Indoor Localization Accuracy of Major Smartphone Location Apps

Published

April 14, 2019

Author(s)

Nader Moayeri, Chang Li, Lu Shi

Abstract

NIST carried out comprehensive testing in five large buildings to evaluate the accuracy of Fused Location Provider (FLP) Application Programming Interface (API) running on Android phones with that of Core Location Framework running on iPhones. The testing was done under various mobility modes using the performance metrics provided in the international standard ISO/IEC 18305. The paper presents the results of these evaluations for horizontal, vertical, and 3D errors. Even though in some cases and respects Core Location is better than FLP, it can be said that FLP has overall better accuracy than Core Location. One area where Core Location is better is in that it consistently provides location estimates at a fast rate, while FLP provides location updates at a slower rate and sometimes it does not provide elevation information. The paper also compares the accuracy of FLP with that of the top Android app that won the PerfLoc Prize Competition organized by NIST for developing Android indoor localization apps.

Proceedings Title

IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference

Conference Dates

April 15-18, 2019

Conference Location

Marrakech, MA

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1109/WCNC.2019.8885639

Local Download

Keywords

indoor localization, smartphone apps, location apps, accuracy, Android, Fused Location Provider (FLP), iOS, Core Location, E911, PerfLoc Prize Competition, ISO/IEC 18305

Citation

Moayeri, N. , Li, C. and Shi, L. (2019), Indoor Localization Accuracy of Major Smartphone Location Apps, IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference, Marrakech, MA, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/WCNC.2019.8885639, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=927025 (Accessed October 16, 2025)