Helping the blind to find the floor of destination in multistory buildings using a barometer.

Propelled by rapid technological advances in smart phones and other mobile devices, indoor navigation for the blind and visually impaired individuals has become an active field of research. A reliable positioning and navigation system will reduce suffering of these individuals, help them live more independently, and promote their employment. Although much progress has been made, localization of the floor level in a multistory building is largely an unsolved problem despite its high significance in helping the blind to find their ways. In this paper, we present a novel approach using a miniature barometer in the form of a low-cost MEMS chip. The relationships among the atmospheric pressure, the absolute height, and the floor location are described along with a real-time calibration method and a hardware platform design. Our experiments in a building of twelve floors have shown high performance of our approach.