Hi all!

I'm hoping to work on a little system to allow a device to work out where it is in a room, with some degree of accuracy.

I've thought of a few ideas; cameras and tracking points, sonar of some sort, and a few others, but they all have the caveat of requiring direct line-of sight, all the time.

My most hopeful idea is that I could create a sort of mini GPS system, thus:

A number of radiowave transmitters, perhaps FM, sit in the corners of the room, and transmit the time, or more likely something like 0-9999 in binary, all the time.

My device then moves around the room, and works out where it is in the room, based on the number received by each of it's 3(?) radios, and the difference between them.

There are a few potential caveats to this approach:

  The radio waves may well bounce off the walls, and confuse the receiver.

  The assumption is made that there's enough time between transmission of the signal and receiving to notice a difference

  Obstacles to the line-of-sight might skew the difference


The list is long.

I don't suppose anyone has any input on this idea, do they?

Graham