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, prese...

OBJECTIVES We examined how unique, low-barrier, supportive housing programs for women who are functioning as unsanctioned indoor sex work environments in a Canadian urban setting influence risk negotiation with clients in sex work transactions. METHODS We conducted 39 semistructured qualitative interviews and 6 focus groups with women who live in low-barrier, supportive housing for marginaliz...

This paper investigates modeling indoor environments using a low-cost compact active range camera, known as BIRIS , mounted onto a pan and tilt motor unit. The BIRIS sensor, developed at the National Research Council of Canada, is a rugged small camera with no moving parts. The contributions of this paper are mainly in three areas: it demonstrates the viability of the use of a low-cost range se...

Although outdoor navigation systems are mostly dependent on GPS, indoor systems have to rely upon different techniques for localizing the user, due to unavailability of GPS signals in indoor environments. Over the past decade various indoor navigation systems have been developed. In this paper an overview of some existing indoor navigation systems for visually impaired people are presented and ...

Mini and micro UAVs are very promising platforms for security and surveillance applications, because of their increased mobility in the environment. Moreover, they can effectively employed also in indoor environments. On the other hand, the limited payload for carrying sensors and the limited computational power on-board make the development of autonomous UAVs very challenging. In this paper we...

This paper investigates modeling indoor environments using a low-cost, compact, active-range camera, known as BIRIS, mounted onto a pan and tilt motor unit. The BIRIS sensor, developed at the National Research Council of Canada, is a rugged small camera with no moving parts. The objectives of this paper are to describe and demonstrate the viability of the use of a low-cost range sensor in the d...

The location of individuals is a key element for commercial and assistive location-based applications. Since the Global Positioning System, the most effective technology for positioning a mobile object in the outdoors does not work in indoor environments. Several technological approaches have been proposed to tackle this problem. In this paper, we present an alternative approach based on the us...

Indoor localization has attracted a large amount of applications in mobile and robotics area, especially in vast and sophisticated environments. Most indoor localization methods are based on cellular base stations and WiFi signals. Such methods require users to carry additional equipment. Localization accuracy is largely based on the beacon distribution. Image-based localization is mainly appli...

Recent advancements in indoor positioning systems are based on infrastructure-free solutions, aimed at improving the location accuracy in complex indoor environments without the use of specialized resources. A popular infrastructure-free solution for indoor positioning is a calibration-based positioning, commonly known as fingerprinting. Fingerprinting solutions require extensive and error-free...

Once an aerosol contaminant is introduced into an indoor environment, it can remain in the air, deposit on interior surfaces or attach to dust particles already present. Human activity, such as walking and cleaning, resuspends contaminated particles, regenerating airborne contaminants. This report is a literature review on the effects of human activity on particle re-suspension in indoor enviro...