World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Electrical, Computer, Energetic, Electronic and Communication Engineering Vol:6, No:12, 2012

I2Navi: An Indoor Interactive NFC Navigation System for Android Smartphones Jing Hang Choo, Soon Nyean Cheong, Yee Lien Lee, and Sze Hou Teh

International Science Index, Electronics and Communication Engineering Vol:6, No:12, 2012 waset.org/Publication/3789

Abstract—The

advancement of smartphones, wireless networking and Near Field Communication (NFC) technology have opened up a new approach to indoor navigation. Although NFC technology has been used to support electronic commerce, access control, and ticketing, there is a lack of research work on building NFC-based indoor navigation system for smartphone users. This paper presents an indoor interactive navigation system (named I2Navi) based on NFC technology for users to navigate within a building with ease using their smartphones. The I2Navi system has been implemented at the Faculty of Engineering (FOE), Multimedia University (MMU) to enable students, parents, visitors who own NFC-enabled Android smartphones to navigate themselves within the faculty. An evaluation is carried out and the results show positive response to the proposed indoor navigation system using NFC and smartphone technologies.

Keywords—Near Field Communication, indoor navigation system, smartphones.

I. INTRODUCTION

I

N recent

years, rapid development in smartphone technology has expanded its functionality as a device for communication purposes to a small computer for various tasks such as checking emails, gaming, e-book reader and so on [10]. In addition, smartphones are also used as outdoor navigation devices via Location-Based Services (LBS), embedded Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and navigation applications such as PAPAGO [11]. However, a GPS-based navigation system cannot function in an indoor environment because the GPS signal requires line-of-sight (LOS) and thus is not reachable in an enclosed environment. This limitation has led to massive research in indoor navigation system through various technologies such as Wi-Fi [2], Bluetooth [3], FM [4], GSM [5], infrared [6], ultrasound [7], RFID [8] and ultra wideband (UWB) [9]. Each of these technologies has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, UWB and Wi-Fi could provide higher accuracy in positioning compared to Bluetooth, but require higher implementation costs and more complex designs. This paper proposes a simple and cost-effective design for indoor navigation system, I2Navi, based on Near Field Communication (NFC) wireless communication technology running on Android-based smartphones. A customized navigation application was developed to help users navigate within the Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University,

through NFC-enabled smartphones and NFC tags. NFC tags were embedded in advertisement posters positioned at different locations within the building and user can determine their location by tapping on the designated posters. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: A review of related work on existing GPS navigation systems, smartphones and NFC technologies is covered in Section II. The design of the proposed I2Navi system is presented in Section III whereas its implementation is covered in Section IV. The result of the initial evaluation of the I2Navi system is discussed in Section V. Finally, the paper is concluded, along with potential future work, in Section VI. II. RELATED WORK A. GPS for Navigation GPS is used in a wide range of applications especially for land-based navigations [1]. Given the availability of relatively cheaper GPS receivers, navigation devices have become affordable and common. GPS works by calculating the user’s location by triangulation using signals transmitted by at least three satellites within LOS [12]. This requirement causes two issues for users. First is the time taken to obtain the position of receiver [2] (time to first fix), where the user needs to wait for the GPS signals. In some locations, such as urban cities with many tall buildings surrounding, it may require more than one minute [12]. A-GPS (Assisted GPS) can reduce some of this delay. However, the root problem remains, as GPS availability [12] is limited. Furthermore, GPS signal is not accessible in indoor environment. The second issue is that as the time to first fix is longer, the more power [12] will be consumed. This is a disadvantage for battery-powered devices like smartphones. In addition, according to S. Gaonkar et al., the high battery consumption of GPS receivers can affect the battery’s lifetime [13]. The reduction in the size of the GPS receivers and the integration of GPS systems with smartphones bring a lot of benefits to users, but these two main issues need to be resolved for indoor navigation system. B. Smartphone and NFC A smartphone, in the context of this paper, is defined as the hand phone using operating system such as Android1, iOS2, RIM BlackBerry3 and Windows Mobile4. Google Nexus S5 is the first Android smartphone with Near Field Communication 1

See http://www.android.com See http://www.apple.com/ios 3 See http://www.rim.com/products/blackberry_os7.shtml 4 See http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/default 5 See http://www.nfcworld.com/nfc-phones-list 2

J.H. Choo ([email protected]), S.N. Cheong ([email protected]), Y.L. Lee ([email protected]) and S.H. Teh ([email protected]) are with Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Malaysia.

