RF-Optical Fusion for Personalized Indoor Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Shoppers often face frustration due to difficulty in locating items within stores, leading to inefficient navigation and repeated searches.
Innovation Solution
A system combining radio-frequency (RF) technology and optical imaging to identify and track individuals within a business enterprise, providing personalized navigation by associating RF signals with images captured by cameras, allowing for efficient route guidance based on shopping lists.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If shoppers manually search for items in stores, then they can find desired products, but navigation efficiency is poor and search time is excessive
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by capturing images of shoppers at entrance points before they begin their shopping journey, and pre-processing these images to identify individuals. RF tags are also activated in advance to establish baseline location data, enabling the system to provide immediate navigation guidance without delay when shoppers enter the store.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical searching with an automated optical-electronic system. Optical devices (cameras) capture images, RF receivers detect tag signals, and computer processing units automatically analyze and process this data to generate navigation routes, substituting the mechanical action of manual item location with automated detection and information processing.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple individuals are tracked simultaneously, then personalized navigation can be provided to each shopper, but the complexity of identifying and associating RF signals with correct individuals increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces image data as an intermediary to bridge RF signal data and individual identities. The system captures images of multiple shoppers, detects RF tags in those images, and uses the visual information as a mediator to correctly associate each RF signal with its corresponding individual, simplifying the association process compared to direct signal matching alone.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adds a visual dimension to the RF tracking system. By capturing images and analyzing visual features alongside RF signal data, the patent creates a multi-dimensional identification approach that enables accurate tracking of multiple individuals simultaneously, transforming a one-dimensional RF signal problem into a two-dimensional problem incorporating both visual and signal data.
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 efficient navigation by identifying and tracking individuals, guiding them directly to desired items, thereby improving the shopping experience and reducing search time.
Implementation Method 1
at least one radio-frequency (RF) node has an RF receiver to receive RF signals from RF-transmitting devices
Implementation Method 2
At least one optical device, disposed near the entrance to the building, captures an image of a plurality of persons
Implementation Method 3
the at least one RF node is configured to determine a relative signal strength indicator (RSSI) value for the RF signals received from each RF-transmitting device
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for tracking movement of individuals through a building receive, by one or more RF nodes disposed near an entrance to the building, RF signals from RF-transmitting mobile devices carried by persons near the entrance, capture an image of the persons while they are near the entrance, determine an identity and relative distance of each RF-transmitting mobile device from each RF node based on information associated with the RF signals received by that RF node, detect humans in the image, determine a relative depth of each human in the image, and assign the identity of each RF-transmitting mobile device to one of the humans detected in the image based on the relative distance of each RF-transmitting mobile device from each RF node and the relative depth of each human in the image, thereby identifying each individual who to be tracked optically as that individual moves throughout the building.