Dec 17 2013
Sensor Platforms has added Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) to its FreeMotion™ Library, enabling applications such as indoor navigation, activity monitoring, and location-based services in mobile devices.
The PDR algorithms allow accurate position results using only the mobile device sensors, without the aid of GPS, Wi-Fi, or maps. Sensor Platforms’ PDR solution is sensor fusion-enabled to handle magnetic anomalies in real-world environments and context awareness-enhanced. Employing context capabilities allows for naturalistic changes in device placement (in-hand front, at-side, in-pocket, etc.) without compromising performance. With the FreeMotion PDR Library, typical position estimates stay accurate to within 5 percent of distance traveled.
Sensor Platforms utilizes context in order to separate the actual travel direction of the user (called bearing) from the device orientation. Other unique features include false-step mitigation, stair-elevation tracking, and in-elevator transport. As with all Sensor Platforms products, the PDR Library is both sensor and platform agnostic.
“With the introduction of bearing, we can now offer the best-in-class solution for PDR that will expand the demand for, and the utility of, ever-more useful context-aware mobile devices,” said Dan Brown, CEO of Sensor Platforms.
The Sensor Platforms PDR Library enables a vast array of indoor location based service applications in addition to indoor navigation such as point of purchase coupon delivery. Greater accuracy and incorporation of context capability also opens significant possibilities for enhanced user experience related to health and activity monitoring applications as well.
Engineering Efficiency for Adopters
The FreeMotion Library is architected so that it can run on a single processor, or be distributed among a processor, a sensor hub and/or intelligent sensors. Sensor Platforms can help mobile system and platform developers customize the FreeMotion Library to their specific system implementation in order to support sensors from any major suppliers while still delivering superior results.