for indoor positioning?. International conference on Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation 2012 (IPIN2012). CiteSeerX   10.1.1.367.2923 .