| Location-aware computing is regarded as a key feature of many future mobile applications, especially with the convergence of wireless technologies and mobile systems. GPS serves well for most outdoor applications, but it cannot be used in indoor location sensing. Several approaches have been proposed for indoor location sensing; such as infrared sensing, radio frequency, ultrasonic, and scene capture analysis. Each of these methods has their own disadvantages. Some are expensive to implement, while others are not very accurate. This thesis examines some of the recent commodity wireless technologies, especially Bluetooth, to find alternatives and strategies for indoor location sensing. Note that both Bluetooth and WLAN are not designed for indoor location sensing. Bluetooth devices are able to set up wireless ad-hoc connections in order to exchange all kinds of information in nearly every situation. Besides being small and low on power consumption, Bluetooth devices would soon become a day-to-day commodity making them cheap and omnipresent in office-like environments. The thesis concludes by proposing a model consisting of Bluetooth and other wireless technologies for location sensing in office environments, shopping malls and day care centers. |
