Indoor Navigation Using Scannable Point Markers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing navigation methods, particularly those using GPS and QR codes, fail to provide effective navigation assistance in closed environments like hospitals, shopping centers, and amusement parks, as they do not offer directional guidance and require users to independently locate QR codes, leading to high costs and complexity in creating precise maps.
Innovation Solution
A method that maps main and secondary points of interest within a closed environment, using scannable elements like QR codes, and associates them with an electronic unit to generate and send navigation paths to users' devices, allowing for easy navigation without geolocation services, using affordable and simple equipment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If GPS-based navigation methods are used, then navigation can be provided in open environments, but they fail to provide navigation assistance in closed environments like hospitals, shopping centers, and amusement parks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces QR codes as intermediary elements placed at strategic locations within closed environments. These QR codes serve as mediators between the user's smartphone and the navigation system, enabling location identification and path guidance without requiring GPS satellite signals. The QR codes encode location information that the smartphone can decode to determine the user's position and provide directional guidance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the physical environment's navigation structure by placing QR codes at specific locations and maintaining a database that maps QR code positions to navigation paths. This virtual representation allows the system to provide accurate navigation guidance within closed environments by referencing the pre-established digital map, effectively copying the essential navigation geometry without requiring complex real-time mapping.
2Loss of information
If QR codes are placed throughout the environment for navigation, then users can access information points, but users cannot orient themselves within the environment and lack navigation directives
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by pre-calculating and storing optimal navigation paths in the database before users arrive. When a user scans a QR code, the system retrieves pre-computed directional guidance indicating which QR code to scan next and the optimal route to follow. This eliminates the need for users to independently determine their orientation, as the system has already prepared the navigation sequence.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the system continuously guides the user through sequential QR code scanning based on the pre-established navigation paths. After each scan, the system provides feedback in the form of directional instructions indicating the next destination and route, allowing users to follow clear navigation directives rather than relying on independent spatial orientation.
3Measurement precision
If precise maps are created for navigation in closed environments, then accurate navigation paths can be provided, but the mapping process requires prohibitive costs and long realization times
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the complex task of creating precise environmental maps into simpler components by placing QR codes at discrete, predetermined locations rather than requiring continuous or comprehensive mapping. Each QR code represents a discrete information point with known coordinates stored in the database. This segmentation allows navigation path calculation without requiring complete or highly detailed mapping of the entire environment, significantly reducing mapping complexity and costs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the fundamental parameter of mapping precision requirements by demonstrating that accurate navigation can be achieved using a sparse distribution of QR codes at key locations rather than requiring high-density or continuous mapping data. The system accepts lower mapping precision (coarse-grained location data from QR codes) while still providing effective navigation guidance, thereby eliminating the need for expensive, time-consuming high-precision mapping processes.
Data Source
AI summary
Method of providing a navigation path in a closed environment, which method comprises a step of mapping said environment, wherein a plurality of main points of interest within said environment are defined; a step of arranging a plurality of scannable elements at at least said plurality of main points of interest; a phase of definition of a plurality of secondary points of interest within said environment; a phase of processing possible navigation paths within said environment between said scannable elements and said main points of interest and/or said secondary points of interest, a saving phase, in which said possible navigation paths are saved electronically in said electronic unit; said electronic unit being electronically connectable to a personal electronic device of at least one user and configured to send to said personal electronic device at least one said navigation path selected by said user.