Indoor Localization: Technology That Can Save First Responder Lives

Published

December 1, 2007

Author(s)

Nader Moayeri, Camillo A. Gentile, Kamran Sayrafian, Michael R. Souryal

Abstract

Every year a number of first responders lose their lives while battling fires or rescuing civilians during such emergencies. Indoor localization or location tracking roughly provides the same capability inside buildings that GPS does outdoors. It allows a first responder to know his/her location and to navigate inside a building. It also provides the same information to the Incident Command (IC) set up outside the building, enabling the IC to make better tactical decisions and more effectively coordinate the emergency response operation. Perhaps more importantly, it allows the IC to launch an effective and speedy rescue operation if a first responder goes down and needs to be extracted from the building. This paper provides an overview of indoor localization based on RF technology. It covers ranging, direction estimation, and localization based on received signal strength. It also presents an indoor localization system based on RFID technology that has some very attractive features, despite its simplicity. The paper goes over the merits and drawbacks of each approach and draws a realistic picture of viability of indoor localization in emergency response operations.

Citation

Indoor Localization: Technology That Can Save First Responder Lives

Issue

July/December 2007

Pub Type

Others

Keywords

Direction estimation, First responders, Geolocation, Indoor localization, Local tracking, Ranging, RFID, Ultra wideband, WiFi

Citation

Moayeri, N. , Gentile, C. , Sayrafian, K. and Souryal, M. (2007), Indoor Localization: Technology That Can Save First Responder Lives, Indoor Localization: Technology That Can Save First Responder Lives (Accessed October 18, 2025)