Current investigations at the ETH Zurich in optical indoor positioning

This paper presents a novel approach for a optical indoor positioning system that is currently under development at the Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry at the ETH Zurich. The new system is called CLIPS (Camera and Laser based Indoor Positioning System) and it is based on the fundamentals of stereo photogrammetry. The difference to the photogrammetric relative camera orientation is that one camera is substituted for a device emitting laser-beams from a virtual central point. The laser beams project bright spots on any surface in an indoor environment. These laser spots are seen by a camera for the purpose to determine its relative orientation with respect to the laser-device. In chapter II and III some applications and an overview of existing optical indoor positioning systems are given. The last section explains the functionality of the new system CLIPS.