Verification of Applicability of Office Indoor Positioning Systems

<p>The purpose of this study is to verify the possibility of using indoor positioning systems for various purposes such as equipment control and determining the status in an office. There is currently a need to pursue a rational approach to building operations, for which new technologies are being pursued. In particular, the need to focus on human behavior is increasing. In recent years, indoor positioning systems have become widely diffused as a technology for capturing human behavior and bringing about a paradigm shift to conventional building operations, such as advanced equipment control, positional information visualization, traffic line analysis, and an evaluation of the space utilization rate. A human sensor with a thermopile array is a thermopile that used to be a single pixel, but has been miniaturized and made into multiple arrays through micro-electro mechanical systems technology. Indoor positioning systems are becoming more wide-spread, and commercial products such as sensors, lighting, and automatic control are available on the market. They are also being applied to lighting and air conditioning control. The accuracy (time resolution, spatial resolution, and human detection accuracy) required for indoor positioning systems differ depending on the intended use. Such systems are being used for many purposes without verification and there have been no quantitative comparisons of the accuracy required for each intended use. In this study, the evaluation criteria are examined for each type of utilization of office indoor positioning systems. Next, an overview of indoor positioning systems and an outline of such a system using a thermopile human sensor will be described. Furthermore, after verifying the accuracy of the system in an actual environment, such criteria were applied and the possibility of use in an office was verified. Although the accuracy of indoor positioning systems has been verified the accuracy required according to the specific pursue of utilization must be determined. In the future, this study will be an important guideline for designing buildings that utilize indoor positioning. ・Lighting Control: There are still issues regarding detection accuracy when use for lighting control. Because there are few false positives in which the light does not turn on despite the presence of people and a required 100% detection accuracy for desk work. ・Air Conditioning Control: The detection accuracy is irrelevant because air conditioning is often applied regardless of the presence/absence of people owing to the spatial equilibrium characteristics and slow response. ・Positional Information: The system cannot be used for positional information because it cannot be personally identified despite meeting the spatial resolution, temporal resolution, and accuracy requirements. The evaluation criteria were examined for each type of utilization on an office utilization of the indoor positioning system. Furthermore, in an actual environment, after verifying the accuracy of the indoor positioning system using a thermopile human sensor, these criteria were applied and the possibility of utilization in an office was verified. It will be necessary to devise the conditions for the use of such systems based on the following factors: 1) Blind spots may occur in the sensor detection area. 2) People may be integrated within thermal image. 3) The surface temperature might decrease from the clothing worn. 4) The sensor detection areas can overlap at low heights. 5) Parts of the body are far from the trunk such as the arms. 6) A refrigerator or compound heat generator such as a machine or personal computer might be present. 7) A temperature increase at the floor surface by direct sunlight might occur. 8) The relative error and its variation owing to the environment at the sensor installation position might be significant.</p>