Tiami proposes the use of public digital television (DTV) stations as positioning beacons for use as a three-dimensional indoor tracking system

Tiami LLC will develop a three-dimensional indoor tracking system utilizing digital television (DTV) stations as positioning beacons under a $197,362 cooperative agreement from the Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology. The award is part of the Science, Technology, Business and/or Education Outreach program (CFDA 11.620) to evaluate and stimulate technological innovation.

Specifically, Tiami will design signal processing algorithms and evaluate positioning performance of using multiple DTV signals to determine a receiver's coordinates without GPS in environments like basements and tunnels. They will also create a hardware/software reference design and estimate costs for a prototype system meeting SWaP-C requirements. If successful, first responders would gain situational awareness in GPS-denied areas using existing DTV infrastructure, significantly reducing upgrade costs. The award period is from October 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023 and no subawards are planned.

Activities

Phase i activities will include the following:1. Design and evaluate a signal processing algorithm that employs signals received from multiple DTV stations to infer the receivers 3D coordinates.2. Evaluate positioning performance in different GPS-denied environments.3. Design the interface to disseminate position estimates over LMR or mcptt communications links.4. Create a hardware and software reference design for receiver prototyping and estimate the prototype swap-c profile.

Expected outcomes

Successful results of phase i would have a major impact on n safeguarding the safety of first responders even in GPS-denied environments and result in the following benefits:1. A compact, robust, and cost-effective positioning solution that requires minimal user training and is usable wherever digital TV stations are in coverage.2. No need for the emergency management community to invest in new transmitters or infrastructure, significantly reducing upgrade and ownership costs.

Intended beneficiaries

Tiamis DTV-based solution addresses both consumer and first responder applications for position tracking in GPS-denied environments without mobile network coverage. Specific beneficiaries include federal agencies such as FEMA, customs and border patrol, U.S. Immigration and customs enforcement, state, and local governments and tribal first responder agencies in the U.S.

Subrecipient activities

The recipient does not intend to subaward funds.