A view-based wearable personal navigator with inertial speed estimation

This paper describes a view-based wearable personal navigation system. We have been developing a view-based outdoor localization method which has been proven to be robust to changes of weather and seasons and can be operational even when sufficient GPS signals is not available. The system is composed of a fish-eye camera, an accelerometer, and a mobile PC. The camera is worn in a pendant-like manner and its wide view is effective in coping with the swinging motion of the camera during walking. The accelerometer is used for estimating the walking speed, based on which the user location can be predicted on-line. A Markov localization method repeatedly estimates the user location and generates navigational voice guidance. The system has been tested in our campus to show its effectiveness.