An Architecture for Providing Java Applications with Indoor and Outdoor Hybrid Location Sensing

This paper presents a software architecture that enables either the combined and separate use of indoor and outdoor location-sensing technologies. The architecture has been implemented in compliance with the specifications of the location API for Java. It is explicitly designed to provide applications with a hybrid location information, i.e., it allows to identify the terminal position among a known set of indoor or outdoor zones (e.g., building rooms, or predefined outdoor areas). The architecture relies on a low-cost, easily deployable and tunable indoor positioning infrastructure, and on existing outdoor location sensing infrastructures as well. In this paper, we specifically describe the design and the implementation of a prototype based on Bluetooth and GPS technologies.