Positioning with Bluetooth, IrDA and RFID

Abstract: We are living in the information era, people are getting more mobile and the
technology is constantly advancing. Technologies that were once static in
location are now becoming mobile and constantly changing position.
Information that never changed before must now be dynamic and change as the
user is moving around. By providing a location to applications we cannot only
change position related information, but also open doors to applications and
functions that were not possible before.

The Alipes project was initiated at the Center for Distance-spanning
Technology (CDT) in Luleå. The purpose of this project is to create an
architecture for location aware applications. Several positioning systems are
already supported, such as Global Positioning System (GPS), Mobile
Positioning System (MPS), and WaveLAN. MPS is however not very accurate and
GPS typically will not work indoors.WaveLAN has a good accuarcy and do work
indoors, but is too power consuming. Thus, there is a need for a positioning
system that is accurate, works indoors and has low powerconsumption.

This report focuses on three systems with low powerconsumption, capable of
close range positioning indoors as well as outdoors. These systems are:
IrDA, RFID and Bluetooth. As a result of an evaluation of the three systems,
a Bluetooth positioning system was implemented and included into the Alipes
platform.