* * * CALL FOR COMPETITION * * *

Tenth IPIN Competition
onsite and offsite Indoor Localization
(http://evaal.aaloa.org)

11-15 / 23-24 September 2023, Nuremberg (DE)

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The International conference on Indoor Positioning and Indoor Localization IPIN
is pleased to announce the tenth IPIN 2023 Indoor Localization Competition. The
competition is aimed at bringing together the academic and industrial research
communities for evaluating different approaches and envisioning new methods for
indoor and seamless localisation, an area where no generally accepted standards
exist yet.

The competition builds on the experience of previous competitions and is based
on the EvAAL framework, ensuring experience, solidity and a well-founded
scientific method. The IPIN 2023 Indoor Localization Competition consists of
three categories of contests: onsite, offsite-online, offsite-offline:

• Track 1: Smartphone (onsite)
• Track 3: Smartphone (offsite-online)
• Track 4: Foot-mounted IMU (offsite-online)
• Track 5: Smartphone (offsite-offline)
• Track 6: Smartphone on vehicle (offsite-online)
• Track 7: 5G CIR (offsite-online)
• Track 8: 5G ToF (offsite-online)

Results will be presented during dedicated sessions of the IPIN conference,
during which prizes will be awarded to the winners.


ONSITE TRACK

The competition will take place in Nuremberg, during the Sunday before the IPIN
conference. An actor carries the competing system by walking in in a predefined
area. Competing systems process data locally, without using any external aid,
and provide position estimates in real time. Survey of the area and system
calibration is restricted to Saturday. Prizes are awarded for a total worth of
2000€.

Track 1 - Smartphone: The actor walks carrying a smartphone which runs the
competing system, using the sensors available on the smartphones to identify the
user's position.


OFFSITE-ONLINE TRACKS

Competitors are provided with sensors data and use them to estimate the user
position. Competitors calibrate their algorithms in advance using ground truth
reference data (testing trials) and compete using new unreferenced data (scoring
trials). Competitors run their Trials through the EvaalAPI in the usual online
mode to emulate the causal, real-time behaviour of onsite Tracks. Scoring
trials are run on a Track-specific day. Prizes are awarded for a total worth of
1000€ per Track.

Track 3 - Smartphone: A pedestrian walking under realistic conditions in
buildings with possibly small outdoor parts, using data provided by a
conventional smartphone.

Track 4 – Foot-mounted IMU: A pedestrian carries ULISS (Ubiquituous Localization
with Inertial Sensors and Satellites), a state-of-the-art Inertial Navigation
System producing IMU magnetic and pressure readings plus GNSS data, without the
help of any maps, with possibly small outdoor parts.

Track 6 – Smartphone on vehicle: A smartphone affixed to a car dashboard records
sensors and impaired GNSS data on a partly outdoors, partly indoors route.

Track 7 – 5G CIR: A pedestrian with a smartphone moves through a warehouse-like
environment in LOS and NLOS conditions and observe Channel Impulse Response.

Track 8 – 5G ToF: People with a smartphone in hand or on a stick receive ToA
data in an open-plan office.


OFFSITE-OFFLINE TRACK

Competitors are provided with sensors data and use them to estimate the user
position. Competitors calibrate their algorithms in advance using ground truth
reference data (testing trials) and compete using new unreferenced data (scoring
trials). Competitors run their Trials through the EvaalAPI in the new offline
mode, where competitors download sensors data all at once and have a limited
time to upload all estimates at once. Prizes are awarded for a total worth of
1000€.

Track 5 - Smartphone: A pedestrian in a commercial facility records PDR and BLE
data provided by a smartphone for offline estimation of the walked path.


TECHNICAL COMPETITION DETAILS

The evaluation criteria for the competition, restrictions on the accepted
technologies, technical rules and a description of the benchmarks are detailed
in the technical annexes to this call. Possible refinements of the annexes,
even based on applicants' comments, will be distributed on the competition
discussion mailing list contest@evaal.aaloa.org and will appear on the EvAAL web
site (https://evaal.aaloa.org/).

Competitors in offsite Tracks obtain sensor readings and submit position
estimates through the EvaalAPI web service (https://evaal.aaloa.org/evaalapi).
For offsite-online Tracks, the aim is to emulate a causal process similar to the
data flow of an onsite Track: input data can be read only once and only in
sequence, and the timestamp of each submitted position estimate is the same as
the latest sensor reading. For offsite-offline Tracks, the aim is to emulate a
batch process with constrained computation timing.

All the data gathered by the competition committee during the competition,
including data produced by competing systems in offsite Tracks, will be
published after the competition for the purpose of research and comparison.
Winners of the competition are announced on the EvAAL and IPIN web sites and on
the contest mailing list. Scientific publishing opportunities will be offered
to competitors.


COMPETITOR ADMISSION PROCESS

A competitor can be any individual or group of individuals working as a single
team, associated to a single or a number of organizations, who wants to
participate in one or several tracks. Only one team from the same organisation
(laboratory) is allowed to compete.

Competitors apply for admission to the competition tracks at
https://evaal.aaloa.org/2023/application by providing a short (2 to 4 pages)
technical description of their localization system in PDF, which includes a
description of the algorithms and protocols used. The technical description
must be sent by e-mail to the chairs of the intended track, which is indicated
in the relative annex. Track chairs will accept or refuse the application in a
short time, based on technical feasibility and logistic constraints.

After acceptance of the competitor's technical description, one member of the
competing team is required to register on the IPIN conference site, specifying
that the registration is linked to a competition track. Full registration to
the conference covers participation in the competition process for one Track
(allotted time, support and space) and the submission of one paper describing
the system. Participation in a second Track can be added for an additional fee.
A reduced registration fee not including access to the conference is possible
for offsite Tracks. See http://ipin-conference.org/2023/registration_fees.html

Competitors who are authors of an accepted paper describing their system will be
allowed some days after the conference for updating it with competition data
before publication.

Competitors who wish to test their onsite system which does not fit any of the
onsite tracks may ask chairs of Track 1 to be admitted off-track, which will be
granted depending on organisational contraints.


Subscribe to the contest mailing list to get updated on the competition:
http://evaal.aaloa.org/mailman/listinfo/contest


IMPORTANT DATES
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Technical annexes published: April
Application opened: May
Test trials published: June
Application deadline: 31 August
Offsite competition: 11-15 September
Onsite competition: 23-24 September
Proclamation of winners: 28 September
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ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Competition chair: Francesco Potortì – ISTI-CNR (IT)

Software chair: Michele Girolami – ISTI-CNR (IT)

Track chairs:
Track 1 Antonino Crivello – ISTI-CNR (IT)
Filippo Palumbo – ISTI-CNR (IT)
Track 3 Joaquín Torres-Sospedra – Universidade do Minho (PT)
Track 4 Miguel Ortiz – GEOLOC Team, University Gustave Eiffel (FR)
Ni Zhu – GEOLOC Team, University Gustave Eiffel (FR)
Track 5 Ryosuke Ichikari – AIST (JP)
Track 6 Wenchao Zhang – Academy of Opto-Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
Track 7 Maximilian Stahlke – Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (DE)
Andreas Porada – Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (DE)
Track 8 Wang Yi – Huawei Technologies (CN)
Cheng Li – Huawei Technologies (CN)