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World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Electrical, Computer, Energetic, Electronic and Communication Engineering Vol:6, No:12, 2012

(N NFC) support built in. NFC C enables a sm martphone to read or w write data, perform card em mulation and peer-to-peer p c contact. A Although there is currently limited l NFC-eenabled smarttphones inn the market, its i availabilityy is expandingg proportionallly with neew rollout of smartphonees. Smartphonnes with em mbedded N NFC chips enaable users to ssave cost and space by utillizing a sinngle device foor increased fuunctionality. NFC is a sh hort-range wirreless commuunication techhnology thhat enables the t exchangee of data between b deviices at appproximate 100cm distancess. It operates at the frequeency of 133.56 MHz in the t unregulateed radio-frequuency (RF) baand and offfers data trannsmission speeed of up to 4224 kbits/s. NFC C is the exxtension of thhe ISO 144433 proximity card c standardd which coombines a smaart card and a reader. Thereefore, an NFC C device is not limited too communicatting with otheer NFC devicees only, buut also existinng ISO 144443 smart cardds and readerrs, thus m making it com mpatible with the existingg infrastructurres like puublic transporttation and payyment terminaals. The simpllicity of N NFC is veryy advantageous for conssumers to perform p traansactions, exchange e conntacts and connect c devicces by pllacing the devvices within close proximityy of each otherr [14]. NFC has evolved e from m a combinattion of conttactless, iddentification, and networkking technoloogies. Accordding to deefinitions in NFC N forum, NFC has threee operating modes: Peeer-to-Peer, Reader/Writer, R , and Card Em mulation. In thhe Card Em mulation modde, data is trannsferred from NFC device to t NFC reeader [14]. Thhis mode givees an advantagge of eliminatting the neeed for a physsical paymentt medium, as mentioned byy Ok et all. [15]. MasterCard PayP Pass6, Googlle Wallet7 and a the uppcoming ISIS Mobile WalletTM8 are som me of the exam mples of seervices that eliiminate the neeed for carryinng credit cardds, debit caards or cashh. Another example e is the electronnic key appplication whhich eliminatees the need for carryingg bulky phhysical keys [15]. Isomurssu et al. pressented an atteendance coontrol system m using the card emulationn method [166]. The Peeer-to-Peer mode m is in whiich data exchaange occurs between b tw wo NFC-comp mpatible devicces. Accordinng to K. Ok et al., appplications suuch as exchannging businesss card and making neew friends caan occur withiin this mode [15]. NFC coonnects booth devices in n an instantaaneous way which w saves a lot of tim me. This modde is mostly used for deviice pairing. The T last m mode is the Reader/Writer mode, m in whichh an NFC devvice can opperate either in the activee mode or paassive mode. Active m mode devices such as NFC N readers and NFC-eenabled sm martphones geenerate a fieldd to initiate the communicaation, so iff a user has a NFC enableed smartphonee on hand, hee is not FC reader. On O the other end e are reequired to buyy another NF paassive mode devices, d such as the low cost c NFC tag,, which arre unpoweredd and waitinng for comm munication reequests. Digital content can easily bee embedded into i the tag byy using C writer. A coommon ann NFC-enableed smartphone or an NFC appplication is the t smart posster. As an exxample, Miraaz et al. im mplemented a smart posterr system that allowed studdents to reetrieve inform mation on deppartment and academic staff [17]. 6 7 8

y as users cann bring Thhis mode provvides advantagge of mobility thee information with their phoone to everyw where [15]. Alsso, this moode can be eassily implemennted as compaared to other modes. m In a nutshell, NFC technnology is aff ffordable, sim mple to im mplement andd provides tiime-efficient interaction. These benefits have opened up an opportunity to adoptt NFC tecchnology to acchieve cost efffective indoorr navigation syystem. III.. SYSTEM DEESIGN OF THE I2NAVI A. Hardware FC enabled Android A The I2NAVI uses NFC taggs and an NF sm martphone with w the cuustomized I2NAVI naviigation appplication to provide a ccost effective indoor navigation sysstem, as shown in Fig. 11. Each NFC C tag has a unique ideentifier and is used to stoore location information i such as coordinates which is used tto search for a destinationn point m. The numbeer of tags requuired depends on the wiithin the system sizze and intricacy of a buildding. For instaance, buildinggs with maany floors annd wings wiill need more tags for a more efffective navigaation. These NFC tags caan be embeddded in existing advertisement posterrs with a markked dedicatedd space forr users to acccess for directtion (see Fig. 1). When acttivated, thee I2NAVI navvigation appliication, installled on the Android A NF FC-enabled sm martphone, w will be able to t read inform mation succh as the current locaation from the t NFC tag and subbsequently guuide the userr through a directed d path on the flooor plan via sm martphone’s screen to the inntended destinnation.

