A century ago, the very thought of machines being able to think, make complicated calculations, and come up with effective solutions to pressing problems was more of a figment of science fiction writer’s fantasy rather than a foreseeable reality.
Indoor positioning systems are becoming popular nowadays. Indeed, there is plenty of opportunities for real-time user navigation in GPS-denied environments. An interesting use cases are as follows: Fig. 1. Indoor navigation use cases There are several options for hardware (see It-Jim blog post). We have developed the positioning algorithm based on cheap Bluetooth beacons and built-in IMU sensors on a mobile device.
The development of indoor navigation services and algorithms is becoming a popular trend in the IT industry in recent years. Some of the modern buildings, like airports, shopping malls, and warehouses have grown enough (Fig.1) to feel a need for their own navigation tools for customers. Closed environment conditions exclude the usage of common satellite-based navigation systems like GPS or GLONASS, so nowadays some alternative information sources of user localization appear at the scene. Fig.1.