Crowd-Sourced Barometric Fingerprint Repository for Indoor Positioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Seamless and accurate indoor positioning of mobile devices is challenging due to variations in environmental conditions and differing barometric sensor characteristics, making satellite-based navigation unreliable in enclosed spaces.
Innovation Solution
A crowd-sourced data repository system that utilizes a pattern match between mobile device barometric pressure measurements and barometric fingerprint data to minimize relative changes, allowing for accurate localization by updating the repository with crowd-sourced barometric fingerprint data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If barometric pressure measurements are used for indoor positioning, then positioning capability is improved, but measurement precision deteriorates due to environmental variations and sensor characteristics
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary processing layer that compares barometric pressure measurements against pre-stored fingerprint data patterns. Instead of using raw pressure values directly for positioning, the system uses the pattern match between current measurements and stored fingerprints as the intermediary to determine location, thereby compensating for environmental and sensor variations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the barometric pressure measurement from an absolute value-based positioning method to a relative pattern-matching method. By comparing the pattern of pressure changes across multiple positions against stored fingerprint patterns, the system changes the parameter from absolute pressure value to relative pressure variation pattern, which is more robust to environmental and sensor variations.
2Quantity of substance
If crowd-sourced barometric data is collected from multiple devices, then data coverage is improved, but data consistency deteriorates due to varying sensor characteristics
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms individual device barometric measurements into device-agnostic fingerprint patterns by comparing relative pressure changes across positions. This parameter transformation from absolute measurements to relative variation patterns enables data from devices with different sensor characteristics to be consistently integrated into a unified fingerprint database.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal barometric fingerprint database that can accommodate data from multiple different mobile devices with varying sensor characteristics. The pattern-matching approach serves multiple functions: it integrates data from diverse sources, compensates for sensor variations, and maintains consistency across the entire crowd-sourced dataset.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system of updating a crowd-sourced data repository. The method is executed in a processor of a server computing device 108 and comprises storing a fingerprint map of an indoor facility in the crowd-sourced data repository, the fingerprint map having positioning fingerprint data that includes barometric fingerprint data, receiving, at the crowd-sourced data repository, at least one of mobile device signal data and mobile device sensor data correlated with a sequence of positions describing a movement of a mobile device along a trajectory relative to the indoor facility, the sensor data including mobile device barometric pressure measurements for at least a pair of contiguous positions in the sequence of positions. Then, based on identifying a pattern match between the mobile device barometric pressure measurements and the barometric fingerprint data over the at least a pair of contiguous positions, automatically updating, using the processor, the crowd-sourced data repository by adding the mobile device barometric pressure measurements to the barometric fingerprint data of the crowd-sourced data repository.