e-ISSN: 2582-5208

International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science

( Peer-Reviewed, Open Access, Fully Refereed International Journal )
Volume:03/Issue:09/September-2021 Impact Factor- 6.752 www.irjmets.com

AUGMENTED REALITY INDOOR NAVIGATION SYSTEM

Mantripragada Sai Pavan Aditya*1, K. Anvesh*2, Kolluri Sai Madhav*3
*1,2,3Department Of Computer Science & Engineering, Matrusri Engineering College,
Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
ABSTRACT
Navigation systems help users to access unfamiliar environments. Current advances in technology enable
consumers to encapsulate these systems into mobile devices, which expands navigation systems' popularity
and the number of users effectively. In indoor conditions, navigation with orbiting satellites becomes more
difficult relative to outdoor environments, due to the Global Positioning System (GPS) error rate of 3 meters.
This project intends to solve this by designing and building an indoor Navigation system, which I achieve with
the assistance of a mobile device's camera and gyroscope, my approach would be to use AR Core to show the
navigation path to the user on his mobile phone along with a 2D mini-map for guidance where I track the initial
position of the user by making user scan a QR code at a specific start location. And another objective of this
project is not to depend on any specific hardware or Internet access for navigation.
Keywords: Indoor Navigation, 2D Mini-Map, Navigation System, AR Core, QR-Code, Navmesh.
I. INTRODUCTION
Our inspiration for this project comes from the fact that people increasingly rely on their smartphones to solve
some of their basic everyday problems. One such challenge that smartphones are not yet thoroughly tackled is
indoor navigation. There is currently no low-cost scalable smartphone solution available on the market that
effectively navigates the consumer from one location to another indoors. Such an app will help users who are
unfamiliar with the area. Tourists, for example, would be able to maneuver confidently inside a tourist
attraction without assistance. In places such as museums and art galleries, the application could be expanded to
include the most optimal or 'common' paths.
Such a device may also be incorporated at airports to direct travelers to their gates of entry. Similarly, an indoor
navigation system could also benefit local users who have previously visited the location but are still unaware
of the whereabouts of some of the desired items. These include supermarkets, libraries, and shopping malls.
This technology could also help customers who have deployed the system, by learning customer behavior and
using it to promote ads at specific places or on specific routes and collect valuable data about the customer.
II. EXISTING SYSTEM
For indoor navigation system companies are majorly using technologies are Bluetooth beacons, Wi-Fi-
Fingerprinting, and UWB. even those these technologies are widely used but there are some problems with
these technologies they are:
· In Bluetooth technology, a huge number of beacons should be installed which are very costly. And it makes it
difficult for detecting the devices when more connectivity requests are sent.
· In Wi-fi fingerprinting technology the major problem concerns the security of public Wi-fi. As the frequency
varies as we move from one place to another it leads to connectivity problems which further leads to loss of
tracking.
· In UWB technology the major problem is the signal strength released by the UWB device. This device releases
very low signals which creates difficulties in signal catching and tracking the position of a person.
Apart from these technology-specific problems they also have more general disadvantages like Expensive
Implementation, Need for hardware installation, Dependent on internet access .
III. PROPOSED SYSTEM
Our solution will be using AR Core to display the navigation path to the user on his mobile phone with the help
of Anchors which are based on the nav path generated with the help of navmesh. Here the navmesh is created
with the help of a floor plan of the area to be navigated.

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 e-ISSN: 2582-5208
International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science
( Peer-Reviewed, Open Access, Fully Refereed International Journal )
Volume:03/Issue:09/September-2021 Impact Factor- 6.752 www.irjmets.com
To track the user’s position, we use some simple calculations of distance and angle from the previous position
to the current position. The user will also have a 2D mini-map for reference while trying to navigate.
To run AR Core Applications the device needs to be certified as AR Core compatible. Certification is given by
Google where they decide which device to certify based on the quality of the camera, motion sensors, and the
design architecture is expected to perform to a standard. Also, the device needs to have a powerful enough CPU
that integrates with the hardware design to ensure good performance and effective real-time calculations.
IV. OBJECTIVE
The primary objective of the application is to eliminate all the dependencies like Wi-Fi Access points, Bluetooth
beacons, Internet and other devices which require additional sources to realize Indoor navigation. We relied on
new but a reckonable technology on Augmented reality to help us realize Indoor Navigation on the device itself.
This requires the mobile handset to be ARCore certified from Google during manufacture(nowadays all the
units come with this capability) and a QR Code preprogrammed with the location indoors.
V. SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
Having access to advanced handsets people tend to navigate large indoor spaces hassle-free as they might be
puzzled looking at larger structures and multiple sign boards, they tend to use an easy way to access all the
directions on their phones. This brings Indoor Navigation systems into play. Having an Augmented Reality
based Indoor Navigation system at their disposal makes users navigate seamlessly and also aid vendors for
advertising in malls etc.
VI. SYSTEM DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE
The User Interface is the primary way through which the user interacts with the Android application where the
whole backend is being performed. In the background, both the Augmented Reality Core (ARCore) and the
Android SDK are connected. to Unity Engine. The data from QR-Code is retrieved by using ZXing which is a
library we use in some of the scripts.

