The benefit of deploying IndoorAtlas without fingerprinting is to avoid the fingerprinting phase which requires someone to go onsite and use the MapCreator application to collect the fingerprinting paths. You can also generate a new map easily if some of the access point or beacon information is changed just by updating the corresponding information and generating the new map.

If the conditions listed below are met, you can deploy IndoorAtlas for a building simply by using the tools available at app.indooratlas.com. The key tool you’ll be using is the IndoorAtlas Beacon Planner. 

Deploying IndoorAtlas without fingerprinting is possible if the following conditions are met:

  1. There is a beacon infrastructure in place that covers the area where indoor positioning will be used

  2. Settings and locations of the beacons relative to the floor plan image are known 

  3. Your application doesn’t need the best possible positioning and tracking accuracy. For example, the geomagnetic field-based positioning information will not be available in this case.

All standard IndoorAtlas features are available for the deployments done without fingerprinting.

Installing beacons

In case you are deploying the beacon infrastructure yourself, follow the guides below: 



Adding floorplan mask

The floor plan mask has two functions when you are deploying IndoorAtlas without fingerprinting, i.e., when you don’t have any fingerprinting paths. The first function of the mask is to define the area where the navigation will be enabled. This means that the signal map, that enables indoor positioning, will only be generated for the area defined by the mask. If you don’t provide the mask, there will be no map and the positioning will not work. 


The other function of the mask is to improve the positioning accuracy as the mask provides additional constraints for the ‘navigable area’.  This means that positioning glitches, such as the positioning device going through the walls, will be more unlikely.


Follow the guide below to add masks for your floor plans:




Tip: In case you just want to have an initial mask that enables IndoorAtlas map generation to work, you can provide a mask image that has the exact same dimensions (in pixels) as your floor plan image and which has all pixels black. You can later provide a more detailed mask when/if you need to optimize the positioning performance. Note that you need to generate a new map every time you change the mask image.


Configuring beacons in the Beacon Planner

You need to provide next all the required information about the beacon deployment for the map generation. This is done by using the IndoorAtlas beacon planner tool. Open the beacon planner tool for your venue at app.indooratlas.com and provide location and hardware configuration information for each beacon. You can do this separately for each beacon by using the beacon planner UI, or you can use a CSV file to provide the information for all beacons as shown below.



The Beacon Planner accepts CSV file in two different formats shown below (one row for each beacon definition):

Format A

id: combined identifier of the beacon containing the proximity UUID, and major and minor codes in the form ibeacon_<proximity UUID>_<major>_<minor>

latitude: WGS84 latitude
longitude: WGS84 longitude
level: floor number where the beacon is installed


Example:ibeacon_f3f50897-143f-4dc6-bc4e-4876a6874223_123_456,51.51616837572395,-0.12700998644470954,1



Format B

UUID: Beacon proximity UUID

major: major code

minor: minor code

floor: floor number where the beacon is installed

x: x pixel coordinate on the floor plan, x points right

y: y pixel coordinate on the floor plan, y points down

tx power: transmission power

floor plan id: IndoorAtlas floor plan ID

Example:3c0d9bd0-4033-44b3-a341-69a02063e025,1,2,1,100,200,-8,7f4f1067-52c4-49dc-9fe5-2e6a96aace67


Uploading beacon configuration

Once you have configured the beacon deployment by using the beacon planner tool you are ready to upload the beacon configuration to the IndoorAtlas cloud for map generation. You can upload the beacon configuration by selecting the ‘upload beacon parameters to cloud’ from the beacon planner UI as shown below.




Note: If you have defined beacons for multiple floors in your CSV file, make sure that you check and save the beacon deployment for all floors. If you have manually added beacons to the beacon plan - in addition to the beacons defined in CSV file - make sure that there are no beacon ID conflicts (duplicates) and that all beacons have a unique ID defined.


Generating the map

Once you have uploaded the beacon configuration to the IndoorAtlas cloud and you have provided the floor plan masks for each floor plan you are ready to generate the map. After the map generation, you are ready to test the positioning. Generate the map following the guide below:


Note: As you are deploying IndoorAtlas without fingerprinting you can start the map generation without having any fingerprinting paths. However, you need to provide a mask image for each floor plan included into the map.