Skip to main content

Sensing Motion Using Spectral and Spatial Analysis of WLAN RSSI

  • Conference paper
Smart Sensing and Context (EuroSSC 2007)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCCN,volume 4793))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

In this paper we present how motion sensing can be obtained just by observing the WLAN radio signal strength and its fluctuations. The temporal, spectral and spatial characteristics of WLAN signal are analyzed. Our analysis confirms our claim that ’signal strength from access points appear to jump around more vigorously when the device is moving compared to when it is still and the number of detectable access points vary considerably while the user is on the move’. Using this observation, we present a novel motion detection algorithm, Spectrally Spread Motion Detection (SpecSMD) based on the spectral analysis of WLAN signal’s RSSI. To benchmark the proposed algorithm, we used Spatially Spread Motion Detection (SpatSMD), which is inspired by the recent work of Sohn et al.Both algorithms were evaluated by carrying out extensive measurements in a diverse set of conditions (indoors in different buildings and outdoors - city center, parking lot, university campus etc.,) and tested against the same data sets. The 94% average classification accuracy of the proposed SpecSMD is outperforming the accuracy of SpatSMD (accuracy 87%). The motion detection algorithms presented in this paper provide ubiquitous methods for deriving the state of the user. The algorithms can be implemented and run on a commodity device with WLAN capability without the need of any additional hardware support.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Anderson, I., Muller, H.: Context Awareness via GSM Signal Strength Fluctuation. In: the 4th International Conference on Pervasive Computing, Late breaking results. Oesterreichische Computer Gesellschaft, pp. 27–31 (May 2006)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Randell, C., Muller, H.: Context awareness by analysing accelerometer data. In: MacIntyre, B., Iannucci, B. (eds.) The Fourth International Symposium on Wearable Computers, pp. 175–176. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos (2000)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  3. Krumm, J., Horvitz, E.: LOCADIO: Inferring Motion and Location from Wi-Fi Signal Strengths. In: Mobiquitous 2004. First Annual International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Networking and Services, pp. 4–13 (August 2004)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Weisstein, E.W.: Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient. From MathWorld–A Wolfram Web Resource, http://mathworld.wolfram.com/

  5. Bahl, P., Padmanabhan, V.N.: Radar: An in-building rf-based user location and tracking system. In: Proceedings of the IEEE Infocom 2000, Tel-Aviv, Israel, vol. 2, pp. 775–784 (March 2000), http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/bahl00radar.html

  6. LaMarca, A., Chawathe, Y., Consolvo, S., Hightower, J., Smith, I., Scott, J., Sohn, T., Howard, J., Hughes, J., Potter, F., Tabert, J., Powledge, P., Borriello, G., Schilit, B.: Place Lab: Device Positioning Using Radio Beacons in the Wild. In: Gellersen, H.-W., Want, R., Schmidt, A. (eds.) PERVASIVE 2005. LNCS, vol. 3468, pp. 225–242. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Muthukrishnan, K., Meratnia, N., Lijding, M., Koprinkov, G., Havinga, P.: WLAN location sharing through a privacy observant architecture. In: 1st International Conference on Communication System Software and Middleware (COMSWARE), paper no 43, IEEE Communication Society Press, Los Alamitos, California (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Sohn, T., Varshavsky, A., LaMarca, A., Chen, M.Y., Choudhury, T., Smith, I., Consolvo, S., Hightower, J., Griswold, W.G., de Lara, E.: Mobility Detection Using Everyday GSM Traces. In: Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing. Irvine, California, pp. 212–224 (September 2006)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Liao, L., Patterson, D.J., Fox, D., Kautz, H.: Inferring High-Level Behavior from Low-Level Sensors. In: Dey, A.K., Schmidt, A., McCarthy, J.F. (eds.) UbiComp 2003. LNCS, vol. 2864, pp. 73–89. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Hashemi, H.: The Indoor Radio Propagation Channel. Proceedings of IEEE 81(7) (July 1993)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Hightower, J.: The Location Stack, Phd Thesis, University of Washington (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Exahau Positioning System, http://www.ekahau.com

  13. Air Location II, http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/02/hitachis-employee-tracking-airlocation-ii-tag-w-wifi-enabled-rf/

  14. Welch, G., Foxlin, E.: Motion tracking: No silver bullet, but a respectable arsenal. IEEE Comput. Graph. Appl. 22(6), 24–38 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Smart Surroundings, http://wwwes.cs.utwente.nl/smartsurroundings/

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Gerd Kortuem Joe Finney Rodger Lea Vasughi Sundramoorthy

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Muthukrishnan, K., Lijding, M., Meratnia, N., Havinga, P. (2007). Sensing Motion Using Spectral and Spatial Analysis of WLAN RSSI. In: Kortuem, G., Finney, J., Lea, R., Sundramoorthy, V. (eds) Smart Sensing and Context. EuroSSC 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4793. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-75696-5_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-75696-5_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-75695-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-75696-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics