Floor Detection Using a Barometer Sensor in a Smartphone

Abstract

Floor detection is a fundamental problem that should be addressed for Wi-Fi-based indoor positioning systems, especially in open indoor spaces. This paper proposes a method to detect floors in a building using air pressure information collected by a barometer sensor in a smartphone. Since air pressure is different from one area to another and it continuously changes, this paper proposes using a reference device deployed at a specific location in a building. By comparing the air pressure measured by a barometer of the deployed device the floor can be detected more accurately. Experiments were performed at COEX and Dogok KAIST building, Seoul to test the accuracy of floor detection of the proposed method. It was revealed that the proposed method is very accurate in floor detection. The detection accuracy was further improved using pressure data captured when a device is carried into a building on the ground floor.