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Position Estimation for People Waiting in Line Using Bluetooth Communication

Authors:
Ryo Nishide
Shuhei Yamamoto
Hideyuki Takada

Keywords: Relative Positioning; Mobile Phone; Bluetooth; Location; Waiting in Line.

Abstract:
Unpredictable wait time at such places as bus stops, banks, and amusement parks is likely to create frustration to people in line. So far, efforts have been focused on estimating and displaying the wait time of users or customers in line. In most cases, the time has been estimated by counting the number of people waiting in line. It is not cost-efficient, however, as the method requires human resources or installation of expensive equipment. Moreover, the method can only provide the wait time for the last person in line, and cannot deal with such problems as fluctuations caused by wait time due to the latency of service. Therefore, it is desirable to extract the wait time corresponding to each person’s position in line, without relying on human resources and equipment. This paper proposes a position estimation method based on the relative positions of users in line, using mobile terminals and a position management server. The devices held by the users are classified into groups depending upon their positions. Specifically, the device at the front of the line detects other devices using Bluetooth communication, and then places them into a second group. In the same way, devices in the second group detect the following devices and assign them to a third group. When this process has been repeated, the relative positions of terminals are identified. In addition, the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) values are also collected from Bluetooth communication to restrict the number of devices in each group. While generating smaller, subdivision groups, the nearby devices are picked out from the closest ones having strong RSSI values. As a result of experiments, the terminal’s position has been estimated with an accuracy of 94.2% in a typical scenario.

Pages: 8 to 13

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2015

Publication date: June 21, 2015

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-3468

ISBN: 978-1-61208-417-6

Location: Brussels, Belgium

Dates: from June 21, 2015 to June 26, 2016