3D pedestrian dead reckoning and activity classification using waist-mounted inertial measurement unit

In this paper, an algorithm to estimate the position of a pedestrian in a 3-dimensional space is introduced. The proposed algorithm exploits the data provided by a waist-worn inertial platform and does not rely on the presence of any external infrastructure. Relevant features are extracted from the accelerometer data and are used to detect pedestrian activities such as standing, walking, going upstairs, or going downstairs. The estimate of the position is updated through a step detection procedure, which combines the signals provided by the inertial platform with the information about the pedestrian activity class.