MEMS-Based Personal Navigator Equipped on the User's Body

Abstract

The advances of MEMS (Micro Electromechanical Structures) technology have led the development of small-sized sensors (inertial sensors, magnetic compass sensors, etc.). For the synergistic effect, the integrated system of these systems has been adopted in many navigation systems. In this paper, a MEMS-based personal navigator equipped on the users waist is proposed. The key of the PNS (Personal Navigation System) is step detection. The step is detected using the accelerometer signals. The point of time for calculating of step length is determined through the step detection. The step length is computed using a simple linear combination. Also the step length calibration algorithm is proposed using GPS. And then the walking distance of the user is calculated in real-time. The performance of the proposed approach is verified through the actual walking test.