Mobile Locationing with Fiducial Marker Frame Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Certain locationing technologies, such as GPS, may be unavailable or insufficiently accurate within facilities, hindering precise tracking of mobile computing devices.
Innovation Solution
A mobile computing device employs a combination of local pose tracking and facility infrastructure, using a camera and data capture module to track successive poses in a first frame of reference, and converts these poses to a predefined frame of reference using indicia and fiducial markers to achieve accurate locationing within facilities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If GPS or satellite-based locationing technologies are used, then locationing coverage is available outdoors, but locationing accuracy is insufficient within facilities
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the locationing system into two segments: outdoor satellite-based locationing and indoor facility-based locationing. Each segment uses appropriate technologies for its environment, with the indoor segment using fiducial markers and camera-based pose estimation to achieve high accuracy where GPS is unavailable
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces fiducial markers as intermediary objects placed within facilities. These markers serve as mediators between the mobile device's camera and the facility's coordinate system, enabling the device to determine its precise location and orientation through image capture and marker recognition
2Measurement precision
If facility-specific infrastructure like fiducial markers is deployed, then locationing accuracy within facilities improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile device performs locationing autonomously using its own camera and processor to capture images, detect fiducial markers, and calculate pose information. The device serves itself by utilizing existing mobile device components rather than requiring separate dedicated locationing hardware
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes the mobile device's camera serve multiple functions: it is used for both general device operation and for capturing fiducial markers to determine location. This multi-functionality avoids adding dedicated locationing hardware, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity
Data Source
AI summary
A computing device includes: a tracking assembly including a camera; a data capture module; and a controller connected with the tracking assembly and the data capture module, the controller configured to: control the tracking assembly to track successive poses of the computing device in a first frame of reference; control the data capture module to capture and decode an indicium placed in a facility; obtain, based on the indicium, a position of a point in the facility in a second frame of reference corresponding to the facility; detect, via the camera, features of a marker placed in the facility; determine, based on the detected features, an orientation of the marker in the second frame of reference; and generate, for each pose in the first frame of reference, a corresponding pose in the second frame of reference according to the position of the point and the orientation.