Week 4 NavShoe
In this paper, the author introduces a navigation system called NavShoe, developed by InterSense.
Currently, orientation tracking is not very challenging because earth’s gravity and geomagnetic field can help sensors make good judgement. However position tracking is not that simple. It has to rely on radio-navigation aids or some other infrastructure.
The appearance of NavShoe changed the condition. The sensor can be tuck into shoelaces and its power can be supported by a small battery for the whole day. NavShoe system contributes a lot to outdoor or indoor navigation. What’s more, it works not only as a position navigator but also an accurate orientation tracker.
Later the author started to talk about implementation of the system. Developers mount InertiaCube3 and its battery on the foot. InertiaCube3 is a multisensor containing nine elements, including accelerometers, magnetometers and so on. Some key software algorithms are applied in the system but they are too difficult for me to repeat.
Finally the author introduces how they carry out the navigation experiments. For indoor experiment, they have users walk through a wood-frame house, covering the total distance of 118.5 meters. The user walked for two loops along the same general path and the two traversals are compared on the same map to check whether there are big differences. For outdoor experiment, users are asked to walk down a long winding hill. Information from NavShoe and GPS is compared to check the accuracy of the system.
Question to Authors: What’s the main outdoor application of the system? Will it just work as the supplement of GPS or bring some creative breakthroughs?
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