Indoor Navigation via BIM and WiFi Positioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current navigation systems, such as GPS, are ineffective within buildings, posing challenges for users to locate specific rooms or navigate unfamiliar environments, especially for individuals with impaired vision or blindness, as they require manual exploration or inefficient radio mapping processes.
Innovation Solution
A mobile application utilizing Building Information Model (BIM) data to create indoor maps, which communicates with a cloud-stored BIM model, providing voice and visual guidance through WiFi routers and sensors, allowing users to navigate within buildings by accessing detailed building plans and updating their location in real-time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If GPS is used for navigation, then outdoor navigation is effective, but indoor navigation becomes ineffective
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces WiFi infrastructure and Bluetooth beacons as intermediary systems to enable indoor navigation. These intermediaries provide positioning signals within buildings where GPS cannot penetrate, allowing the mobile device to determine its location through wireless network triangulation and proximity detection to supplementary beacons.
Solution Approach 2:
The navigation system is designed to work across multiple environments (outdoor and indoor) by integrating GPS for outdoor positioning with WiFi and Bluetooth-based positioning for indoor navigation. This multi-functional approach allows the same application to provide continuous navigation services regardless of the user's location environment.
2Ease of operation
If manual exploration or floor plan review is used for indoor navigation, then no specialized equipment is needed, but navigation efficiency and ease of use deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides automatic location detection and route guidance without requiring users to manually interpret floor plans or navigate using physical maps. The application automatically determines the user's position through WiFi and Bluetooth signals, calculates the optimal route to the destination, and provides real-time directional guidance, making the navigation process as effortless as using GPS outdoors.
Solution Approach 2:
The navigation system continuously monitors the user's position through wireless signals and provides real-time feedback through turn-by-turn directions and position updates. This feedback mechanism allows users to understand their current location and progress toward the destination, enabling quick corrections if the user deviates from the recommended route.
3Measurement precision
If sensors or specialized devices are deployed throughout a building for navigation, then navigation accuracy improves, but system complexity and deployment cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system leverages existing WiFi infrastructure that is already deployed in most buildings for its primary positioning function. Bluetooth beacons are added as supplementary low-cost elements that enhance accuracy without requiring extensive sensor deployment. This approach achieves good location accuracy while minimizing system complexity by reusing existing infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of deploying expensive specialized positioning sensors throughout the building, the system uses copies of standard wireless communication technologies (WiFi access points and Bluetooth beacons) that are already widely available and well-understood. This substitution reduces system complexity while maintaining adequate positioning accuracy for navigation purposes.
4Productivity
If radio mapping is performed manually by administrators, then navigation data can be created, but the process is inefficient and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically generates navigation maps and positioning data by utilizing existing building blueprints, architectural plans, or floor plans that are already available in digital format. The application processes these existing documents to create the navigation database, eliminating the need for manual radio mapping by administrators and dramatically reducing map creation time and effort.
Data Source
AI summary
A method, apparatus, and system provides the ability to navigate within a building structure. A building information model (BIM) for a building structure is obtained, validated, and stored in a database in the cloud. A request for the validated BIM is received from a mobile device. The validated BIM is provided from the database to the mobile device. A destination within the building structure, is accepted from the mobile device via a navigation application on the mobile device. A route from a location of the mobile device to the destination is determined and provided to the mobile device. The navigation application utilizes the route and the validated BIM to direct the mobile application to the destination.