fiee 16(7): e2

Research Article

mBeacon: Accurate, robust proximity detection with smart phones and smart watches using low frequency modulated magnetic fields

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  • @ARTICLE{10.4108/eai.28-9-2015.2261515,
        author={Gerald Pirkl and Peter Hevesi and Jingyuan Cheng and Paul Lukowicz},
        title={mBeacon: Accurate, robust proximity detection with smart phones and smart watches using low frequency modulated magnetic fields},
        journal={EAI Endorsed Transactions on Future Intelligent Educational Environments},
        volume={2},
        number={7},
        publisher={ACM},
        journal_a={FIEE},
        year={2015},
        month={12},
        keywords={signal processing, static magnetic fields, smart watches, mobile phones, regions of interest, magnetic field encoding, nfc},
        doi={10.4108/eai.28-9-2015.2261515}
    }
    
  • Gerald Pirkl
    Peter Hevesi
    Jingyuan Cheng
    Paul Lukowicz
    Year: 2015
    mBeacon: Accurate, robust proximity detection with smart phones and smart watches using low frequency modulated magnetic fields
    FIEE
    EAI
    DOI: 10.4108/eai.28-9-2015.2261515
Gerald Pirkl1,*, Peter Hevesi1, Jingyuan Cheng1, Paul Lukowicz2
  • 1: DFKI GmbH
  • 2: DFKI GmbH, TU Kaiserslautern
*Contact email: gerald.pirkl@dfki.de

Abstract

We describe a proximity detection method that leverages the inter- nal magnetic field sensors in smart phones and smart watches to allow reliable, robust detection of proximity to predefined regions of interest within a 30-50cm radius. For marking the regions, low cost, unobtrusive, easily deployable magnetic field beacons have been implemented. We evaluate our system in 5 different use cases in semi-naturalistic lab experiments inspired by different application domains.