Fig. 1 Hardware coomponents of thhe I2Navi

See http://www w.paypass.com/taap_and_go/index..html See http://www w.google.com/waallet See http://www w.paywithisis.com m

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World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Electrical, Computer, Energetic, Electronic and Communication Engineering Vol:6, No:12, 2012

Fig. 2 Software S compoonents of the I2N Navi navigationn application

B. Software The key com mponents of the proposed d I2Navi nav vigation ap pplication aree illustrated in n Fig. 2. It consists c of th he User In nterface Modu ule, NFC Reaader Module, Navigation Module, M Database Modu ule and Inform mation Module. The NFC Reader M Module reads coordinate information from the NF FC tag (eembedded insside an adveertisement po oster) whenev ver the N NFC-enabled smartphone (with the I2Navi nav vigation ap pplication runn ning), is posittioned near to a tag. Once reead, the co oordinate info ormation is seent to the Usser Interface Module M an nd displayed on o the smartpphone’s screen. Subsequen ntly, the U Interface Module User M obtainns the floor plan p correspon nding to th he current coorrdinates from Information Module. M A flo oor map w with the curreent location marked m is theen displayed on the sccreen. If the user selects a destinatio on through th he user in nterface, the Information n Module will w provide more in nformation su uch as (a) weebsite(s) abou ut the destinaation, if an ny. Apart fro om that, the Navigation Module is able a to co ompute a suittable route an nd also proviide directionss to the deestination by using inform mation from th he Database Module. M Th he suggested navigation n rou ute is then dissplayed on thee screen th hrough the User U Interfacce Module. Thus, a co omplete naavigation with h maps and a route from th he current locaation to th he destination is obtained.

sm martphones were w used aas read/writee devices fo or the development off the NFC taggs. A set of th hese NFC tag gs were theen embedded in several exxisting adverttisement/information poosters. The NFC N tags em mbedded posteers were plaaced in vaarious location ns within the bbuilding. Each h tag contains related loccation informaation.

2 IV. SYSTEM Y IMPLEM MENTATION OF F THE I NAVI

The I2Navi system has been implem mented at thee FOE, M MMU. Floor pllans of the facculty such as laboratories, offices, tu utorial and lecture roomss, staff room ms etc. havee been in ntegrated into the system with w the aim to o assist new students s an nd visitors to o locate desiired destinatiions or explo ore the bu uilding thro ough NFC--enabled sm martphones. NXP Seemiconductors NTAG203(F) and Sam msung Galax xy SIII

International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 6(12) 2012

Fig. 3 Implemeented I2Navi syystem

Fig. 3 showss a snapshot oof the interacttion between a user an nd the posterr through thee I2Navi nav vigation appliication. W Whenever theree is a NFC-enaabled advertiseement poster sign,

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World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Electrical, Computer, Energetic, Electronic and Communication Engineering Vol:6, No:12, 2012

(a)) Select destinnation interfacee (1) Open thee map for current llocation. (2) Seelect a destinattion to be navigatedd. (3) More in nformation abouut the chosen destiination. (4) Reefresh the choicce for destination. (5) Confirm about the chosen c destination.

