Passive and cost effective people location tracking system for indoor environments using distributed wireless sensor network

Abstract

To be context-aware, one of the central issues in sensor networks is location tracking, whose goal is to monitor the tracking path of a moving object. This paper describes our indoor location-tracking system for in-building, mobile, location- dependent healthcare applications. Ceiling-mounted beacons are spread through the building which publish location information on RF and ultrasonic signals and allows applications running on mobile and static nodes to learn their physical location. The target to be tracked carries listener node, this node listens the beacons information as they arrived and forwards these beacons to the base station. At the base station the multilateration was used to determine the location of the listener. This information at the base station was further processed to check the activity of the person. In the locationtracking system we also could calculate the user’s activity, that is, how much the user moves in span of time. The monitored activity data of the patient can support doctor or caregiver to see the status of the patient.