Developing a Hybrid GPS/Wi-Fi Navigation System for User Guidance

Today, location based services are offered by different organizations such as Google, MapQuest, open trip planner, and etc., but in most cases current services do not provide seamless operations between indoor and outdoor environments; Development of a hybrid navigation system with the capability of continuously positioning in both indoor and outdoor environments is important. This paper, presents architecture for developing a hybrid navigation system that includes five main subsystems: routing, positioning, database, user interface and mapping. In the positioning part, the combination of Global positioning system (GPS) and Wi-Fi finger print technique are proposed to determine the position of users in outdoor and indoor environments respectively. Also, the data related to the movement history of user is suggested to be used for improving the accuracy of obtained positions in indoor part. The evaluation of proposed method was done by implementation of prototype system. The obtained result shows the possibility of utilizing the suggested method in most location-based services in indoor/outdoor environments.