Indoor Location Correction Using Structural Constraints
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing location determination technologies in indoor settings are often inaccurate due to the smaller scale of indoor features like walls and rooms, leading to errors that can place a user in physically inaccessible areas.
Innovation Solution
A mobile device uses wireless location technologies and dead reckoning, combined with structural information from a venue accessibility map, to adjust location estimation by reconfiguring a particle filter and updating the heading, ensuring the device does not place the user in inaccessible spaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If wireless location technologies and dead reckoning are used to determine indoor location, then location estimation is provided, but measurement precision deteriorates due to the smaller scale of indoor features
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors location estimates and compares them against structural constraints from the venue map. When a conflict is detected (e.g., estimated location places user inside a wall), the system provides feedback by adjusting the statistical filter parameters and reconfiguring the particle filter to correct the heading and position, ensuring future estimates remain within accessible spaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically changes parameters of the statistical filter (such as particle weights, filter variance, or confidence thresholds) based on the consistency between estimated location and structural constraints. When inconsistencies are detected, parameters are adjusted to reduce estimation error and realign the location estimate with physically accessible areas.
2Measurement precision
If conventional location technologies are used without structural information, then device complexity is reduced, but measurement precision deteriorates due to inability to correct positioning errors
Solution Approach 1:
The system integrates multiple functions into a unified location determination framework: wireless signal processing, dead reckoning calculations, statistical filtering, and structural constraint validation all work together. The venue map serves multiple purposes by providing both navigation context and error correction boundaries, eliminating the need for separate correction systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The venue accessibility map acts as an intermediary between the location estimation algorithm and the physical environment. It provides structural constraints that mediate and correct estimation errors without requiring direct sensing of physical barriers, allowing the system to infer accessible spaces through logical constraints rather than physical measurement.
3Ease of operation
If location estimation allows positioning anywhere based on signal data, then ease of operation is improved, but object-affected harmful factors increase due to placement in inaccessible areas
Solution Approach 1:
The system preemptively prevents harmful positioning errors by incorporating structural constraints before errors occur. The venue map's accessibility information establishes boundaries in advance that constrain the location estimator, preventing it from calculating positions inside walls or other inaccessible areas rather than correcting errors after they occur.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and computer program products for correcting in-venue location estimation using structural information are described. A mobile device can use wireless location technologies and dead reckoning to determine an estimated location of the mobile device in a venue. The mobile device can compare the estimated location with a map of the venue. Upon determining that the estimated location conflicts with a structural constraint, the mobile device can adjust the location estimation using the structural information. Adjusting the location estimation can include adjusting a statistical filter that provides estimation of the location and changing a heading of the mobile device used in the dead reckoning.