Augmented reality is poised to become the next dominant computing paradigm over the course of the next decade. With the three-dimensional graphics and interactive interfaces that augmented reality promises it will rival the very best science fiction novels. Users will want to have shared experiences in these rich augmented reality scenarios, but surely users will want to restrict who can see their content. It is currently unclear how users of such devices will authenticate one another. Traditional authentication protocols reliant on centralized authorities fall short when different systems with different authorities try to communicate and extra infrastructure means extra resource expenditure. Augmented reality content sharing will usually occur in face-to-face scenarios where it will be advantageous for both performance and usability reasons to keep communications and authentication localized. Looks Good To Me (LGTM) is an authentication protocol for augmented reality headsets that leverages the unique hardware and context provided with augmented reality headsets to solve an old problem in a more usable and more secure way. LGTM works over point to point wireless communications so users can authenticate one another in any circumstance and is designed with usability at its core, requiring users to perform only two actions: one to initiate and one to confirm. LGTM allows users to intuitively authenticate one another, using seemingly only each other's faces. Under the hood LGTM uses a combination of facial recognition and wireless localization to ensure secure and extremely simple authentication. / Master of Science

M. Tech. Electrical Engineering. / Objectives of this research is to use the node orientation, coupled with antenna radiation pattern of each node, to improve the Received Signal Strength (RSS) range measurement technique. As energy eciency is critical to WSNs, it is necessary to minimize both computation and communication costs in any operation involving WSNs,including during the localisation process. To achieve that, accelerometer measurements are used to reduce the number of iteration of the optimisation process during the refinement phase by computing more accurately an initial position for the optimisation using dead reckoning and approach the localisation in a distributed manner. The contribution of this is the investigation and development of an ecient localisation algorithm that can be used on a low cost wireless sensor board developed using existing technology. A review of the existing methods is conducted to highlight the key aspect to consider when developing an ecient localisation algorithms. A mathematical modelling of the proposed algorithm is developed and simulation is conducted to analyse the performance of the algorithm. An exhaustive test bed hardware has been designed on which the algorithm can to be validated.

Thesis (MTech (Information Technology))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015. / Navigation systems are known to provide time and location information for easy and accurate navigation in a specified environment. While Global Positioning System (GPS) has recorded a considerable success for navigating outdoors, the absence of GPS indoors has made orientation in an indoor environment challenging. Furthermore, existing technologies and methods of indoor positioning and navigation, such as WLAN, Bluetooth and Infrared, have been complex, inaccurate, expensive and challenging to implement; thereby limiting the usability of these technologies in less developed countries. This limitation of navigation services makes it difficult and time consuming to locate a destination in indoor and closed spaces. Hence, recent works with Near Field Communication (NFC) has kindled interest in positioning and navigation. While navigating, users in less developed nations face several challenges, such as infrastructure complexity, high-cost solution, inaccuracy and usability. However, this research focuses on providing interventions to alleviate usability challenges, in order to strengthen the overall accuracy and the navigation effectiveness in stringent environments through the experiential manipulation of technical attributes of the positioning and navigation system in indoor environments. Therefore, this study adopted the realist ontology and the positivist epistemological approach. It followed a quantitative and experimental method of empirical enquiry, and software engineering and synthesis research methods. The study entails three implementation processes, namely map generation, positioning framework and navigation service using a prototype mobile navigation application that uses the NFC technology. It used open-source software and hardware engineering tools, instruments and technologies, such as Ubuntu Linux, Android Software Development Kit, Arduino, NFC APIs and PandaBoard. The data was collected and the findings evaluated in three stages: pre-test, experiment and post-test.

This thesis focuses on the design and implementation of the wireless localization module, using UWB technology with emphases on low-power firmwre based on RTOS. Wireless localization is based on TDoA algorithm.  The resulting HW module is designed as a four layer PCB, based on MCU crf52832 (ARM Cortex M4) and UWB module DevaWave DW1000. Firmware is implemented using FreeRTOS with emphasis on low power consumption. For hardware implementation, Eagle CAD was used. Firmware is implemented in C and Assembly programming languages.

Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) have radically changed business, industry, and society, shaping the way we transport, navigate, and generally live every day. After all these years, however, GNSS location information remains only valuable outdoors, leaving indoor environments where people dwell most of the time without proper localization support. Many technologies and systems have approached this problem including optical, inertial, ultrasonic, and radio-frequency (RF), to name a few; yet the problem remains. In this thesis, inspired by the indisputable success of GNSS and the re-emergence of ultra-wideband (UWB) radios to the forefront of technology, we aim to change the state of affairs in RF localization by proposing novel clean-slate UWB ranging and localization schemes based on concurrent transmissions. These are generally considered harmful for communication but become a rich source of localization information when combined with knowledge of the channel impulse response (CIR). Our first novel contribution lies in the concept of concurrent ranging, which allows mobile nodes to simultaneously measure the distance to multiple devices—hereafter, called responders—removing the need for the wasteful long packet exchanges traditionally used for ranging and localization. Different from conventional schemes, which spread responder transmissions over time, we force responders to transmit concurrently and let their signals “fuse” in the wireless channel; the resulting impulse response, as measured by commercial UWB radios, contains all the necessary timing information to extract the desired distance to all responders. This first contribution, however, also serves us to realize the many challenges ahead to unlock the real power of concurrent transmissions for localization. We address these challenges along the way, starting with Chorus, our second contribution. Chorus exploits an anchor infrastructure that transmits packets concurrently. Mobile nodes listen for these transmissions and measure from the CIR the time difference of arrival (TDoA) of the concurrent signals, privately computing their own position at a high rate using hyperbolic localization. This reverse TDoA scheme, although simple in concept, is extremely powerful in that it enables passive self-localization of infinitely many targets at once, a feature largely missing in the RF literature. In Chorus, we address the difficult challenges to reliably detect and identify the signal from the different responders. Yet, the limited transmission precision of commercial UWB transceivers constrains the many benefits of Chorus. In this context, we i) contribute a model to ascertain the impact of the transmission uncertainty on concurrent transmissions, and ii) address the issue with a compensation mechanism that fine-tunes the local oscillator frequency of responders while they prepare to transmit, allowing us to simultaneously tackle the impact of clock drift on distance estimation. We demonstrate in our evaluation that with this compensation mechanism we can schedule transmissions with < 1 ns error, removing the need to share timestamps to precisely measure distance. We rebuild concurrent ranging around this mechanism, obtaining decimeter-level ranging and localization at a fraction of the cost of conventional schemes. These results turn concurrent ranging into an immediately applicable technique that new systems can now exploit, benefiting from a different set of trade-offs hitherto unavailable. Further, the TX compensation mechanism can be directly applied to Chorus, similarly making fast and accurate passive self-localization a tangible reality. We continue our endeavor with a systematic characterization of the conditions under which UWB concurrent transmissions succeed to provide reliable ranging and communication across different complex channels. The results we put forth empower developers to fully exploit concurrent transmissions in their designs, potentially inspiring a new wave of ranging, and also communication, primitives that can bring to UWB the same striking benefits found in low-power narrowband radios. The thesis is completed by looking at other challenges preventing the wide adoption of UWB localization systems, namely, large-scale operation, energy efficiency, and the complexity to install anchor deployments. We tackle these aspects in the last part of the thesis with three additional contributions. First, we propose Talla, a TDoA system that provides seamless large-scale localization for many tags across cells of time-synchronized anchors. Secondly, we fuse UWB ranging with odometry information and build an uncertainty model that only triggers new UWB estimates if and when needed, reducing consumption and channel utilization while satisfying the application-specific demands in terms of accuracy. And thirdly, we build state-of-the-art mechanisms to automatically compute the positions of all anchors deployed across large areas based on ranging information, facilitating anchor network deployment for the many UWB-based real-time location systems (RTLS) to come. Overall, this thesis changes the landscape of UWB localization with a new set of potentially disruptive schemes and systems that exploit the peculiar benefits of concurrent transmissions and that consequently redefine the trade-offs of the technology.

M. Tech. Electrical Engineering. / Discusses node location as a major problem when considering several areas of application based on wireless sensor networks. Many localisation algorithms have been proposed in the literature to solve the problem of locating sensor nodes in WSN. However, most of these algorithms have poor localisation accuracy and high computational cost. Due to these limitations, this research study considers the modelling of an efficient and robust localisation scheme to determine the location of individual sensor nodes in WSN. To successfully solve this task, this research study focuses on the aspect of improving the position accuracy of wireless sensor nodes in WSN. The study considers a distance based cooperative localisation algorithm called Curvilinear Component Analysis Mapping (CCA-MAP) to accurately localise the sensor nodes in WSN. CCA-MAP is used because it delivers improved position accuracy and computational efficiency.

