An IR local positioning system for smart items and devices

This paper describes IRIS-LPS (InfraRed Indoor Scout), an optical infrared local positioning system. The tracked objects carry active tags that emit infrared signals which are received by a stationary mounted stereo-camera. The system is based on cheap off-the-shelf components, is easy to deploy, and features a large range of coverage. It is capable of tracking a large number of tags without significant performance impact, since the sampling rate remains constant with an increasing number of tags. A test installation of the system has been evaluated in a lecture hall. The positioning system is utilized by our audio-centric user terminal called Talking Assistant. This and other application scenarios are described at the end.