In-Building Device Tracking Using Wireless Beacons for Indoor Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods struggle to accurately capture, represent, and utilize building interior information, including navigating and identifying buildings that meet specific criteria, due to incomplete and inaccurate textual descriptions, and constructing and maintaining floor plans that lack detailed room information.
Innovation Solution
Utilizing wireless transmitter devices in buildings to track mobile devices and provide location-related functionality, including beacon devices, Bluetooth, UWB, NFC, Wi-Fi, and RFID, to determine and update device locations, aggregate visit data, and dynamically adjust transmitter placements based on usage patterns.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If wireless transmitter devices are deployed throughout a building to track mobile devices, then location tracking accuracy and navigation capability are improved, but device complexity and system cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs multiple types of wireless transmitter devices (beacons, Bluetooth, UWB, NFC, Wi-Fi, RFID) that can serve both location tracking and building information distribution functions. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate systems, thereby managing complexity while maintaining high tracking accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The building is divided into multiple zones with transmitter devices strategically placed in different locations. Each transmitter handles a specific area, and the system aggregates data from all segments to achieve comprehensive location tracking. This segmentation makes the overall system more manageable and less complex.
2Measurement precision
If multiple wireless transmitter devices are used to track device locations, then location tracking capability is improved, but computing power and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and processes only the essential location data from wireless transmitter signals, rather than analyzing all possible signal parameters. This selective extraction reduces computing power requirements while maintaining accurate location tracking capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses a sufficient number of transmitter devices to achieve accurate location tracking without deploying excessive infrastructure. The patent optimizes the density and distribution of transmitters to provide just enough coverage for accurate tracking, thereby balancing computing requirements with tracking capability.
3Loss of information
If comprehensive building information is collected and stored, then information completeness is improved, but data management complexity and storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates simplified digital representations (copies) of building information from physical space data. These digital twins or floor plans store essential building characteristics without requiring complete detailed information, reducing data management complexity while maintaining information completeness for navigation purposes.
Solution Approach 2:
The system stores and processes building information at appropriate levels of detail for different purposes. Critical structural and navigational information is stored with high precision, while less important details are stored with lower fidelity. This local quality approach manages data complexity while ensuring completeness where needed.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are described for using computing devices to perform automated operations for using generated building information to further generate and present visual data enhancements on images that are captured by and displayed on a mobile device in the building (e.g., concurrent with capture of the images by a camera of the mobile device, such as in a real-time or near-real-time manner with respect to image capture), such as using descriptive information about a building that is generated from analysis of acquired building images and optionally other building information (e.g., floor plans), and such as to improve navigation of the building (e.g., for autonomous vehicles) and provide other functionality as the mobile device moves through the building. The descriptive building information may include structural elements and other objects identified in the building and other determined attributes of the building, and automatically generated textual descriptions of the objects and other attributes.