Customized Electronic Maps for Seamless Indoor-Outdoor Routing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing navigation technologies, such as GPS-enabled devices and electronic maps, struggle to provide accurate and efficient guidance in areas lacking street addresses, particularly indoors and in complex outdoor environments, leading to unnecessary searching and increased emissions.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus for creating customized electronic maps that integrate indoor and outdoor environments, optimizing routes based on user-specific criteria, and allowing real-time updates and adjustments to account for different user groups, times, and conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If GPS-enabled devices and electronic maps are used for outdoor navigation, then outdoor way finding becomes more convenient and accurate, but indoor positioning only offers user whereabouts without exact destination guidance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines GPS outdoor positioning data with indoor floor plan data into a unified navigation system. The system merges satellite-based location information with building-specific map data to provide continuous navigation across outdoor-indoor boundaries, resolving the limitation where GPS provides location but not precise indoor destination guidance.
Solution Approach 2:
The navigation system is segmented into distinct modules: outdoor GPS positioning module, indoor floor plan module, and route optimization module. Each module handles specific environments and requirements, allowing the system to provide accurate outdoor positioning while simultaneously delivering precise indoor destination guidance through specialized processing.
2Ease of operation
If physical signs and maps are used for guidance in areas without street addresses, then way finding is provided, but these methods are prone to different interpretations, are not interactive, and do not account for different user needs
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adapts navigation routes and guidance information based on real-time user profile data. User characteristics such as mobility requirements, preferred routes, and destination preferences are continuously considered, allowing the system to provide customized guidance rather than static physical signs that cannot adapt to individual needs.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where user interactions, preferences, and navigation history are analyzed to improve future route recommendations. This interactive feedback loop enables the system to learn from user behavior and continuously optimize guidance, making it increasingly adapted to individual user needs over time.
3Reliability
If physical sign information is updated when environment or conditions change, then guidance accuracy is maintained, but updating can be slow or difficult during road work, renovation or exceptional situations
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically detects and adapts to environmental changes through real-time data inputs from multiple sources. Rather than requiring manual updates of physical signs during road works or renovations, the system self-updates its routing algorithms based on current conditions, maintaining guidance accuracy without human intervention in challenging update scenarios.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-processes multiple potential routes and prepares alternative navigation paths in advance. When environmental changes occur during road works or renovations, the system can immediately switch to pre-calculated alternative routes without requiring real-time manual updates, ensuring continuous reliable guidance.
4Productivity
If detailed guidance is provided to optimize routes, then travel efficiency is improved, but this requires comprehensive movement path networks and additional information processing
Solution Approach 1:
The floor plan data structure is designed to serve multiple functions simultaneously: it provides detailed movement paths for route optimization, stores building geometry information for visualization, and contains point-of-interest data for destination identification. This multi-functional data structure eliminates the need for separate systems for each function, reducing overall complexity while enabling detailed route optimization.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a method for forming or modifying a customized electronic map of a combined electronic map for an optimized way finding application. The method comprises receiving a floor plan or plans of different floors of a facility or a ground plan of an outdoor area in electronic form, forming movement paths from a plurality of points to a plurality of points for forming a movement path network, adding movement information to the floor plan or the floor plans or the ground plan, and adding additional information to the floor plan or the floor plans or the ground plan. The invention further relates to an electronic device and a computer program product performing the method. In addition, the invention also relates to a method for optimizing a route in a combined electronic map comprising an electronic outdoor and a customized electronic indoor or outdoor map by an optimized way finding application and an electronic device and a computer program product performing the method.