Communication Technologies and their Applications beyond Communication

Wireless communication technologies are pervasive in today’s everyday environment. Together with the ever-dropping cost for equipment relying on such technology, this abundance gives rise to a wealth of applications well beyond communication itself. Utilizing communication technologies in the context of mobile sensing seems to be an especially promising approach, as mobile phones and other personal handheld devices provide the capabilities to record, process and store sensor data. In this paper, we focus on one main aspect of mobile sensing, namely the localization of mobile devices by means of different communication technologies. After a quick review of specialized localizing equipment like ultrasound or infrared-based systems, we are going to demonstrate how different communication technologies like GSM, WiFi, Bluetooth or ZigBee and their combinations may be applied in the context of position-finding.