Towards indoor localization using Visible Light Communication for consumer electronic devices

Indoor localization is the fundamental capability for indoor service robots and indoor applications on mobile devices. To realize that, the cost of sensors is of great concern. In order to decode the signal carried out by the LED beacons, we propose two reliable solutions using common sensors available on consumer electronic devices. Firstly, we introduce a dedicated analog sensor, which can be directly connected to the microphone input of a computer or a smart phone. It decodes both the signal pattern and signal strength of a beacon. Secondly, we utilize rolling-shutter cameras to decode the signal pattern, providing potential solutions to the localization of hand-held devices with cameras. In contrast to existing widely-applied indoor localization approaches, like vision-based and laser-based methods, our approach reveals its advantages as low-cost, globally consistent and it retains the potential applications using Visible Light Communication(VLC). We also study the characteristics of the proposed solutions under typical indoor conditions by experiments.