PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
August 2017
535
BOOK
REVIEW
Indoor Wayfinding and Navigation
Hassan A. Karimi, editor
CRC Press. 252pp. ISBN 13:978-1-4822-3084-0 (Hardcover)
Reviewed by:
A
yman F. Habib, Professor, Lyles School
of Civil Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette,
Indiana.
Outdoor wayfinding and navigation systems and services
mainly rely on ubiquitous signals from Global Navigation Sat-
ellite Systems (GNSS). The absence of GNSS signals within
indoor and underground/under-water environments makes
wayfinding and navigation through such surroundings a more
challenging problem. The challenge is also amplified by the
freedom of the individuals to move in 3D within an indoor en-
vironment in contrast to the restricted 2D motion of pedestri-
ans and vehicles outdoors. This book, which is comprised of
eleven chapters, discusses the cognitive, positioning, mapping,
and applications aspects of indoor wayfinding and navigation.
The cognitive aspects of wayfinding and navigation are dis-
cussed in the first two chapters, where Chapter 1 provides an
aggregated view of what makes indoor environment different
from outdoor and transitional surroundings with the aim of
guiding further research and tools in indoor wayfinding. New
virtual reality studies on learning/navigating through indoor
spaces using simple or complex routes under motivated and
control conditions are presented in Chapter 2. These studies
highlight the importance of considering rout complexity in de-
veloping built environments.
Chapters 3, 4, and 5 present several localization technologies
for indoor and underground environments. Indoor technologies
– such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Radio-Frequency Identifier (RFID),
dead reckoning, and acoustic technologies – are presented in
Chapter 3. To mitigate the signal propagation errors due to at-
tenuation, shadowing, multipath effects, signal delays of electro-
magnetic waves-based indoor positioning technologies, Chapter
4 presents a magnetic-based positioning system. This proposed
technology is motivated by the fact that magnetic signals are
able to pass through building material without propagation er-
rors, even in non-line-of-sight scenarios. Chapter 5 presents a
research effort for the development of a positioning system for
underground tunnel, with particular emphasis on the case of
the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization
for Nuclear Research (CERN). Chapter 6 highlights the details
of how to generate, represent, and use probabilistic maps for
indoor localization while relying on inertial sensors.
A unique aspect of this book is dedicating Chapters 7, 8, 9,
and 10 to the discussion and analysis of wayfinding and nav-
igation requirements for Blind and Visually Impaired (B/VI)
individuals. Using findings from several years of needs’ as-
sessment conducted by relevant experts, Chapter 7 outlines
the needs and challenges for indoor wayfinding and navigation
faced by B/VI individuals. State-of-the-art in assistive technol-
ogy solutions for enabling B/VI individuals to navigate unfa-
miliar indoor environments are presented in Chapter 8. The
Chapter also identifies the gaps in existing approaches and ex-
plores technical challenges in bridging these gaps. Chapter 9
presents the “NavPal” computing technology tools to enhance
the safety and independence of B/VI individuals navigating
unfamiliar indoor environments. These tools combine a variety
of techniques and technologies including robots, crowd-sourc-
ing, advanced path planning, and multimodal interfaces. The
last of these chapter series examines several interesting short-
term and long-term directions of future research related to
wayfinding and navigation tools to assist blind travelers.
The last Chapter of this book introduces the risks and
threats related to indoor positioning systems and the state-of-
the-art countermeasures to protect against them. The chapter
also discusses the technical challenges in applying such pro-
tection mechanisms and their applicability in the context of
indoor wayfinding and navigation systems.
This book would be of interest to anyone concerned with gain-
ing high-level knowledge related to approaches, sensors, tech-
niques, technologies, and applications for indoor wayfinding
and navigation. The book presents interesting discussions re-
lated to these aspects with unique emphasis on wayfinding and
navigation for B/VI individuals and related privacy issues/chal-
lenges. Discussions related to vision-based systems for wayfin-
ding and navigation would have made this book more compre-
hensive. Gained knowledge through this book will constitute an
essential step towards the path of designing indoor wayfinding
and navigation systems/services for multiple uses and users.
Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing
Vol. 83, No. 8, August 2017, pp. 535.
0099-1112/17/535
© 2017 American Society for Photogrammetry
and Remote Sensing
doi: 10.14358/PERS.83.8.535
