Using RFID for Accurate Positioning

In Korea, telematics is regarded as the technology to enhance and make everyday-driving experience more comfortable and safer. An essential part of the telematics is navigation and it is mainly based on GPS as the choice of positioning technology. The accuracy of GPS, however, is approximately ten to twenty meters. Combining with map-matching technologies, most navigation systems guide drivers with a best effort manner. In addition to telematics, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is an old but newly emerged technology. In this paper, we incorporate RFID technology into a navigation system to improve the accuracy. The skeleton of the idea is as follows: install RFID tags on roads in a certain way, store very accurate location information along with other necessary information in the tags, add an RFID reader module to the navigation system, and use this new location information along with GPS and a gyroscope to produce highly accurate location information. With this scheme, the accuracy of positioning can be dramatically improved, especially in tunnels and in downtown areas. Preliminary results show that this idea is feasible.