Indoor Positioning Using Passive Visual Landmarks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional indoor positioning systems for mobile devices are costly, inaccurate, and prone to disruptions due to reflections and interference from environmental factors, and require complex infrastructure and server-side calculations.
Innovation Solution
A mobile device uses a camera to detect passive, optically detectable landmarks with stored absolute location data, allowing for precise and cost-effective positioning without active transmitters or complex server calculations, utilizing image processing to determine the device's position relative to the landmarks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If active transmitters are installed in the indoor area for positioning, then location data can be obtained, but the system becomes costly and complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses passive landmarks (copies of visual information) instead of active transmitters. The camera captures images of landmarks that contain positioning information, eliminating the need for complex active transmission infrastructure while maintaining positioning capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces expensive, permanent transmitter infrastructure with inexpensive, passive landmarks. These landmarks can be simple visual markers or images that are much cheaper to deploy and replace than active transmitter systems
2Measurement precision
If active transmitters are used for indoor positioning, then location data can be obtained, but the system becomes unreliable due to signal reflections and interference
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the electromagnetic signal-based positioning system with an optical image-based system. Instead of using radio frequency signals that reflect off walls and objects, the system uses visual capture of landmarks, which are not affected by electromagnetic reflections or environmental interference
Solution Approach 2:
The system captures visual copies (images) of landmarks that contain encoded positioning information. These visual copies are immune to the signal reflection and interference problems that plague active transmitter systems, providing more reliable positioning data
3Measurement precision
If server-side calculations are performed for image-based positioning, then position can be determined, but the system becomes complex and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the essential positioning information directly from the captured image by detecting landmark features and matching them with stored reference data. This extracts only the necessary information without requiring complex server-side image processing or storage of entire image databases
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses pre-stored reference images or landmark data that can be quickly matched against captured images. This copying approach allows for simple comparison and matching operations rather than complex server-side calculations, reducing infrastructure requirements
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables reliable and precise indoor positioning with low investment costs, eliminating the need for active landmarks and complex server calculations, while improving accuracy and robustness against environmental interference.
Implementation Method 1
a camera unit (110) of the device (100) occasionally or continuously generates still images (112) of a current surroundings of the device (100)
Data Source
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AI summary
The device (100) has a comparator (130) to assign the orientation data from the database (300) to the still image (112) of the detected landmark (202). The orientation data includes information about a spatial direction, which points to a side of the detected landmark pictured in the still image. A data processor (140) is formed to compute the position (142) of the mobile terminal based on the orientation data assigned to the still image. A camera unit (110) is provided to generate a still image of the location area. Independent claims are included for the following: (1) a method for locating a mobile terminal in a location area; and (2) a locating system for locating a mobile terminal in a location area.