SpinLight: A high accuracy and robust light positioning system for indoor applications

This paper presents SpinLight, an indoor positioning system that uses infrared LED lamps as signal transmitters, and light sensors as receivers. The main idea is to divide the space into spatial beams originating from the light source, and identify each beam with a unique timed sequence of light signals. This sequence is created by a coded shade that covers and rotates around the LED, blocking the light or allowing it to pass through according to pre-defined patterns. The receiver, equipped with a light sensor, is able to determine its spatial beam by detecting the light signals, followed by optimization schemes to refine its location within that beam. We present both 2D and 3D localization designs, demonstrated by a prototype implementation. Experiments show that SpinLight produces a median location error of 3.8 cm, with a 95th percentile of 6.8 cm. The receiver design is very low power and thus can operate for months to years from a button coin battery.