The Integration of Positioning Technologies for Precise Location Identification

Authors

T. Y. Chew, University of Wollongong

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

1-11-2005

Publication Details

This thesis was originally submitted as Chew, TW, The Integration of Positioning Technologies for Precise Location Identification, Bachelor of Information and Communication Technology (Honours), University of Wollongong, 2005,125p.

Abstract

With the growing trend towards a world where people, vehicles, and other mobile objects are getting more and more interconnected, location information is increasingly becoming a recognized need for providing rapid and timely information to the mobile workforce. More and more products are present in the market that allows location identifications. Positioning technologies differ in their capacity to identify. Some technologies work well outdoors while others are tailor-made for the in-building environment. Significantly, technologies that are present within the market do not support wide range coverage with high accuracy simultaneously. Current location identification systems do not work where people spend most of their time: coverage in current systems is either constrained to outdoor environments or limited to a particular building or campus with installed sensing infrastructure. Unfortunately with the current state of innovation, there is no single system that is able to fill this gap. In this research, an exploratory study approach sustained by qualitative data gathering methods has been adopted to address the gap. The key deliverable is the Hierarchical Positioning System (HPS), conceptual in nature which integrates a variety of positioning technologies to provide precision in location identification. Location identification which requires location information can be for a variety of purposes and the precision depends on the needs. Integration is therefore necessary at just about any level of the positioning technology value chain, as combinations of technologies increased their power manifold. To attain the aim of developing the HPS, studies will be focused on the needs of location information, previous and current work by various authors and researchers and lastly on integrated environment proposed by various authors. Most significantly, the combination of technologies, deployed as a single environment, is capable to address and surmount other technology’s limitations, and allow flexibility of positioning identifications aligned with the different circumstances and service requirements. Through integration, it is envisaged that the proposed Hierarchical Positioning will achieve the aim of this research; a logical architecture to seamlessly provide location information to even local level of details.