Automated Floor Plan Generation Using Visual Data And GPS
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for capturing and representing building interior information, such as floor plans, are cumbersome and difficult to maintain, especially when it comes to accurately scaling and populating room interiors with data, and they lack effective visualization and user control, particularly for remote access and navigation.
Innovation Solution
An automated system that generates building floor plans and determines absolute locations using visual data from images captured by multiple devices, including cameras and mobile devices, without requiring depth sensors, by analyzing images to determine room shapes and associating GPS location data, enabling real-time generation and display of floor plans for improved navigation and visualization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional manual methods are used to create floor plans, then accuracy and detail can be maintained, but the process is time-consuming and requires physical access to the building
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical measurement and drawing methods with automated image processing systems. Multiple cameras capture images of the building interior, and computational algorithms automatically process these images to generate floor plans, eliminating the need for manual surveying while maintaining accuracy through digital image analysis
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates digital copies of the physical building environment through photography. By capturing images of walls, doors, windows, and other architectural features, the system generates accurate representations of the building layout without requiring physical measurement or entry into the space
2Measurement precision
If multiple depth sensors are used to capture building interior data, then 3D modeling accuracy improves, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and utilizes only the 2D image data component from the building interior, deliberately omitting the need for depth sensors. By focusing on capturing visual information from multiple angles and using computational geometry to derive spatial relationships from 2D images alone, the system achieves sufficient accuracy without complex sensing hardware
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces expensive, complex depth sensing hardware with inexpensive standard cameras. Multiple ordinary cameras can be used to capture the necessary visual data, and the computational processing is performed software-based, eliminating the need for costly sensor equipment while maintaining functional accuracy
3Manufacturing precision
If floor plans are manually constructed and maintained, then detail accuracy is preserved, but the difficulty of construction and maintenance increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-service by automatically generating and updating floor plans without human intervention. The computational system processes captured images, identifies architectural features, and constructs floor plans autonomously, eliminating the need for manual construction while maintaining high detail accuracy through automated image analysis algorithms
4Loss of information
If comprehensive building interior data is captured, then information completeness improves, but the difficulty of capturing and representing the data increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs multi-functional camera systems that simultaneously capture multiple types of information (visual images, spatial relationships, architectural features) using a single device type. The cameras serve multiple purposes: documenting the interior environment, measuring spatial dimensions, and identifying structural elements, thereby reducing overall system complexity while maintaining information completeness
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are described for using multiple data capture devices at a building to automatically generate a building floor plan and to determine associated absolute location data for the generated floor plan. In some situations, a building floor plan is automatically generated by analyzing visual data of images captured at multiple image acquisition locations by a camera device to determine room shapes of surrounding rooms, and GPS absolute location data is associated with the generated floor plan using additional data captured at other data capture locations at the building by a separate mobile device that moves independently from the camera device, such as by automatically determining relative positions of the camera device and the mobile device to extend the absolute location data from the mobile device to the camera device's image acquisition location and its surrounding room shape.