Title: High-Precision Ranging Matters: Uncovering the Potential of Ultra-wideband Radios in Real-World Applications
Date: Thursday, May 4, 2023
Time: 15:00 – 17:00 EST
Location: KACB 3126
Zoom link: https://gatech.zoom.us/j/8373661042
Yifeng Cao
Ph.D. Student in Computer Science
School of Computer Science
College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
Committee:
Dr. Ashutosh Dhekne (Advisor) – School of Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Mostafa Ammar – School of Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Ellen Zegura – School of Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Thad Starner – School of Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Vivek Jain – Bosch Research
Abstract:
Accurately measuring distances (aka ranging) is a fundamental requirement for various applications, such as indoor localization, autonomous parking, physical distancing, to name a few. However, it can be challenging to achieve precise measurements efficiently. Traditional ranging solutions like infrared ranging and ultrasonic ranging need specialized hardware like laser ranger, or ultrasonic speaker, which do not work under occlusion, and are costly, making them not practical for common use. Recently, ultra-wideband (UWB) radio has gained significant attention as a potential solution for wireless ranging. UWB chips are currently widely available in mobile devices. Compared to other wireless signals, UWB signal is characterized with a large bandwidth (1GHz). UWB computes time of flight (ToF) and multiplies it with the speed of light to obtain the distance between two devices directly. Because of the large bandwidth, the ToF method offers nanosecond resolution, resulting in decimeter-level ranging precision. The good ranging capabilities make UWB promising in a wide range of real-world applications.
The central theme of this thesis is to explore the potential of UWB in applications that are challenging to address with traditional solutions. My exploration of UWB is systematically gradual: I begin with leveraging UWB’s fundamental ranging ability to perform real-time physical distancing, which is a primary solution to maintain safe distances in many scenarios like physical distancing in gym, or social distancing during a flu pandemic. Then, I demonstrate the capability of UWB to achieve millimeter-level precision in a handwriting digitization system. Then I move beyond the localization and tracking task for which UWB is typically used. I demonstrate UWB can improve the human action recognition performance by measuring distance between a pair of body joints. Finally, I will propose my idea of applying UWB in security: How UWB's unique capabilities can be used to build an accurate and usable two-factor authentication (2FA) application.