Building Photo Mapping for Floor Plans Without Depth Data
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods struggle to effectively capture, represent, and utilize building interior information, such as floor plans, for remote viewing and navigation without physical travel, due to difficulties in construction, scaling, and maintaining accurate visual information.
Innovation Solution
A system that generates mapping information from photos of a building's interior using automated techniques, determining relative positions and structural shapes without depth measurements, and displays this information in various visualizations for user interaction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If traditional floor plan construction methods are used, then building layout information can be represented, but the process is difficult and time-consuming to construct and maintain
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical floor plan construction with automated computer vision analysis. The system uses machine learning models to automatically generate floor plans from photographs, eliminating the need for manual measurement and drafting while maintaining accurate building layout information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates digital copies of physical building spaces through photograph analysis. The system generates virtual floor plan representations that replicate actual building layouts, allowing remote viewing and navigation without physical travel to the building.
2Loss of information
If floor plans are used to represent building interiors, then layout information is provided, but they are difficult to scale and populate with accurate room interior information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual population of room interior information with automated image recognition. The system analyzes photographs to automatically identify and extract room features, furniture, and spatial relationships, then populates the digital floor plan with this extracted information without manual intervention.
3Ease of operation
If visual information of building interiors is captured for remote viewing, then users can view building information remotely, but it requires significant computing power and time to process and display
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary processing of building visual information by pre-generating structured floor plan data and spatial relationships from photographs. This preprocessing creates optimized data representations that require less computing power during remote viewing and navigation operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates simplified digital copies and representations of building interiors that can be efficiently transmitted and rendered remotely. The system generates lightweight data models that preserve essential spatial information while reducing the computational burden of remote visualization.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are described for using computing devices to perform automated operations to generate mapping information via analysis of visual data of photos of a defined area, and for using the generated mapping information in further automated manners, including to display the generated mapping information via various types of visualizations corresponding graphical user interfaces. In some situations, the defined area includes an interior of a multi-room building, and the generated information includes at least a partial floor plan and/or other modeled representation of the building—in addition, the generating may be further performed without having measured depth information about distances from the photos' acquisition locations to walls or other objects in the surrounding building. The generated floor plan and/or other mapping-related information may be further used in various manners, including for controlling navigation of devices (e.g., autonomous vehicles), etc.