Effective Indoor Positioning Service for Exhibitions

PolyU-supported startup Blue Pin Consulting (HK) Limited led a research team to develop Dolphin, an Indoor Positioning System (IPS) that creats an extended network with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and smartphones via Cooperative Positioning algorithm. Blue Pin has set up Dolphin IPS at various exhibition facilities and indoor spaces.

Cooperative Positioning is a way to extend the IPS network and strengthen its signal where reception is poor. The idea is to send the positioning signal from a beacon to nearby smartphones, which in turn act as beacons themselves to spread the signals like a relay race. This way, the signals can go around barriers and remain strong and stable throughout the whole venue without any dead spots.

The team made Dolphin even more user-friendly by incorporating augmented reality in navigation – an arrow is superimposed over the actual scene to point the user in the right direction. Dolphin is also an invaluable source of data. Visitor behaviours and demographics can also be recorded anonymously and analysed for research purpose. Insights on visitor preferences can be derived from the routes they take and how much time they spend in certain shops or booths. Users can even locate their friends easily or call for help in case of emergency within the venue.

Team Member(s)

LEUNG Chung Ming, Gary
CHEOK Lup Yin, Eric