Abstract
Many existing localization systems generate location predictions, but fail to report how accurate the predictions are. This paper explores the effect of revealing the error of location predictions to the end-user in a location finding field study. We report findings obtained under four different error visualization conditions and show significant benefit in revealing the error of location predictions to the user in location finding tasks. We report the observed influences of error on participants’ strategies for location finding. Additionally, given the observed benefit of a dynamic estimate of error, we design practical algorithms for estimating the error of a location prediction. Analysis of the algorithms shows a median estimation inaccuracy of up to 50m from the predicted location’s true error.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Harter, A., Hopper, A., Steggles, P., Ward, A., Webster, P.: The anatomy of a context-aware application. In: MobiCom 1999: Proceedings of the 5th annual ACM/IEEE international conference on Mobile computing and networking, pp. 59–68. ACM Press, New York (1999)
Priyantha, N.B., Chakraborty, A., Balakrishnan, H.: The cricket location-support system. In: MobiCom 2000: Proceedings of the 6th annual international conference on Mobile computing and networking, pp. 32–43. ACM Press, New York (2000)
Want, R., Hopper, A., Falcao, V., Gibbons, J.: The active badge location system. ACM Trans. Inf. Syst. 10(1), 91–102 (1992)
Chen, M.Y., Sohn, T., Chmelev, D., Hähnel, D., Hightower, J., Hughes, J., LaMarca, A., Potter, F., Smith, I.E., Varshavsky, A.: Practical metropolitan-scale positioning for gsm phones. In: Dourish, P., Friday, A. (eds.) UbiComp 2006. LNCS, vol. 4206, p. 126. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Bahl, P., Padmanabhan, V.N.: Radar: an in-building rf-based user location and tracking system. In: INFOCOM 2000: The 19th annual joint conference of the IEEE Computer and Communication Societies, pp. 775–784. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (2000)
Lamarca, A., Chawathe, Y., Consolvo, S., Hightower, J., Smith, I., Scott, J., Sohn, T., Howard, J., Hughes, J., Potter, F., Tabert, J., Powledge, P., Borriello, G., Schilit, B.: Place lab: Device positioning using radio beacons in the wild. In: Gellersen, H.-W., Want, R., Schmidt, A. (eds.) PERVASIVE 2005. LNCS, vol. 3468, pp. 116–133. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Otsason, V., Varshavsky, A., LaMarca, A., de Lara, E.: Accurate gsm indoor localization. In: UbiComp 2005, pp. 141–158. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Patel, S.N., Truong, K.N., Abowd, G.D.: Powerline positioning: A practical sub-room-level indoor location system for domestic use. In: Dourish, P., Friday, A. (eds.) UbiComp 2006. LNCS, vol. 4206, p. 126. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Ubisense, www.ubisense.net
Varshavsky, A., Chen, M., de Lara, E., Froehlich, J., Haehnel, D., Hightower, J., LaMarca, A., Potter, F., Sohn, T., Tang, K., Smith, a.I.: Are GSM phones THE solution for localization? In: IEEE Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, April 2006, IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (2006)
Smith, I., Consolvo, S., LaMarca, A., Hightower, J., Scott, J., Sohn, T., Hughes, J., Iachello, G., Abowd, G.D.: Social disclosure of place: From location technology to communication practices. In: Gellersen, H.-W., Want, R., Schmidt, A. (eds.) PERVASIVE 2005. LNCS, vol. 3468, p. 197. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Dey, A., Mankoff, J., Abowd, G., Carter, S.: Distributed mediation of ambiguous context in aware environments. In: UIST 2002: Proceedings of the 15th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, pp. 121–130. ACM Press, New York (2002)
Greenberg, S.: Context as a dynamic construct. Human-Computer Interaction 16, 257–268 (2001)
Edwards, W.K., Grinter, R.E.: At home with ubiquitous computing: Seven challenges. In: Abowd, G.D., Brumitt, B., Shafer, S. (eds.) Ubicomp 2001. LNCS, vol. 2201, p. 143. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)
Benford, S., Anastasi, R., Flintham, M., Drozd, A., Crabtree, A., Greenhalgh, C., Tandavanitj, N., Adams, M., Row-Farr, J.: Coping with uncertainty in a location-based game. IEEE Pervasive Computing 02(3), 34–41 (2003)
Chalmers, M., Galani, A.: Seamful interweaving: heterogeneity in the theory and design of interactive systems. In: DIS 2004: Proceedings of the 2004 conference on Designing interactive systems, pp. 243–252. ACM Press, New York (2004)
Antifakos, S., Schwaninger, A., Schiele, B.: Evaluating the effects of displaying uncertainty in context-aware applications. In: Davies, N., Mynatt, E.D., Siio, I. (eds.) UbiComp 2004. LNCS, vol. 3205, p. 17. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Krumm, J., Hinckley, K.: The nearme wireless proximity server. In: Davies, N., Mynatt, E.D., Siio, I. (eds.) UbiComp 2004. LNCS, vol. 3205, p. 17. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Dearman, D., Varshavsky, A., de Lara, E., Truong, K.N. (2007). An Exploration of Location Error Estimation. In: Krumm, J., Abowd, G.D., Seneviratne, A., Strang, T. (eds) UbiComp 2007: Ubiquitous Computing. UbiComp 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4717. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74853-3_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74853-3_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-74852-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-74853-3
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)