CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iphonegeolocationwifi
user1073400
user1073400

Reputation:

How accurate can indoor WiFi positioning be when it comes to tracking movement?

Imagine I'm standing in a large room that has a router in the corner. Now I'm holding my iPhone and I start moving around in the room.

Is there a way I can track my movement inside that room using as static reference that router?

Imagine I take one or two steps to the left. Will such a small change in location be captured accurately under such conditions?

Do I need more than one hotspots in order to find my precise location inside the room?

Can the tracking be precise since we're talking about movement inside a room and not out on the streets?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 4779

Answers (2)

simont
simont

Reputation: 72547

If you're interested in tracking physical movement of the phone using a single wireless router as a point of reference, no, it's not going to work. It's defiantly not going to give you a foot or two of resolution, either.

You'd be using the wireless signal strength as a position indicator. However, you'd need two signals (two static points) minimum to give any sort of triangulation. Furthermore, signal-strength triangulation is really, really imprecise - the Wikipedia article gives a network-based tracking a resolution of around 50m. Handset based tracking uses both GPS and signal strength to give a better resolution, but it's still not within a foot or two.

To get good position tracking, a signal is timed between the source and receiver, then triangulated. This gives quite good resolution - Wikipedia articles on "Trilateration", "Time-Of-Flight", and "Multilateration" would give a decent overview of that kind of system.

Long story short? No, you can't get a physical position using a single static router as a point of reference with any degree of accuracy, or precision.

Upvotes: 5

Sid
Sid

Reputation: 9536

I think you're misunderstanding how Wi-Fi based location tracking works. I'm not sure about the exact process but if I'm right, it involves your IP address assigned by the hotspot you're connected to. And the accuracy of Wi-Fi based location is not as accurate as the degree (a couple of feet to the left or right) you're referring to.

No matter where you are in that room, or even in the same building connected to that same hotspot, your location is going to be reported as the same place.

So to answer your question, NO, the tracking cannot be precise. If you're using you're using the GPS component of your device, that's a totally different story.

Upvotes: 0

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