Coverage-scalable instant tabletop positioning system with self-localizable anchor nodes

Abstract

This demo paper presents a desktop 3D positioning system, which is implemented with geomagnetic sensors and coils for DC magnetic field generation. Our system is composed of sensor nodes for localization, which sense and transmit the magnitude of the magnetic field to a host computer, and anchor nodes, which intermittently generate DC magnetic field with the functionality as sensor nodes. An advantage of our system is that the cover range and estimation accuracy can be enhanced instantly by adding anchor nodes since the added anchor node is also automatically localized. Also, the sensor node can be implemented in a mm-scale form factor with small power consumption thanks to the geomagnetic sensor, which enables us to attach the sensor nodes to various things. Object tracking could serve as a primary application of this system, such as virtual reality (VR), interactive educational experience and rehabilitation which can benefit the human computer interaction.