Wi-Fi and magnetic field fingerprinting have been a hot topic in indoor positioning researches because of their ubiquity and location-related features. Wi-Fi signals can provide rough initial positions, and magnetic fields can further improve the positioning accuracies, therefore many researchers have tried to combine the two signals for high accuracy indoor localization. Currently, state-of-the-art solutions design separate algorithms to process different indoor signals. Outputs of these algorithms are generally used as inputs of data fusion strategies. These methods rely on computationally expensive particle filters, laborintensive feature analysis, and time-consuming parameter tuning to achieve better accuracies. Besides, particle filters need to estimate the moving directions of particles, limiting smartphone orientation to be stable and aligned with the user’s moving directions. In this work, we adopted a convolutional neural network (CNN) to implement an accurate and orientation-free positioning system. Inspired by the state-of-the-art image classification methods, we design a novel hybrid location image using Wi-Fi and magnetic field fingerprints, then a CNN is employed to classify the locations of the fingerprint images. In order to prevent the overfitting problem of the positioning CNN on limited training datasets, we also propose to divide the learning process into two steps to adopt proper learning strategies for different network branches. We show that the CNN solution is able to automatically learn location patterns, thus significantly lower the work-force burden of designing a localization system. Our experimental results convincingly reveal that the proposed positioning method achieves an accuracy of about 1 meter under different smartphone orientations, users, and use patterns.

In recent years, indoor localization systems have been the object of significant research activity and of growing interest for their great expected social impact and their impressive business potential. Application areas include tracking and navigation, activity monitoring, personalized advertising, Active and Assisted Living (AAL), traceability, Internet of Things (IoT) networks, and Home-land Security. In spite of the numerous research advances and the great industrial interest, no canned solutions have yet been defined. The diversity and heterogeneity of applications, scenarios, sensor and user requirements, make it difficult to create uniform solutions. From that diverse reality, a main problem is derived that consists in the lack of a consensus both in terms of the metrics and the procedures used to measure the performance of the different indoor localization and navigation proposals. This paper introduces the general lines of the EvAAL benchmarking framework, which is aimed at a fair comparison of indoor positioning systems through a challenging competition under complex, realistic conditions. To evaluate the framework capabilities, we show how it was used in the 2016 Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation (IPIN) Competition. The 2016 IPIN competition considered three different scenario dimensions, with a variety of use cases: (1) pedestrian versus robotic navigation, (2) smartphones versus custom hardware usage and (3) real-time positioning versus off-line post-processing. A total of four competition tracks were evaluated under the same EvAAL benchmark framework in order to validate its potential to become a standard for evaluating indoor localization solutions. The experience gained during the competition and feedback from track organizers and competitors showed that the EvAAL framework is flexible enough to successfully fit the very different tracks and appears adequate to compare indoor positioning systems.

Every year, for ten years now, the IPIN competition has aimed at evaluating real-world indoor localisation systems by testing them in a realistic environment, with realistic movement, using the EvAAL framework. The competition provided a unique overview of the state-of-the-art of systems, technologies, and methods for indoor positioning and navigation purposes. Through fair comparison of the performance achieved by each system, the competition was able to identify the most promising approaches and to pinpoint the most critical working conditions. In 2020, the competition included 5 diverse off-site off-site Tracks, each resembling real use cases and challenges for indoor positioning. The results in terms of participation and accuracy of the proposed systems have been encouraging. The best performing competitors obtained a third quartile of error of 1 m for the Smartphone Track and 0.5 m for the Foot-mounted IMU Track. While not running on physical systems, but only as algorithms, these results represent impressive achievements.

IPIN 2019 Competition, sixth in a series of IPIN competitions, was held at the CNR Research Area of Pisa (IT), integrated into the program of the IPIN 2019 Conference. It included two on-site real-time Tracks and three off-site Tracks. The four Tracks presented in this paper were set in the same environment, made of two buildings close together for a total usable area of 1000 m 2 outdoors and and 6000 m 2 indoors over three floors, with a total path length exceeding 500 m. IPIN competitions, based on the EvAAL framework, have aimed at comparing the accuracy performance of personal positioning systems in fair and realistic conditions: past editions of the competition were carried in big conference settings, university campuses and a shopping mall. Positioning accuracy is computed while the person carrying the system under test walks at normal walking speed, uses lifts and goes up and down stairs or briefly stops at given points. Results presented here are a showcase of state-of-the-art systems tested side by side in real-world settings as part of the on-site real-time competition Tracks. Results for off-site Tracks allow a detailed and reproducible comparison of the most recent positioning and tracking algorithms in the same environment as the on-site Tracks.

Data spaces, a novel concept pushing data sharing and exchange, are experiencing momentum because of recent developments motivated by the increasing need for interoperability and data sovereignty. After an initial phase, dating back to approximately twenty years ago, in which this concept has been tentatively explored in different scenarios, it is presently going through a consolidation phase in which both specifications and implementations converge towards a common reference for standardisation. In this context, we offer our view on data spaces by presenting a systematic literature survey, a description of the components needed to build them, how they work, and of existing mature software implementations. We thoroughly present the architectural vision behind the concept and we analyse the Reference Architectural Model by IDS. We provide practical pointers to readers interested in experimenting with software components used in data spaces, and we conclude by highlighting open challenges for their success.