A toolkit-based approach to indoor localization

Location is one of the most important contexts used in the applications in the pervasive computing environments. It helps the application do the right thing at the right place. On the other hand, location is the most difficult context to acquire and process. Location information cannot be obtained using a single sensing system. It has to be abstracted to application-specific meanings before an application can understand it and utilize it. Since 802.11 networks are used widely, we use its RF signal strength to derive a client's location. To facilitate the indoor location determination system development, we build a location toolkit, which includes several utility programs. The toolkit not only performs some common functionalities used in various location determination approaches, but also provides a straightforward visual interface to researchers and users. This paper presents our approach to developing an indoor location determination system based on the toolkit, and some research results we have obtained