To achieve the best results with Bluetooth Beacon Tracker, you must choose a reference system that will help you to accurately position the BLE nodes. In fact the RSS propagation model used to compute the locations of the BLE beacons is based on the relative distances between the BLE nodes. This is why it is needed a reference system that allows to place the virtual BLE nodes inside the Indoor Tracking Dashboard in correspondence of the BLE nodes real positions.
Types of reference systems
You can chose among the following reference systems:
- A floor plan image uploaded using the Indoor Tracking Dashboard.
- The floor plan shown within the MAP VIEW provided by Google Maps or Open Street view.
If you don’t have a floor plan image and the Google Maps/Open Street view don’t show any fl of does not allow you to see indoor reference points, then you have to create your floor plan using your preferred graphic editor.
Requirements of a floor plan image
These are the requirements to be met by the floor plan image that will have to be uploaded into the Indoor Tracking Dashboard:
- Supported formats – The Indoor Tracking Dashboard supports the upload of GIF, JPG and PNG floor plans with a maximum size of 5 MB each one. If you have a PDF floor plan, then you should convert it into an image file using Adobe Acrobat or using an online service like these.
- Quality – The floor plans must be accurate and as much detailed as possible (showing the correct position of doors, walls, hallways, atriums, etc…).
- Relative dimensions/proportions – Be careful when working on the proportions of the floor plan image during the creation of the floor plan image or during the upload to the Indoor Tracking Dashboard). Altering the relative dimensions of the image (and thus of the elements inside the floor plan) can compromise the results. It is absolutely important to maintain a proportion between the dimensions of the elements inside the floor plan and the dimension of the same elements in the real life. The idea is simple: if a room has a square shape, it should not be stretched and become a rectangle.
- Scale/size – Be careful when scaling the floor plan image. It is crucial that the floor plan is scaled correctly so that it matches (as much as possible) the physical dimension of the building. To help you with this process you can change the floor plan opacity, switch to the Satellite view and use the ruler tool available on the right side of the map (described below).
Upload a floor plan image using the Indoor Tracking Dashboard
Access the Indoor Tracking Dashboard at this page, supply the credentials contained in the email from Accuware Activation email and press the Login to Dashboard button.
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Multiple levels: use the logical mechanism of the Levels to separate the floor plans based on:
- their vertical positions (e.g. floor plans of different levels of the same store).
- or their different locations (e.g. floor plans of different stores of the same shopping mall).
You can create more levels (and later, add one and only one floor plan to each level) by following these steps:
- Select General > Levels.
- Click on the Add Level button.
- Select the Level ID and assign a Name and a Description (optional).
- Click on Save.
Using the Indoor Tracking Dashboard it is possible to create up to 30 Levels (in addition to the Level 0). Additional levels can be created using a PUT API call available under the API – reference page of each technology.
- From the TOP menu select General > Floor Plans > Create new floorplan.
- Choose the address.
- Choose a high quality floor plan image of your production/test environment with a maximum size of 5 MB each one. If you have a PDF floor plan, then you should convert it into an image file using Adobe Acrobat or using an online service like these.
- Select the Level ID, the Name and the Description. If you can’t select any of the listed levels, it means that there is already a floor plan image on each one of the levels and you need to create a NEW level!
- Move the floor plan image in its location. To help you with the positioning of the floor plan you can switch to the Satellite view (using the button in the bottom left corner of the map) and change the Floorplan opacity (using the scroll bar in the top right corner of the map).
- To scale the floor plan properly you have to:
- Measure (with a classic or laser meter) 2 walls of your environment.
- Zoom in as much as possible so that the floor plan is centered on the area with the 2 walls measured.
- Use the ruler tool (the button with an arrow available in the right side of the map) to make sure the floor plan is properly scaled. If not then continue scaling the floor plan until the measures taken on it (with the ruler tool) reflects those of the real walls. To clear the measures taken you can use the button with an “X” and to change the measurement unit you can use the button with an “M”. The inaccuracies of the floor plan will be directly reflected on the position computed by the system.
- Click on DONE and wait for the floor plan to be saved.
Touch screen laptops: on some combination of laptops equipped with a touch screen and browsers it is not possible to use the touch pad mouse/bluetooth mouse/USB mouse to scale/move/rotate the image. If you encounter issues we recommend to try a different browser.