This thesis focuses on the development of tools and methods dedicated for ultra wide band (UWB) localization systems in indoor environment. The thesis work was conducted within the European FP7 project Where2, about the cooperative localization in cellular networks. Data from a measurement campaign conduct during the project are used to validate the proposed algorithms. This thesis is divided in four parts : The first part is focused on the description of an original raytraing tool based on a graph description. In order to be compliant with the requirement of a mobile simulation, a new concept of rays signature enabling incremental computation, and a vectorized formalism for processing rays are described and implemented. The second part is focused on the indoor localization techniques, where a novel technique based on interval analysis approaches is presented and compared to alternative techniques. Advantageously using this approach, a specific processing based on an hypothesis testing method using received power observations to resolve ambiguities appearing in under determined localization problems is described. A third part describes different aspects of the dynamic platform. In particular a realistic mobility model based on ''steering behaviors'', a graph description of the network scene and an inter agents communication protocol are detailed. The fourth section uses measured data obtained from an heterogeneous measurement campaign to validate both the developed software platform and the proposed localization algorithms.

Alternate realities have fascinated mankind since early prehistory and with the advent of the computer and the smartphone we have seen the rise of many different categories of alternate reality that seek to augment, diminish, mix with or ultimately replace our familiar real world in order to expand our capabilities and our understanding. This thesis presents parallel reality as a new category of alternate reality which further addresses the vacancy problem that manifests in many previous alternate reality experiences. Parallel reality describes systems comprising two environments that the user may freely switch between, one real and the other virtual, both complete unto themselves. Parallel reality is framed within the larger ecosystem of previously explored alternate realities through a thorough review of existing categorisation techniques and taxonomies, leading to the introduction of the combined Milgram/Waterworth model and an extended definition of the vacancy problem for better visualising experience in alternate reality systems. Investigation into whether an existing state of the art alternate reality modality (Situated Simulations) could allow for parallel reality investigation via the Virtual Time Windows project was followed by the development of a bespoke parallel reality platform called Mirrorshades, which combined the modern virtual reality hardware of the Oculus Rift with the novel indoor positioning system of IndoorAtlas. Users were thereby granted the ability to walk through their real environment and to at any point switch their view to the equivalent vantage point within an immersive virtual environment. The benefits that such a system provides by granting users the ability to mitigate the effects of the extended vacancy problem and explore parallel real and virtual environments in tandem was experimentally shown through application to a use case within the realm of cultural heritage at a 15th century chapel. Evaluation of these user studies lead to the establishment of a number of best practice recommendations for future parallel reality endeavours.

As the rapid progress in technology changes our daily life, it also changes how the Industry works. The new developments enable technologies such as the Internet of Moving Things (IoMT), and through these technologies, new challenges arise. IoMT adds one more vital issue, localization, to be solved in comparison to the Internet of Things (IoT). To enable IoMT in the manufacturing industry, there are still problems that need to be overcome. Critical statements such as power consumption, price, accuracy, data management, and size. In this thesis, an evaluation of a new sensor system for an air pneumatic grinder is conducted. The features of the sensor system are to report data from the grinder to the cloud and to localize the position of the grinder. The focus was to optimize the localization algorithm and power consumption of the system. The localization of the grinder was conducted with a new and improved algorithm, Ring Error Difference System (REDS), introduced in this thesis. The new algorithm increased the previous known iRingLA accuracy from 2.91 m to 2.33 m for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and from 3.99 m to 2.84 for Wi-Fi, according to the experiments performed. The final system was able to estimate the operation runtime with an error of 24 s for an operational runtime of 905 s. The operational lifetime of the system was 242 h and 45 h, respectively, for BLE and Wi-Fi. An optimized software was introduced to decrease power consumption. The optimized version was estimated to have an operational lifetime of 1540 h for BLE, which did not reach the wanted lifetime of 3000 h set by Atlas Copco. Hence, I conclude that the hardware, Wemos ESP32, used in the thesis, is not feasible for this solution. Simpler hardware, than the Wemos ESP32, should be used to be able to reach the goal of 3000 h. / De stora framstegen inom dagens teknik förvandlar inte bara vårt dagliga liv det förändrar också tekniken inom industrin. Den nya tekniken möjliggör framsteg så som Internet of Moving Things (IOMT), vilket leder till nya utmaningar. IoMT jämfört med Internet of Things (IoT) lägger till ytterligare utmaningar att lösa så som lokalisering. För att kunna använda IoMT inom tillverkningsindustrin måste ett flertal problem hanteras så som strömförbrukning, pris och noggrannhet på lokaliseringen, datahantering och storlek på systemet. I denna masteruppsatts gör jag en utvärdering av ett nytt sensorsystem för luftdrivna slipmaskiner. Detta sensorsystem rapporterar data från slipmaskinen till molnet och rapporterar positionen av utrustningen. Fokuset på uppsatsen var att optimera lokaliseringsalgoritmen och minska strömförbrukningen för systemet. Lokaliseringen av slipmaskinen gjordes med en ny och förbättrad algoritm, Ring Error Difference System (REDS), som jag introducerar i avhandlingen. Algoritmen förbättrade den tidigare kända RSSI-baserade iRingLA från 2,91 m till 2,33 m med Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) och från 3,99 m till 2,84 m för Wi-Fi. Det slutliga systemet kunde uppskatta drifttiden med en avvikelse på 24 s av den verkliga drifttiden, 905 s. Systemets operativa livslängd var 242 timmar och 45 timmar för BLE respektive Wi-Fi. Dessutom infördes en optimerad programvara för att minska strömförbrukningen. Den optimerade versionen beräknades ha en livslängd på 1540 timmar för BLE, vilket inte når den önskade livslängden på 3000 timmar satt av Atlas Copco. Ifrån mitt arbete drar jag slutsatsen att hårdvaran som används i uppsatsen, inte kan användas i en slutlig produkt. En enklare hårdvara än Wemos ESP32 bör användas för att kunna nå målet på 3000 timmar.

