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Section: New Software and Platforms
Interactive eXtensible Engine (IXE)
Interactive eXtensible Engine
Functional Description
PDRTrack is a localization utility running on iOS or Android smartphones used for recording and playing data sets (accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer and magnetometer values) to study the effect of different pedometer and map matching parameters on indoor and outdoor localization accuracy. This application uses the PDR library, written in C++, which provides the user's location in real time based on the interpretation of mobile phone sensors. Three main modules have been designed to build this localization system:
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a pedometer that estimates the distance the user has walked and his speed
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a motion manager that enables data set recording and simulation but also the creation of virtual sensors or filters (e.g gyroscope drift compensation, linear acceleration, altimeter)
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a map-matching algorithm that provides location estimates on a given OpenStreetMap description and the current user's trajectory
The PDR library is a central component of the VENTURI project. It has been used for applications such guiding a visually impaired people. Others partners have used this localisation system for retrieving a scale factor needed for the computer vision part (i.e SLAM).
GPS navigation systems, when used in an urban environment, are limited in precision and can only give instructions at the level of the street and not of the pavement or corridor. GPS is also limited to outdoor navigation and requires some transitioning system when switching to indoor navigation.
PDRTrack is embedded in IXE. IXE is an urban pedestrian navigation system based on Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) and running on mobile phones with onboard geographic data and a routing engine. IXE allows augmented reality queries on customised embedded geographical data. Queries on route nodes or POIs, on ways and relations are predefined for efficiency and quality of information. Following a web paradigm, IXE can be seen as web browser for XML documents describing navigation networks. by using the micro-format concept, one can define inside OpenStreetMap a complex format for pedestrian navigation networks allowing navigation at the level of pavements or corridors.
The big advantage of IXE is that it relies on a standard OpenStreetMap editor called JOSM to create navigation networks and augmented reality content. IXE browser reads OSM documents and produces from them visible or audible navigation information. IXE is composed of three engines, one for dead-reckoning navigation, one for interactive audio and the last one for Augmented Reality visual information.