NSF Award
0109570
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will explore a low-frequency positioning system for locating and tracking people inside of buildings. Phase I will establish system feasibility by showing that lower frequencies will not be subject to the guided-wave propagation modes caused by typical indoor structures of hallways, partition walls, and floors. These guided-wave modes can cause unacceptably large errors in indoor positioning systems. The concept will be validated by a combination of electromagnetic modeling and experiments. It is expected that a phase-only, low-frequency approach will produce high accuracy and good penetration into buildings with modest bandwidth requirements and minimum problems for licensing approval. <br/><br/>The principal commercial application is in the firefighter market. The system will monitor not only a firefighter's position but also vital biometric data, e.g., pulse, respiration, temperature, air tank level. Further, this system will be portable, obviating the need for a supporting infrastructure. It can also be used for tracking prison guards and rescuers entering a collapsed building after an earthquake or other natural disasters. Hospitals could use this technology to track critical mobile equipment or personnel.
