Sensor Fusion Location Tracking for Occluded GPS
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Solution Overview
Problem
Global Positioning System (GPS) may become unavailable due to occlusions, such as buildings or foliage, making it difficult to determine a user's location and adherence to a navigation route.
Innovation Solution
A mobile device equipped with multiple sensors communicates with a remotely located computer system to gather and analyze data on the user's environment, activity, and biometric information, allowing for GPS-independent location determination and route compliance assessment by combining data from various sensors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If GPS is used for location determination, then location accuracy is improved, but reliability deteriorates when GPS signal is occluded by buildings or foliage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines data from multiple sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer, camera, microphone) with GPS data to create a fused location determination system. This sensor fusion approach ensures that location determination remains reliable even when GPS signal is occluded, as the system can switch to or supplement GPS with other sensor-based location methods.
Solution Approach 2:
The mobile device is designed with multiple sensors that serve various functions: accelerometer and gyroscope for motion detection, barometer for altitude measurement, camera for visual recognition, and microphone for audio-based location identification. This multi-functional sensor suite enables the device to determine location through multiple independent methods, ensuring reliability when any single method (including GPS) fails.
2Measurement precision
If multiple sensors are activated continuously for location tracking, then location determination accuracy is improved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts sensor activation based on current needs and GPS availability. When GPS signal is strong, only GPS is used. When GPS is occluded, the system activates additional sensors as needed. The patent also considers device orientation and motion state to determine which sensors to activate, optimizing energy usage while maintaining location accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system periodically checks GPS signal availability and switches between GPS-only mode and multi-sensor fusion mode accordingly. Rather than continuously activating all sensors, the system uses sensors periodically when needed, reducing overall energy consumption while maintaining accurate location determination when required.
3Speed
If sensor data is processed in real-time for immediate location feedback, then responsiveness is improved, but computational complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the location determination process into distinct modules: GPS processing module, sensor data acquisition module, data fusion module, and output generation module. Each module handles specific tasks independently, reducing the computational complexity of any single module while maintaining real-time responsiveness through parallel processing of multiple sensor streams.
Data Source
AI summary
The various technologies presented herein relate to determining a location of an individual, or an object, when a GPS may be unavailable/occluded. Readings from a plurality of sensors on a mobile device can be generating a plurality of data (e.g., speed, motion, temperature, biometric, etc.) which can be combined to generate a probability of a user of the mobile device being at a particular location, or not. Sensor readings can be weighted to enable sensors having a large effect on a degree of confidence of the probability of the user being determined to be at a location being given priority (e.g., battery priority) versus those sensors which have lesser effect on the degree of confidence. With the user determined to be at a location, information, a notification, an instruction, etc., can be presented to the user, via the mobile device.