Fig 1: System Architecture

The User Interface is the primary way through which the user interacts with the Android application where the
whole backend is being performed. In the background, both the Augmented Reality Core (ARCore) and the
Android SDK are connected to Unity Engine. The data from QR-Code is retrieved by using ZXing which is a
library we use in some of the scripts.
Apart from the Software application, the physical requirements (Mobile phone hardware) i.e., The position of
the Camera and the gyroscope are used by ARCore along with SLAM to process any visual being displayed to
the user.

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 e-ISSN: 2582-5208
International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science
( Peer-Reviewed, Open Access, Fully Refereed International Journal )
Volume:03/Issue:09/September-2021 Impact Factor- 6.752 www.irjmets.com
VII. IMPLEMENTATION AND WORKING
7.1 Working
The first step in the navigation process is to scan a QR code. As the user opens the application, the user gets an
interface for scanning QR-code, once the user points his device camera towards a QR code the application starts
operating. The QR-codes are placed at key locations where the users are most likely to pass from. As the user
scans the QR-code, the user is presented with a drop-down box where they can select the destination and a
clear view button to clear the previous destination if selected.
To aid the user with smooth navigation, there is also a mini-map of the floor, locating his current position and
also showing a path to his destination which the user can zoom in and pan if needed.
To start navigation the user needs to select his desired destination from the drop-down box, thus setting the
path from the starting position and the destination, then the user is shown an AR floating arrow (AR-based
anchor) which navigates the user towards the destination in the real environment. As the user reaches his/her
destination an AR floating PIN is placed at the destination which indicates that the user has reached the
destination.
7.2 Scanning

Fig 2: View of QR code Scanning

In Scanning (Scan. cs), immediately after the application has been opened by a user, it checks for availability of
rear-view camera then updates a variable which is used to track the availability of camera, which in turn tells
that there’s a camera available for scanning QR code. Then it scans the QR-code, which is nothing but capturing
a still image which is converted to a stream of bytes which is sent to ZXing, (here ZXing function resides in
another script called image recognition. cs) once After ZXing gets the data, it parses it and gives the resultant
string back to the called function as a string is compared to the list of start positions, we coded in beforehand
and if there is match the result. (result is sent back to scan.cs).
After retrieving the data from the QR-code the system starts checking all the starting positions in the map
provided by the map in Unity engine, and if any one of the start positions in the respective map is matched with
the data which is retrieved from the embedded QR-code. Then, that position would be set as the user’s starting
position and the system gets notified of the position of the user.

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 e-ISSN: 2582-5208
International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science
( Peer-Reviewed, Open Access, Fully Refereed International Journal )
Volume:03/Issue:09/September-2021 Impact Factor- 6.752 www.irjmets.com
7.3 Path Finding and Navigation

Fig 3: line render to draw a path on min-map

Once the user selects the destination from the drop-down box provided in the Interface, the system finds an
optimal path using the Indoor navigation controller class where the class uses a function called
Mesh.CalculatePath where it is calculated based on the navmesh we have been created beforehand thus setting
the path between the start position and the destination and here the path is updated repeatedly as the user
starts moving.
Once the user has set the destination and the path is generated, an anchor is instantiated based on the current
position of the user and the path, here the anchor we use is a floating arrow, which also so shows the direction
to follow, here we calculate the angle of the arrow based on the current and previous position as following code.
float angle = Mathf.Rad2Deg * (Mathf.Atan2(personHelp.y - personPos.y, personHelp.x - personPos.x) -
Mathf.Atan2(node2D.y - personPos.y, node2D.x - personPos.x));

