[ecoop-info] 2017 Microsoft Indoor Localization Competition – Call for Contesters

[Tam Vu]

Call For Contesters
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2017 Microsoft Indoor Localization Competition
**Registration Deadline: January 27th, 2017**
April 18-19, 2017
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Co-located with IPSN 2017
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/event/microsoft-indoor-localization-competition-ipsn-2017/
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*ELIGIBILITY*

Both academia and industry submissions are encouraged. All location 
techniques, such as ranging, fingerprinting, infrastructure, or device 
free, are welcome, except those that require end users’ manual 
measurements. Contesters can deploy their own infrastructure of *up to 
10 devices*. Normal RF interference is expected, but no jammers from 
other deployments are allowed. The results must be shown on a portable 
device, such as a phone or a tablet/laptop that a person can easily 
carry around.

Demo submissions that do not meet one or more of the guidelines above 
will be included in the poster session and will be evaluated as a 
regular submission, but they will not be considered for prizes.

The competition will take place if *at least 5 teams* respond to this 
preliminary call for competition.


*CATEGORIES*

Depending on the nature and number of submissions multiple categories 
might be defined based on the accuracy (i.e., point-based vs. area 
based), the size, the cost, or the type (i.e., software vs. hardware) of 
the proposed solution.

Given our past experience, this year we expect to have the following 
categories (note that these categories have not been finalized. The 
final categories will be announced shortly after the registration 
deadline and they will depend on the number and type of submissions 
received):

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) Technologies: Submissions in this 
category should be able to work with unmodified commercial off-the-shelf 
devices such as laptops, phones, and tablets. In this category, the 
unmodified  COTS device is localized. Teams in this category will not be 
allowed to interface any custom hardware to the COTS devices (i.e., UWB 
or ultrasound hardware). Only changes to the software of the devices 
will be allowed. Submissions in this category could be further 
classified to infrastructure-based and infrastructure-free depending on 
their requirement to deploy custom hardware (i.e., BLE beacons) in the 
evaluation area.
Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) Technologies with Initialization: 
Submissions in this category should meet all the criteria of the COTS 
Technologies category, with the additional requirement to initialize the 
location of the COTS device being localized to a ground truth location 
before the evaluation.
Modified Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) Technologies: Submissions in 
this category could interface custom hardware to the COTS devices to be 
localized (i.e., UWB or ultrasound hardware). Submissions in this 
category could be further classified to infrastructure-based and 
infrastructure-free depending on their requirement to deploy custom 
hardware (i.e., BLE beacons) in the evaluation area. Most, if not all, 
submissions in this category are expected to be infrastructure-based.
For instance:

WiFi fingerprinting approaches that also leverage inertial sensors will 
be classified as infrastructure-free COTS Technologies as they do not 
require to interface any custom hardware to the COTS device being localized.
WiFi fingerprinting approaches that also deploy custom BLE beacons in 
the evaluation area will be classified as infrastructure-based COTS 
Technologies as they don't modify the COTS device being localized, but 
they require the deployment of custom hardware.
Approaches based on inertial sensing that require to be initialized to a 
ground truth location before being evaluated will be classified as COTS 
Technologies with Initialization.
UWB approaches will be classified as infrastructure-based modified COTS 
Technologies as they require modifications to the COTS device being 
localized, and they need to deploy custom hardware in the evaluation area.
In the past, teams were asked to report 2D locations (X,Y). In this 
year's competition, teams will be required to report 3D locations 
(X,Y,Z). The evaluation area we have reserved, even though it does not 
contain multiple floors, it includes locations with different elevation 
characteristics. On top of that, we plan to place the devices to be 
localized at different heights during the competition to evaluate the 3D 
localization accuracy of each team.

*Not all teams will have to report 3D locations*. We understand that 
some technologies are not suited for 3D localization (i.e., 
WiFi/geo-magnetic fingerprinting, dead reckoning,  BLE-based etc.), but 
they are still excellent candidates for commercial indoor location 
systems. With this in mind, the organizers will determine shortly after 
the registration deadline which teams will be classified as 3D 
localization teams. It is not up to the individual teams to decide if 
they will report 2D or 3D locations. The organizers will ensure that all 
the teams in a given category will either report 2D or 3D locations. 
There will be no categories containing both 2D and 3D localization teams.



*EVALUATION AND PRIZE*

Results are judged based on accuracy, and an award will be given to the 
top 3 teams in each category. When accuracy ties, infrastructure 
requirements will be used for tie breaking. The winning teams in each 
category will be invited to present their approach at the conference, 
and receive a cash award. The exact accuracy metrics that will be used 
during evaluation will be announced shortly before the competition takes 
place.

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*POSTER SESSION*

A poster session dedicated to all competition participants will be 
organized during the conference. Participants will have the opportunity 
to explain their system to conference attendees.


*SUBMISSION GUIDELINES*

Contesters must submit an abstract describing their approach and 
deployment requirements by the contest registration deadline. 
Submissions are treated as confidential until the competition. 
Submissions must be at most two (2) single-spaced 8.5″ x 11″ pages, 
including figures, tables, and references. Submission should follow the 
exact same format as regular, full IPSN 2017 papers. Abstracts should 
include the names and affiliations of all authors. Abstracts should be 
sent over email to: dlymper at microsoft.com on or before January 27th 
2017. Templates can be found here: http://ipsn.acm.org/2017/submission.html


*REGISTRATION DEADLINE*

January 27th, 2017, 11:59 pm EST
To register for the competition, please email your abstract to 
dlymper at microsoft.com with the following subject line: 2017 Microsoft 
Indoor Localization Competition Submission.