›› MIND Lab Seminar Series: 24 September 2008

Toward an Ubiquitous Location System

Hien Van Nguyen
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of Maryland at College Park

›› Logistics

Date: Wednesday, 24 September 2008

Time: 2:00p to 3:00p

Location: AVW 4185

›› Abstract

Location awareness is expected to be an integral part of future ubiquitous computing environment. We are looking at the modern era where everybody would desire to enjoy some location services irrespective of his/her position. Consequently, to know one's location (relative or absolute) may become a requirement just like knowing the time of the day. A new generation of mobile devices is believed to come with many location-based services, which will enable a better digital life and enhance human standard of living. Recently, more than half of applications that won Google Android Developer Challenge requires location information from the phone to function. Many high-accuracy location systems, such as Horus and Radar, have been developed in order to meet these demands. However, a good location system is not only reasonably accurate but also easy-to-use, and robust against device heterogeneity. I will talk about and provide analysis for some of our research works in the effort of creating an ubiquitous location system. It includes using relative signal strength as more robust fingerprint, and how user interaction would help mitigate labor-intensive training process.