Beyond horizontal location context: measuring elevation using smartphone's barometer

Abstract

Accurate estimation of elevation is important for many location based services. Although, it is possible to obtain altitude from GPS, its accuracy is unreliable and applicable in outdoors only. It is possible to use barometers on smartphones to estimate elevation in both indoor and outdoor scenarios. To this end, we proposed an integrated framework to provide ubiquitous and accurate elevation measurement using smartphones. Experiments conducted in both indoor and outdoor with different geographical characteristics reveal that our system can provide elevation with an error less than 5 meters in 90 % of the cases and less than 3 meters in 75 % of the cases, which is sufficient for most practical applications.