Vehicle Resource Tracking via Wireless Beacon Markers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current transportation vehicles lack efficient systems for managing and providing real-time information about onboard resources and facilities to passengers, such as seat availability, lavatory status, and galley cart inventory, which can lead to inconvenience and poor passenger experience.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle information system utilizing wireless directional beacon markers, sensor systems, and software applications on Personal Electronic Devices (PEDs) and In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) systems to provide passengers with real-time mapping and directional information about onboard resources, including seat status, luggage bin availability, galley cart contents, and lavatory occupancy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If real-time information systems are implemented to provide passengers with resource status information, then passenger experience is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces wireless beacon markers as intermediary devices that broadcast resource status information. These beacons act as mediators between the physical resources (seats, lavatories, carts) and passenger devices, simplifying the overall system architecture by distributing the information provision function across multiple simple beacon units rather than requiring a complex centralized system.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates virtual copies of physical resources through digital representations on passenger devices. Each resource (seat, lavatory, cart) has a corresponding digital twin that displays its status, location, and availability on the passenger's PED, allowing passengers to interact with information about resources without physically searching for them.
2Measurement precision
If comprehensive resource tracking is implemented to monitor all onboard facilities, then information accuracy is improved, but measurement and detection difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the resource monitoring system into separate wireless beacon markers for each resource or group of resources. Each beacon independently tracks and broadcasts information about its associated resource(s), making the detection and measurement tasks simpler and more manageable compared to a single comprehensive monitoring system.
Solution Approach 2:
Each wireless beacon marker autonomously tracks and broadcasts information about its associated resource without requiring external intervention. The beacons self-manage the detection and measurement functions, reducing the overall system complexity by distributing these tasks across multiple independent units.
3Loss of time
If directional beacon systems are deployed to guide passengers to resources, then navigation efficiency is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The wireless beacon markers serve multiple functions simultaneously: they provide resource status information, directional guidance, and location tracking. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate navigation systems and devices, as the same beacons that report resource status also guide passengers to those resources.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines resource information provision and directional navigation functions into a single integrated system using wireless beacons. Instead of having separate systems for displaying resource status and providing navigation guidance, both functions are merged into the beacon infrastructure, simplifying the overall system architecture.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems are provided for a transportation vehicle. One method includes detecting a location of a personal electronic device (PED) on a transportation vehicle based on a signal transmitted by a wireless beacon to the PED; using sensor data to automatically determine usage of a resource on the transportation vehicle, the resource including on the transportation vehicle at least one of a lavatory, a passenger seat, a luggage bin, and a cart; indicating a status of the resource to the PED based on the determined usage; and updating a data store for tracking the usage, after an action is taken associated with the resource, in response to receiving the status.