C. Warren Ferguson Ten Sails Ubisense warren.ferguson@tensails 3 May 2005

Philadelphia, May 2–4, 2005

www.locationintelligence.net

C. Warren FergusonTen Sails Ubisense

[email protected]

3 May 2005

In-Building Location Intelligence



In-Building Location Classic Challenges

Problem 1: Signal occlusionLine of sight systems need too much infrastructure

Problem 2: Multipath distortionLow-bandwidth RF is not accurate enough

...now there are FCC certified UWB indoor location systems



In-Building Location Tracking

Multipath– Signals reflecting off

walls and doors Line of sight

– Between transmitter and receiver

Location tracking technologies– Mobile phones– Microwave– Ultrasound– Laser– Infrared– UWB– WiFi– RFID



Cost Effective Accuracy

10mlong latency

0.1mreal time

VARIOUS

GPS

UMTS

IR/RF

Ultrawideband (UWB)

ACCURACY BARRIER

SC

ALA

BIL

ITY

BA

RR

IER

SCALE

RE

SO

LU

TIO

N

ROOM BUILDING COMPLEX CITY

1m5 second

latency



UWB in Challenging Indoor Environments

Rx

Tx

reflectedsignal

reflectedsignal

direct pathsignal

Power

Time

With conventional RF, reflections in in-

building environments distort the direct path

signal, making accurate pulse timing

difficult

Time

With UWB the direct path signal can be

distinguished from the reflections, making pulse timing easier

Power



In-Building Location Systems

Requirements1. High accuracy

6 inch 3D accuracy2. Real-time response

Action and reaction in less than 0.05 second

3. Scalability Supports hundreds of

thousands of updates and millions of square feet

4. Spatial application development

Models and reports on the interactions of objects & space

5. Easy integration Industry standard integration,

support for external sftw & hdw

Characteristics1. Accuracy

Beware of “as good as …”

2. Cost Tag versus infrastructure

cost

3. Infrastructure

4. Update rates

5. Tag size and form factor

6. Tag battery life



Implications for UWB - accuracy

For interactive applications, best results are obtained when computer’s view of the world matches the user’s view

3m 1m 30cm 10cm 3cm

Shareddevices

Pointingapplications

Cameratracking

Mobiledesktops

Phonecall routing

Nearestprinter

Required accuracy is application-dependent

10-15cm (95%,2D) will enable most applications



Isn’t proximity enough?

Proximity information ignores valuable context– Is there a wall in the way? Is the device on this floor?

Closest display and telephone

Nearest useful display and telephone



Sensors, Badges and Tags

Differentiated… Scalable, cell based, highly

distributed, real time geometry processing architecture

Patented technology– UWB hardware sensors, tags

and badges– Firmware in devices– Application Software Platform– Modelling, analysis and

simulation tools– SDK/published APIs

Badge

Sensor



UWB Sensor Cell Deployment

• A building is covered by a grid of sensor cells

• There are typically four sensors in each sensor cell

• A sensor cell can cover multiple rooms

• Cell diameter is 15-20m depending on wall and furniture materialsView of building showing sensors (greatly magnified). The

sensors circled in red make up the sensor cell shaded red.



UbisenseSensor Network

Ubitags

Application

Other Sensing Technologies &

Devices

Ubisense Enterprise Edition

Application

GeometryOwnership

GeometryMonitoring

TypeDefinition

ObjectNaming

Smart Space Platform

QoSManagement

Filtering andError detection

multiple, integratedlocation-aware applications

Datacommunications

Visualisation

SpaceImport

Enterprise

Integration



Smart Space Overview

Ultrawideband (UWB) radio is an emerging technology for very high bandwidth communications

UWB has unique properties that enable accurate, real time in-building location systems

Accurate, real time location enables context-aware and location-aware computing in real time



What is Smart Space Used For?

Reducing office facility costs by 20-40%

Improving processes and safety within hospitals through locating patients and assets

Increasing soldier learning in urban combat training with detailed scenario playbacks

Managing lighting and cameras in theaters and film production decreasing production time enabling greater creativity

Preventing theft of valuable physical and intellectual assets from high security environments



Major Market Applications

In-Buildings…the distributed digital workplace

– Better communications between distributed sites

Moving maps, phone call forwarding, mobile messaging

Actively supports improved work-group productivity

– Sharing space more effectively Low-overhead personalisation Measurement of space utilisation

– Recording activity in a corporate memory

“Who was at the meeting last week?”




Healthcare– Streamlining hospital processes

Locating staff, finding wandering patients Ensuring records remain with the patient Actively supports right medicine getting to right

patient at right timein disease lifecycle

– Asset tracking and management Finding equipment, evaluating usage to

improve purchasing Returning unoccupied beds to inventory

– Workplace safety Panic alarms with position-finding capability




Security– Enhanced, activity-based CCTV coverage– Daytime intruder detection

Correlate data from active and passive sensors (e.g. passive IR)

– Visitor management Enforcing restricted zones and escort policies

– Asset tracking– Automatic ‘man-down’ detection

Retail environments– Personalised retail experiences– Footfall analysis

Hazardous training– After-action review for urban combat training– Man-down detection in fire-fighter training

simulators



Application examples

Mobile desk tops Equipment sharing and locating Increased communication Equipment and visitor security Real-time assignment of work

spaces Real-time and historical reporting



Some Uses of Smart Space…

Control

Visibility

Memory

Messaging

Environment responds to events without needing to be told

People can see things anywhere and on any scale

Systems store and retrieve information automatically

Messages are routed depending on context

Measurement Use of space and assets is monitored and measured



Control

Follow-me services

Self-configuring devices

Smart spaces

Space as a user interface

e.g. this video bulletin boardat AT&T Labs 2001-2



Visibility

Alone

On TelephoneMeeting

Interruptible

See into other buildings

Find things and people

Find their context and behave accordingly

(e.g. AT&T / DEGW remote collaboration experiments)

e.g. this real-time mapat AT&T Labs 2001-2



Memory

Storage triggered by context

Data indexed by context

Data retrieved by context

Zero-effort record-keepinge.g. this timeline

corporate memoryat AT&T Labs 2001-2



Messaging

ControlPersonalise the device

VisibilitySpot context of remote users

Message routing and mediationGet notified when ‘no longer busy’

Context-aware message delivery

Undirected messages and memory



Measurement

Sensor-driven analysis of how workplaces are used

Who works with whom ?Where does interaction occur ?Where does ‘nesting’ occur ?How effective are club spaces ?What spaces are used most often ?

(SANE project in cooperation with DEGW)



Sharing

Control +

Visibility +

Memory +

Messaging

Sharing

Mobility



Smart space: integration + real-time response

Automatic personalized data filing for shared wireless devices

Follow-me messaging and communications for mobile workers

Video bulletin board with automated camera tracking



Summary

In-Building location turns buildings into interactive, programmable environments … Smart Space

Smart Space requires– 6 inch 3D accuracy, real-time performance and high

scalability

Applicable to many different markets- Workplace - Entertainment

- Healthcare - Research- Military - Manufacturing

Makes people’s work faster, easier and safer

C. Warren Ferguson Ten Sails Ubisense warren.ferguson@tensails 3 May 2005

Documents

real time location

location systemsaccurate

locationaware computing

sensor cella sensor

real timewhat

grid of sensor cellsthere

proximity information

applicationsisnt proximity