Image Identification Tags for Indoor Navigation Reliability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing navigation systems for intelligent moving-assistance apparatuses face challenges in determining position and navigating within environments with weak wireless signals, especially in indoor or obstructed areas, due to signal sensitivity and interference from barriers.
Innovation Solution
A navigation environment establishing method that sets a navigation map with image identification tags, such as QR codes, in a movement area, allowing the apparatus to generate navigation data and record it on these tags, enabling the apparatus to identify its current region and determine the initial moving direction to a target region based on a predetermined path.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If wireless transmission signals are used for navigation positioning, then navigation information can be obtained and movement paths can be planned, but the signals become weak in indoor environments or areas with obstacles such as plants
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces image identification tags (visual markers) as intermediary objects placed throughout the movement area. These tags serve as mediators between the apparatus and the navigation system, providing visual reference points that the photographic unit can capture. This intermediary system bypasses the wireless signal weakness problem by using optical signals (light) that are not blocked by obstacles or building structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the wireless transmission-based positioning system with a visual recognition-based system. Instead of relying on electromagnetic signals that weaken through obstacles, the system uses the photographic unit to capture images of identification tags, and the control unit to process these visual signals for positioning and navigation. This substitution of the underlying signal mechanism resolves the signal weakness issue in obstructed environments.
2Measurement precision
If the receiver is made sufficiently sensitive to weak signals to determine position, then positioning can be achieved in challenging environments, but signal interference from barriers increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the sensitive wireless signal reception system with a visual recognition system using the photographic unit. This substitution eliminates the need to increase receiver sensitivity, as visual markers provide clear, unambiguous position information that is not subject to signal interference from barriers. The control unit processes visual data to determine position and generate navigation data without encountering signal interference problems.
3Reliability
If image identification tags are used for navigation guidance, then accurate positioning can be achieved in weak signal environments, but the system complexity increases due to tag placement and recognition requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses image identification tags that can be captured by the photographic unit as optical copies or representations of position information. These tags are simple visual markers that encode location data, allowing the control unit to determine position without complex hardware. The copying of position information into visual form simplifies the overall system while maintaining reliability in weak signal environments.
Solution Approach 2:
The image identification tags are passive objects that automatically provide positioning information when captured by the photographic unit. They require no power, no active communication, and no complex processing on their part. This self-service approach reduces system complexity, as the tags simply exist as visual references that the apparatus's own photographic unit can detect and use for navigation.
Data Source
AI summary
A navigation environment establishing method for an intelligent moving-assistance apparatus moving in a movement area having a plurality of regions includes steps of: a navigation map is set, and the content of the navigation map including the relative locality of the regions. A current data indicating a current region is set. At least one target data indicating an available target region is set. Then, a navigation data is generated. The content of the navigation data includes the current region and a first target region, wherein the region where the intelligent moving-assistance apparatus first arrive when moving from the current region to the first target region according to a predetermined path is in a first direction with respect to the current region. Subsequently, the navigation data is recorded into an image identification tag. Finally, the image identification tag is placed in the current region.