Indoor Map Representation Using Convex Polygons
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional GPS navigation systems, designed for vehicle navigation, are inefficient for indoor and walking environments as they represent navigable spaces using road graphs, which are overly complex and inaccurate for open spaces, leading to incorrect location identification and suboptimal route finding.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that represent indoor navigable areas using a series of convex polygons with adjacency relationships, allowing for efficient route finding by identifying paths between these polygons, generated from building floor plans and processed by mobile devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If road graph representation is used for indoor navigation, then vehicle navigation efficiency is improved, but indoor navigation accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by using different map representations for different navigation contexts: road graphs for vehicle navigation and polygon-based representations for indoor/walking navigation. This allows each representation to be optimized for its specific use case, with polygons providing accurate location identification in open indoor spaces while road graphs maintain efficiency for vehicle routes.
2Device complexity
If road graph with line segments is used to represent indoor spaces, then processing complexity is reduced, but route finding accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments indoor navigable spaces into convex polygons, where each polygon represents a distinct navigable area. This segmentation provides a balance between simplicity and accuracy: polygons are simpler than full road graphs but more accurate than line segments, as they can represent open spaces and rooms while maintaining computational efficiency for route finding operations.
3Measurement precision
If convex polygons with adjacency relationships are used for indoor navigation, then location identification accuracy is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional approach by representing navigable spaces as positive convex polygons rather than representing obstacles as excluded areas. This inversion simplifies the data structure: instead of complex exclusion zones, the system uses simple convex polygons with adjacency relationships, reducing computational complexity while maintaining high location identification accuracy.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system for providing an indoor map representation are provided herein. Aspects of this disclosure provide a representation of an indoor map environment whereby navigable areas are represented by a series of convex polygons in adjacency relationships with one another. Image analysis may be performed on a floor plan image to identify navigable areas and to determine the boundaries of the polygons, such as by assigning one or more colors to navigable space and one or more colors to non-navigable space. Route-finding operations may be performed using the adjacency relationships to find a path from a source area to a destination area.