Real-time scene simulator for Thermal Infrared Localization

Exploiting the natural thermal infrared radiation of humans is a promising approach for an accurate, comfortable and inexpensive indoor localization system. However, different sources of disturbance make the development challenging. In order to provide valid sensor data for various scenarios an adequate simulation environment is needed. In this paper we present a real-time scene simulator that allows the simulation of dynamic indoor environments and the resulting output signals of infrared sensors. The composition of such environments is simplified by using an object and sensor database. In order to enable real-time processing, OpenGL and hardware acceleration is applied. Evaluations show that the accuracy of the chosen approach is sufficient to develop algorithms for a Thermal Infrared Localization System (ThILo). Furthermore, it can be shown that real-time processing is possible for a complete location system in typical indoor environments.