Seamless Resource-Adaptive Navigation

Research in the project RENA (REsource-Adapative NAvigation) together with DFKI GmbH, BMW Research and Technology AG, and Eyeled GmbH has been concerned with the conceptual and methodological foundations and the design of a resource-adaptive platform for seamless outdoor and indoor navigation that can serve as a basis for product development by the companies in the RENA consortium. Future in-car assistance systems will have a user interface, which adapts to the driver’s current exposure caused by the actual traffic situation. Based on concepts developed in [15] such in-car assistance systems will use the car’s serial-production sensory equipment to detect the driver’s momentary cognitive load without the additional use of biosensors attached to the driver. In case the system detects that the driver has high cognitive load or is in stress, system messages, which are not timecritical, like directions from the navigation system or incoming telephone calls will be delayed until the driver’s cognitive load decreases. Besides these new features, in-car assistance systems will use car-2-car and car-2-X communication capabilities to exchange information about the traffic situation and road conditions with other cars and their drivers. Such information gained from the car’s sensory equipment, e.g., rain and moisture sensors, sensors from the ABS, and/or sensors from airbags will be mapped onto concepts defined in local danger warning ontologies to realize local danger warnings (see [5, 8]). In parking garages, where the car’s assistance system cannot receive GPS signals, the car’s position is determined using the car’s build-in gyroscope as described in [18] or on the basis of active RFID positioning (see [12]). The distinguishing feature of RENA’s ubiquitous navigation service is its adaptability to the user, the situation, and the technical resources. Various positioning and wireless communication technologies are combined synergistically within the developed platform. Due to the fact that those aforementioned theses are still under nondisclosure agreement up to the time of preparing this chapter, we will focus