Ready? Steady? Go!
If you want to create your pocket navigation system, first you will need some knowledge on the area. Let’s start with the very basics:
What is navigation?
- Navigation is a term used for centuries which comes from the maritime area. By definition, navigating is the process of moving from A to B, no matter the mean of transport. Thus, the navigation has an origin (A) and a destination (B). One could divide navigation in two stages: localization -for A- and guidance -for B-. In order to find the origin, it is necessary to localize the pedestrian. Later on I will talk about the sequential localization, that means tracking the pedestrian over time, not only at the beginning. In order to offer guidance, it is necessary to know the destination and plan the path. One could choose the shortest path, the path which has a supermarket on the way… path planning is an interesting world. In this work, however, I will focus on the localization part.
What is a system?
- A system is a set of components which form a whole. One could divide the pocket navigation system in two components or subsystems: hardware and software. The hardware subsystem are the tiny sensors embedded in your smartphone and the software subsystem is the one you are going to create. These two subsystems are connected in series, that means one before the other. Any system always has an input and (hopefully) an output. The hardware subsystem’s input is the pedestrian’s movement and the output is the set of measurements recorded by the sensors. The software subsystem’s input are the aforementioned measurements. The output is the goal of the system. Since the goal is to locate the pedestrian, the output is the pedestrian’s position. I will later deep in both subsystems.
What is a pocket?
- …just kidding.
Sum up
You will create a pocket navigation system which makes use of a set of sensors embedded in the smartphone. The measurements of these sensors are transformed by the software subsystem to output the pedestrian’s position. Even if the project is called pocket navigation system, the goal is to localize the pedestrian over time, I will not deep in guidance.