SmartResponse: Emergency and Non-emergency Response for Smartphone Based Indoor Localization Applications

In this paper, we present an Android based application that uses Wi-Fi fingerprinting technique to locate a person in an indoor environment with an accuracy of 1–2 m in 70% and 2–3 m in 30% of the test runs. This application can run in the background and whenever the individual requires assistance, their exact location along with a floor map image can be communicated to the appropriate authorities through an SMS, which is activated by pre-defined gestures such as swipe on a smartphone. We envision that the proposed application will assist people who are blind or visually impaired in navigating an indoor environment and in requesting assistance from other individual during their independent navigation.