Reports

Finding 9-1-1 Callers in Tall Buildings

Song, Wonsang; Lee, Jae; Lee, Byung; Schulzrinne, Henning G.

Accurately determining a user’s floor location is essential for minimizing delays in emergency response. This paper presents a floor localization system intended for emergency calls. We aim to provide floor-level accuracy with minimum infrastructure support. Our approach is to use multiple sensors, all available in today’s smartphones, to trace a user’s vertical movements inside buildings. We make three contributions. First, we present a hybrid architecture for floor localization with emergency calls in mind. The architecture combines beacon-based infrastructure and sensor-based dead reckoning, striking the right balance between accurately determining a user’s location and minimizing the required infrastructure. Second, we present the elevator module for tracking a user’s movement in an elevator. The elevator module addresses three core challenges that make it difficult to accurately derive displacement from acceleration. Third, we present the stairway module which determines the number of floors a user has traveled on foot. Unlike previous systems that track users’ foot steps, our stairway module uses a novel landing counting technique.

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Academic Units
Computer Science
Publisher
Department of Computer Science, Columbia University
Series
Columbia University Computer Science Technical Reports, CUCS-001-13
Published Here
January 28, 2013