Cette thèse porte sur le développement d'outils et de méthodes pour l'étude des systèmes de localisation Ultra Large Bande en milieu intérieur. Le travail de thèse a été mené pour partie dans le cadre du projet Européen FP7 WHERE2, portant sur la localisation coopérative dans les réseaux cellulaires. La thèse utilise pour sa partie validation des données obtenues dans le cadre de ce projet. La thèse comporte 4 grandes parties. Une première partie présente un outil de raytracing basé sur une description à base de graphes. Afin de pouvoir adresser les problématiques de simulation de la mobilité, l'outil introduit le concept nouveau de signature ainsi qu'un formalisme vectorisé permettant l'accélération du calcul du champ sur les rayons obtenus. Une seconde partie concerne les techniques de localisation utilisées en intérieur et propose une technique originale basée sur des approches ensemblistes. Cette technique est évaluée et comparée à des techniques alternatives comme le des moindres carrés pondérés ou le maximum de vraisemblance. Tirant partie des spécificités de la méthode précédente, une méthode basé sur un test d'hypothèse est décrite. Cette dernière propose d'exploiter les données de puissance reçue (largement disponible en pratique) pour lever les ambiguïtés multimodales dans les cas de carence d'observables précis. Une troisième partie présente 3 aspects de la plateforme dynamique. Tout d'abord un modèle de mobilité réaliste basé sur les «steering behaviors», puis la description sous forme de graphe du réseaux sans fils et enfin un protocole simplifié de communication inter agents. La quatrième partie exploite des données radio obtenues lors d'une campagne de mesure pour valider les différents étages de la plateforme et les algorithmes de localisation proposés. / This thesis focuses on the development of tools and methods dedicated for ultra wide band (UWB) localization systems in indoor environment. The thesis work was conducted within the European FP7 project Where2, about the cooperative localization in cellular networks. Data from a measurement campaign conduct during the project are used to validate the proposed algorithms. This thesis is divided in four parts : The first part is focused on the description of an original raytraing tool based on a graph description. In order to be compliant with the requirement of a mobile simulation, a new concept of rays signature enabling incremental computation, and a vectorized formalism for processing rays are described and implemented. The second part is focused on the indoor localization techniques, where a novel technique based on interval analysis approaches is presented and compared to alternative techniques. Advantageously using this approach, a specific processing based on an hypothesis testing method using received power observations to resolve ambiguities appearing in under determined localization problems is described. A third part describes different aspects of the dynamic platform. In particular a realistic mobility model based on ''steering behaviors'', a graph description of the network scene and an inter agents communication protocol are detailed. The fourth section uses measured data obtained from an heterogeneous measurement campaign to validate both the developed software platform and the proposed localization algorithms.