Illustration of seamless positioning between satellite and indoor positioning. Credit: https://researchportal.vub.be/en/publications/interoperable-and-discoverable-indoor-positioning-systems
Maxim van de Wynckel, a wise lab researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), has managed to protect his PhD. For over six years, Computer Science, June 30, 2025, explored the major challenges facing many modern technology. Does the indoor positioning system (an indoor positioning system that determines the position of people and objects in a building) work well?
Indoor positioning, also known as indoor localization, is used in a wide range of applications. Think of an app that guides hospitals, a system that tracks the movement of goods and equipment in factories, or a technology used in museums, airports, or shopping centres. However, there is a serious problem. Most systems are built for a particular building or scenario. They “speak” different technical languages and are not compatible with each other.
“There are many different technologies used, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or sensors, but there is no link or interoperability,” explains Van de Wynckel. “This makes it difficult to reuse data between systems and securely share data between them.”
In his PhD thesis, he developed several solutions to address this issue. One of them is POSO. This is a kind of dictionary that allows different systems to explain locations in a similar way, allowing them to better understand each other’s data.
He also designed Sembecon, a Bluetooth-based system that adds semantic information to beacons. For example, let your device know that it is detecting an “emergency exit” or “a wheelchair accessible entrance.”
Another important contribution is OpenHPS, an open and flexible software platform. This allows developers to create new applications using a combination of technologies.
“With OpenHPS, it shows that collaboration between systems is not a distant ideal. It’s already possible today,” says VandeWinkel.
Most of his work also focuses on discoverability. Can devices or users immediately know which positioning systems are available in a particular environment? He investigated a variety of methods, including publishing these services online and going through solid pods. This is a personal data vault that controls who have access to their location data.
“People need to control their data, which is especially important in sensitive contexts, such as healthcare and residential environments,” he emphasizes.
His research was presented at the International Conference of Science. In 2022, he published a paper on Poso Ontology at the International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC) and presented a privacy-friendly architecture based on Solid at the International Conference on Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation (IPIN).
In 2023 he released the Sembeacon specification. Between 2020 and 2025, he also made several contributions to the OpenHPS framework, including algorithms and datasets that are freely available as open source.
“My goal is to make indoor positioning technology as universal as GPS, but focuses on interoperability, adaptability and privacy,” concludes Van de Wynckel.
Details: Maximan de Wynckel, Interoperable and Discoverable Indoor Positioning System (2025)
Free University of Brussels offers
Citation: An interoperable indoor positioning system allows you to determine the location of people and objects within a building obtained from July 9, 2025.
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from fair transactions for private research or research purposes, there is no part that is reproduced without written permission. Content is provided with information only.
