How to detect user movement in Android by using wifi rssi or acccelerometer?

Question

In my project, I want to detect if a user is moving or not by using either wifi rssi or accelerometer sensor.

What I should do to achieve that?

Answer 1

It actually all depends on what kind of movement you want to detect.

WiFi RSSIs : From a starting position and scan results (initial RSSIs for newly discovered access points), you can check through time their evolution in term of signal quality. A short displacement of the user will not be easy to find as RSSI values are tweaked by a large amount of parameters (orientation, obstacles, setup of the room, atmospheric conditions, people around). Thus you would need averaged values (scans must then be performed quickly to have enough data) and leaving an access point perimeter would make you lose the information.

Accelerometer : Depends on what quality of sensor you are using. If you're using embedded sensors within smartphones, it will be tough. Their accuracy is bad, and as you'll need to integrate its values (m/s² to get m/s) the error will grow subsequently. Plus it might be hard to discern real user movement from the device's tilt if you're using a mobile phone or tablet.

Without really knowing the details of your projet, I believe that RSSIs should be easier to use if you actually need to detect not so tiny motion. If you want something more precise, you'll need some way bigger research work.

Answer 2

See Android accelerometer accuracy (Inertial navigation) for RSSI-based indoor localization.