Augmented Reality Location Overlay for Crowded Event Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Participants in large and crowded events face challenges such as getting lost or separated from their groups and limited social interaction opportunities, necessitating a solution for visually connecting people in real-time.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus and system utilizing augmented reality, 3D GPS mapping, and specialized technologies to allow users to privately view the precise location of friends on their mobile devices, enhancing navigation and social interaction in crowded environments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If participants attend large and crowded events, then social interaction opportunities increase, but participants face challenges of getting lost or separated from their groups
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a mobile device with a camera and display screen as an intermediary tool between participants. The camera captures visual information of the crowd environment, and the display screen presents processed visual feedback (such as filtered views showing only friends or family members). This intermediary system resolves the contradiction by enabling participants to maintain reliable group connection awareness while navigating crowded environments, thereby supporting social interaction opportunities without the anxiety of separation.
2Reliability
If participants use mobile devices to locate friends in crowded spaces, then separation anxiety is reduced, but device complexity and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent leverages the mobile device's existing multi-functionality, particularly the camera and display screen which are standard components in modern smartphones. Rather than introducing specialized new hardware, the system repurposes universally available components for the specific function of locating friends in crowded spaces. This approach reduces device complexity by utilizing already-present hardware while achieving reliable group connection monitoring.
Solution Approach 2:
The system utilizes the mobile device's own camera to capture images and its own display screen to present information, making the device self-sufficient for the location task. The processor within the device handles image processing and friend identification algorithms internally. This self-service approach minimizes the need for additional external components or complex system architecture, thereby reducing overall device complexity while maintaining reliable group connection capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for visually finding and interacting with people, operable on a computing system including a server and a mobile device comprising a processor, a display and a camera, the method comprising: detecting the current location of members of a group, which a user of the mobile device has created or is a member of, if the group members have similar mobile devices and if they have set to permit their visibility when the user or other group members wish to locate them by scanning their surroundings with the camera of their mobile device; and, for each group member detected while the user is scanning user's surroundings, and having a position falling in the direction the mobile device's camera points to at a particular moment, displaying on the mobile device's display a group member representation associated with the group member's position.