iLOS: a composable and efficient indoor localization engine

人类有86%的时间是在室内度过的，但人们经常在不熟悉的环境中迷路。一方面，在室内环境中跟踪人员和资产的能力可以实现许多有用的服务和应用，包括导航、广告、旅游、应急管理和响应以及基于位置的商业智能。MarketsandMarketsTM预测，到2022年，全球室内定位市场规模将从2017年的71.1亿美元增长到409.9亿美元，预测期内的复合年增长率为42.0%。另一方面，为了更广泛地采用室内定位技术，需要克服几个障碍，即i)缺乏直接开箱即用的统一解决方案，ii)某些解决方案的基础设施支出巨大，iii)不同垂直市场的需求不同，iv)室内平面图的可用性低。因此，由于无法以低成本持续定位和跟踪室内人员和目标，许多收入流仍未开发。**郑的团队在室内定位、地图和导航领域工作了5年多，发表了许多研究论文，推出了多个硬件和软件原型，并自2015年以来成功地为麦克马斯特社区服务的移动应用程序MacQuest。积累的智力资本和经验已经成熟，可以转化为实践和技术转让。**在这个项目中，我们的目标是开发一个高效的、独立于平台的室内定位软件开发工具包（SDK） iLOS。作为最小可行产品（MVP），关键组件包括：i)可组合和资源感知的本地化引擎，ii)数据收集和模型生成工具，以及iii)使用MacQuest应用程序进行原型演示。开发的技术将解决上述障碍1)- 3)。随后，一家位于安大略省汉密尔顿的初创公司将改进技术，开发数据分析功能并销售产品。最终的软件产品面向第三方室内定位系统（IPS）开发商和LBS （location based Service）提供商

Humans spend 86% of time indoor and yet people routinely get lost in unfamiliar environments. On one hand, the ability to track humans and assets in indoor environments enables many useful services and applications including navigation, advertisements, tourism, emergency management and response, and location-based business intelligence. MarketsandMarketsTM forecasts the global indoor location market size to grow from USD 7.11 Billion in 2017 to USD 40.99 Billion by 2022, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 42.0% during forecast period. On the other hand, several barriers need to be overcome for wider adoption of indoor positioning technologies, namely, i) lack of unified solutions that work directly out-of-the-box, ii) significant infrastructure expenditure in some solutions, iii) diverse requirements in different vertical markets and iv) low availability of indoor floor plans. Therefore, many revenue streams remain untapped due to the inability to consistently locate and track people and targets indoor at low costs.**Zheng's team has been working in the space of indoor positioning, mapping and navigation for over 5 years with many research publications, several hardware and software prototypes, and MacQuest, a successful mobile app that has been serving the McMaster community since 2015. The accumulated intellectual capital and experiences have ripened for reduction-to-practice and technology transfer.**In the project, we aim to develop, iLOS, an efficient and platform-independent indoor localization software development kit (SDK). As a minimum viable product (MVP), the key components are, i) a composable and resource-aware localization engine, ii) tools for data collection and model generation, and iii) prototype demonstration using the MacQuest app. The technology developed will address Barrier 1) - 3) listed above. Subsequently, a Hamilton, ON based start-up company is envisaged that will refine the technology, develop data analytic features and market the product. The final software product targets third-party developers of indoor positioning systems (IPS) and Location-based Service (LBS) providers.****