Recently, the need for pedestrian navigation system has become rapidly increased. In such a navigation system, the acquisition of position information is indispensable. Latitude and longitude information can be obtained by GPS (Global Positioning System), which cannot be used at places where the radio waves from the satellites do not reach. Position information service using PHS (Personal Handy-phone System) has already been used in Japan. This service cannot be used outside the coverage area of PHS. Another shortcoming of this system is that the position resolution is at most in the order of the micro cell radius (100-500 meters). In this paper, a novel system through which the user can acquire position information by applying weak radio waves to IC tag (non-contact IC label) posted at the place easy to be noticed is proposed. In response to the radio waves irradiated to IC tag by PDA, position information in terms of latitude and longitude is sent back to PDA. The great advantage of this system is that no maintenance is necessary, because IC tag does not require a battery. (A*)
Samenvatting