Distributed Human Machine Interface with Localization Functionalities: A Real Test Bench

Thanks to the diffusion of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Quick Response (QR) technologies, distributed and selective Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) are appearing in industrial environments as well as in some museums and other application scenarios. By approaching a smartphone to a suitable tag or symbol, the page of a website is shown and the user can access useful information without any other action. Recently, some indoor localization tools have been proposed, based on Wi-Fi or Bluetooth (BT), locating the smartphone of a user. Even if the uncertainty is quite large, knowing the user's position could allow an automatic viewing of useful information without the need of any action by the user. This paper investigates self-localizing tools with automatic displaying of application-related information about the application, with a special attention to industrial applications, energy, and smart living scenarios. Particularly, this paper investigates the use of BT and sensorized beacons to tag environments and tools. A real case of a cognitive building is presented and discussed.