Fig 4: Navigation Anchor Fig 5: NavMesh

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 e-ISSN: 2582-5208
International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science
( Peer-Reviewed, Open Access, Fully Refereed International Journal )
Volume:03/Issue:09/September-2021 Impact Factor- 6.752 www.irjmets.com
Here, person Help is an invisible cube that is placed in front of the user which is used to calculate tangent, and
persons are the position of the user. By using these values and MathF.Atan2 (Single, Single) Method which is
used to return the angle whose tangent is the quotient of two specified numbers, we calculate the angle the
arrow is to be rotated.
As the user starts following the first anchor the next new anchor is placed on the path, this is continued till the
user is reached to the destination as the user reaches the destination a PIN is placed at the destination point to
show the user that he has reached the destination. If the user gets out of the path of navigation the application
starts alerting the user by a message on the screen. So, that the user can reach the correct destination.
VIII. TESTING
The testing phase was done as a proof of concept that this application works just fine. It was carried out in two
parallel phases amid COVID-19 restrictions in a limited space of our Department of Computer Science &
Engineering only, confining to our theoretical application works in reality.
The parallel phase of testing is done for tweaking and adjusting the Navmesh, Navigator icons and 2D mini-map
tracking of the current location of the user in real-time. The results were astonishingly promising that it works
for multi-level structures and large public places effectively.
The application offers a list of destinations for the user to choose from a dropbox and navigates across the
confinement space seamlessly.
IX. RESULTS

Fig 6: Scanning QR Code Fig 7: Retrieve user position Fig 8: Selecting Destination

Fig 9: Navigation in corners Fig 10: Navigation in walkway Fig 11: Final Destination
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[75]
 e-ISSN: 2582-5208
International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science
( Peer-Reviewed, Open Access, Fully Refereed International Journal )
Volume:03/Issue:09/September-2021 Impact Factor- 6.752 www.irjmets.com
X. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS
Our project can successfully help navigate a user in a given space without any additional resources like external
hardware or even the Internet. In this project, the space we choose to build is our department floor and the
approach we have used can be adapted to any other place.
Even with these advantages, it should be kept in mind that there is a need of making a NavMesh of the location
be navigated, but its great trade-off compared to buying expensive hardware or installation of such hardware.
Moreover, NavMesh can easily be generated by an existing floor plan.
Lastly, even though we tried to make our project as perfect as possible there are many things which we could
have done better or would have added if he had more time, some of these things are listed in the future
enhancements section below.
Future Enhancements
The application has a lot of room for improvement and advancement and some of the ideas are:
· Making a plugin to automatically create a NavMesh from a floor plan that follows certain rules.
· Making an augmented reality line to follow instead of reappearing arrows.
· Have a better way to get the starting position of the user other than QR Code.
· Make the application more generalized, such that users have an option to customize destinations.
XI. REFERENCES
[1] Akshay Sawant, Abhijeet Patil, Yash Shiwalkar, Dr. Sunil Chavan, Indoor Navigation Assistance System
For Visually Impaired. (IRJET), DEC(2020), 1389-1390.
[2] IRJET-V7I12244.pdf
[3] Fallah N, Apostolopoulos I, Bekris K, Folmer E (2013) Indoor human navigation systems: a survey.
Interact Comput 25(1):21–33.
[4] https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iws010
[5] He S, Chan S-G (2016) Wi-fi fingerprint-based indoor positioning: recent advances and comparisons.
IEEE Commun Surv Tutor 18(1):466–490.
[6] https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2015.2464084
[7] Li Y, Zhuang Y, Lan H, Zhou Q, Niu X, El-Sheimy N (2016) A hybrid wifi/magnetic matching/pdr
approach for indoor navigation with smartphone sensors. IEEE Commun Lett 20(1):169–172.
[8] https://doi.org/10.1109/LCOMM.2015.2496940
[9] Hilsenbeck S, Bobkov D, Schroth G, Huitl R, Steinbach E (2014) Graph-based data fusion of pedometer
and wifi measurements for mobile indoor positioning. In: Proceedings of the 2014 ACM international
joint conference on pervasive and ubiquitous computing. pp 147–158.
[10] https://doi.org/10.1145/2632048.2636079
[11] simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM)
[12] Simultaneous localization and mapping - Wikipedia Working with anchors
[13] https://developers.google.com/ar/develop/developer-guides/anchors
[14] Esther Vaati, What is Android SDK, and How to start using it. July(2020).
[15] https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-android-sdk-tutorial--cms-34623
[16] ARCore Overview
[17] ARCore overview | Google Developers
[18] ZXing Project
[19] https://github.com/zxing/zxing
[20] Unity Documentation
[21] https://docs.unity3d.com/2021.1/Documentation/Manual/system-requirements.html#player

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