Indoor Object Positioning using Smartphone and RFID or QRCode

Positioning objects such as appliances inside rooms has become of fundamental importance in the Internet o Things (IoT) and òòin-home automation, as well as in augmented reality (AR). A new positioning system based on a smartphone and radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags applied to the objects to be localized is presented. The 3D positioning of the smartphone is obtained through an ultrasound system while its orientation in space is obtained with the onboard magnetometers and accelerometers. When a certain RFID tag is read through the near-field communication (NFC) interface of the smartphone, from its distance and from the orientation of the smartphone that reads it, the 3D position of the tagged object is obtained. The system architecture is explained and simulation results are presented. Positioning accuracy of about ten centimeters is achieved.