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PnPSelect: Plug-and-play IoT Device Selection Using Ultra-wideband Signals

Zhaoxin Chang, Fusang Zhang, Jie Xiong, Ziyu Li, Badii Jouaber, Daqing Zhang

TL;DR

PnPSelect presents a plug-and-play IoT device selection method that relies on a single UWB anchor to infer the user’s pointing direction and locate IoT devices without adding hardware to each device. The approach estimates pointing direction from the user’s trajectory using AoA-based localization with one anchor, and locates new IoT devices by having users point at them from two positions, resolving device positions via line intersection and least-squares. Evaluation across lab and real-world environments shows high pointing-direction accuracy (median ~2.3°), fine spatial resolution (as good as 5 cm at 5 m), and device-selection accuracies around 97–99%, with robust performance across devices, locations, and gesture styles. The work demonstrates practical, scalable deployment of wireless-signal-based IoT selection, significantly reducing hardware requirements while maintaining high usability and accuracy for real-world smart-home interactions.

Abstract

In recent years, the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in smart homes has rapidly increased. A key challenge affecting user experience is how to enable users to efficiently and intuitively select the devices they wish to control. This paper proposes PnPSelect, a plug-and-play IoT device selection solution utilizing Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology on commercial devices. Unlike previous works, PnPSelect does not require the installation of dedicated hardware on each IoT device, thereby reducing deployment costs and complexities, and achieving true plug-and-play functionality. To enable intuitive device selection, we introduce a pointing direction estimation method that utilizes UWB readings from a single anchor to infer the user pointing direction. Additionally, we propose a lightweight device localization method that allows users to register new IoT devices by simply pointing at them from two distinct positions, eliminating the need for manual measurements. We implement PnPSelect on commercial smartphones and smartwatches and conduct extensive evaluations in both controlled laboratory settings and real-world environments. Our results demonstrate high accuracy, robustness, and adaptability, making PnPSelect a practical and scalable solution for next-generation smart home interactions.

PnPSelect: Plug-and-play IoT Device Selection Using Ultra-wideband Signals

TL;DR

PnPSelect presents a plug-and-play IoT device selection method that relies on a single UWB anchor to infer the user’s pointing direction and locate IoT devices without adding hardware to each device. The approach estimates pointing direction from the user’s trajectory using AoA-based localization with one anchor, and locates new IoT devices by having users point at them from two positions, resolving device positions via line intersection and least-squares. Evaluation across lab and real-world environments shows high pointing-direction accuracy (median ~2.3°), fine spatial resolution (as good as 5 cm at 5 m), and device-selection accuracies around 97–99%, with robust performance across devices, locations, and gesture styles. The work demonstrates practical, scalable deployment of wireless-signal-based IoT selection, significantly reducing hardware requirements while maintaining high usability and accuracy for real-world smart-home interactions.

Abstract

In recent years, the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in smart homes has rapidly increased. A key challenge affecting user experience is how to enable users to efficiently and intuitively select the devices they wish to control. This paper proposes PnPSelect, a plug-and-play IoT device selection solution utilizing Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology on commercial devices. Unlike previous works, PnPSelect does not require the installation of dedicated hardware on each IoT device, thereby reducing deployment costs and complexities, and achieving true plug-and-play functionality. To enable intuitive device selection, we introduce a pointing direction estimation method that utilizes UWB readings from a single anchor to infer the user pointing direction. Additionally, we propose a lightweight device localization method that allows users to register new IoT devices by simply pointing at them from two distinct positions, eliminating the need for manual measurements. We implement PnPSelect on commercial smartphones and smartwatches and conduct extensive evaluations in both controlled laboratory settings and real-world environments. Our results demonstrate high accuracy, robustness, and adaptability, making PnPSelect a practical and scalable solution for next-generation smart home interactions.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 34 sections, 7 equations, 19 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Background and Related Work
  3. Background of UWB
  4. IoT Device Selection Techniques
  5. Principle of Single Anchor-based Device Selection
  6. Fundamental Principle of PnPSelect
  7. Pointing Direction Estimation
  8. IoT Device Selection
  9. IoT Device Location Estimation
  10. Identifying Target IoT Device
  11. Implementation
  12. Evaluation
  13. Accuracy of Pointing Direction Estimation
  14. Experiment Setting
  15. Impact of User Device Pointing Direction
  16. ...and 19 more sections

Figures (19)

  • Figure 1: The envisioned IoT device selection application scenario.
  • Figure 2: Illustration of existing wireless signal-based IoT device selection techniques.
  • Figure 3: Illustration of PnPSelect. Only one anchor is required in the environment.
  • Figure 4: Location estimation with a single anchor.
  • Figure 5: The trajectory of a user device during pointing. PCA can be used to estimate the direction of pointing.
  • ...and 14 more figures