(b) Example of navigation pathh in ground flooor

Fig. 4 Implemeented I2Navi naavigation appliccation

ussers can deteermine their current c locatiion and identtify the diirection to a specific room m within the building by tapping th heir smartphon nes on the posster. When an n embedded NFC N tag in n the poster is i within the read range of o the NFC-eenabled A Android smartp phone, the appplication is in nitiated (if it has not beeen previously y initiated by the user). Fig g. 4(a) shows the t user in nterface. Oncee the application is instantiaated, the view w shows th he user all the available opttions: (1) Bro owse map for current lo ocation, (2) Ch hoose a destin nation to be navigated, n (3) Obtain m more informatio on about the cchosen destinaation, (4) Refrresh the ch hoice for destiination, and (55) Navigate to o destination. The informaation received by the usser during previous p in nteractions wiith embeddedd NFC tag could c be storred for viiewing the maap at the currrent location. For examplee, if the ap pplication deteects that the current c positio on is within the t first flo oor, the floor plan or map associated with w that level will be sh hown. The user could alsso reopen the map showing his orriginal positio on even after tthe navigation n to the destin nation is co ompleted. t user, with hout the need d of reThe system also allows the reeading an NFC C tag, to choo ose a differen nt destination located w within the build ding. During the search prrocess, I2Navii allows ussers to choosse the destination based on two criteria: (a) seelection of lev vel (range of number n of roo om is given) and (b) seelection of roo om number. O Once the destin nation is seleccted, the ap pplication wiill match th he chosen coordinate wiith the co orresponding floor f plan map p from the dattabase. When the user selects a deestination, mo ore information about th he destination could be obtaained by tappin ng on the “?” button. Th his feature en nables the user to access detailed inforrmation ab bout the destin nation throughh the related web w pages.

International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 6(12) 2012

Once the user confirms the selected desstination, navigation s does not n use staarts on next screen (Fig. 4(b)). As the system an ny other positiioning technoology for deteermining the current c loccation of thee user when the request is performeed, the poosition of the last l embeddedd NFC tag acccessed by the user is considered the current c location. It is mark ked in the gen nerated a two circlles that maap. Fig. 4(b) shows the resulting map and ind dicate the oriiginal and deestination locations. As th he user naavigates along g the path, he can tap the smarrphone s with w the nning applicaation onto refference tags (if any) to validate v run theeir route. If the path thee users are on o is incorrect, the appplication will generate a nootification. F Fig. 4(a) and d 4(b) also deepict a simple scenario off using I2Navi N in FOE by a new stu udent. Accord ding to the scenario, thee user wants to be directedd to the Dean n’s office (BR R2038), an nd starts navig gating inside the t building for f this purpo ose. He tou uches to the first f NFC tagg within his view v (AR2009 9) with hiss NFC-enab bled Androidd smartphon ne. The lo ocation infformation on the tag is traansferred to th he application n in his sm martphone. Hee selects and confirms the desired destination (Fiig. 4(a)). The application suubsequently figures f out a suitable rou ute and show ws it on the smartphone display (Fig. 4(b)). W When the user arrives the deestination (thee Dean’s officce), the appplication nottifies the uuser that he has reacheed the destination. V EVALUATIO V. ON AND DISCUSSION An evaluation n of the I2Navvi system was conducted to obtain iniitial feedback for the propoosed indoor navigation n sysstem in terrms of user acceptance, a ussability and costing. c A group of eigght students were random mly chosen to o participate in the evaluation. Alll the evaluaators found that t the direections

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provided were easy to follow and the application navigated them efficiently. By an effortless tap on a poster, the users can obtain their current location and simply follow the direction shown on the map. They agreed that this system potentially minimizes the chances of a person getting lost in unfamiliar environments. Most of the evaluators also agreed that the system is considered cost-effective because it only requires users to own an NFC-enabled smartphone in order to interact with the advertisement posters found within the building. However, some evaluators noted that the price of current NFC-enabled smartphones is relatively high and may be prohibitive, especially to those with lower purchasing power such as students, although the cost of deployment of the system on the whole is rather low. VI. CONCLUSION This paper presents a simple, low-cost, fast-responding and reliable indoor navigation solution by utilizing the NFC technology. The cost of this system is kept low with the use of relatively cheap passive NFC tags embedded in existing advertisement posters. In terms of response delay, the transfer of data from NFC tag to smartphone is “instantaneous”, so users practically do not need to wait for the response. The tag provides accurate position and room information. The I2Navi system was successfully implemented in Faculty of Engineering, MMU, to help new students and visitors locate offices, rooms and labs. An evaluation was conducted by a group of randomly chosen students and the results indicated that the proposed indoor navigation system is user-friendly and well-suited for the faculty. In the near future, more extensive evaluations will be carried out, involving larger groups of participants, to obtain more feedback for improvements on the system. In addition, the I2Navi system will be extended to support the entire university.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors would like to thank the financial support given by the Multimedia University for the successful implementation of I2Navi system at FOE, MMU. REFERENCES [1] [2]

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