Interactive VR Tour Floor Plan Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current virtual reality tours lack depth perception and user interaction, often requiring high bandwidth and specific software plugins, making them inconvenient for users with dial-up connections and failing to effectively correlate images with their location within the tour.
Innovation Solution
An interactive viewing system that displays a schematic layout alongside a visual representation, using a current position marker and directional indicator to maintain user orientation, allowing navigation through a suggested pathway and enabling the correlation of images with their location, utilizing Flash technology for seamless integration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional virtual reality tours use 360-degree panoramic images with multiple page drilling, then users can view remote locations, but the system complexity increases and requires special software plug-ins
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the core functionality of virtual reality tours from complex plug-in systems and implements it using standard web technologies. The floor plan navigation system uses HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that work in default web browsers without requiring additional software installations, thereby reducing device complexity while maintaining ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal virtual tour system that functions across different web browsers and platforms using standard web technologies. The floor plan interface can be accessed on various devices (computers, tablets, smartphones) without requiring browser-specific plug-ins, making the system universally compatible while preserving interactive capabilities.
2Ease of operation
If virtual reality tours require high bandwidth connections, then image quality and interactivity improve, but accessibility for users with dial-up connections deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the virtual tour into discrete floor plan sections and individual image points of interest. Users can navigate the floor plan at low bandwidth and only load detailed images when needed, rather than requiring continuous high bandwidth transmission. This segmentation allows progressive loading and reduces overall bandwidth requirements while maintaining interactivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements partial loading of tour content, where only the current floor plan view and nearby images are loaded into memory, rather than loading the entire tour dataset. This partial action approach reduces bandwidth consumption and improves accessibility for users with slower connections while preserving full interactivity for the visible portion of the tour.
3Quantity of substance
If conventional tours present photographs in slide show format, then users can view multiple images, but depth perception and spatial orientation are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a two-dimensional slide show sequence to a two-dimensional floor plan representation that provides spatial context. The floor plan displays walls, doors, and furniture layouts, adding a dimensional understanding of space relationships. This allows users to comprehend both the sequence of images and their spatial arrangement within the environment, preventing loss of depth and spatial information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces the floor plan as an intermediary between the sequence of photographs and the user's spatial understanding. The floor plan serves as a mediator that connects individual images to their corresponding locations in physical space, providing depth perception and spatial orientation while maintaining the ability to view multiple photographs in sequence.
4Measurement precision
If video game 3D mapping tools create detailed animated three-dimensional representations, then visual accuracy improves, but system complexity and difficulty of use increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses simplified 2D representations (floor plans) instead of complex 3D models to depict the environment. Rather than creating detailed animated three-dimensional representations through complex modeling tools, the system uses simplified schematic drawings that capture essential spatial information. This copying approach maintains measurement precision for navigation purposes while dramatically reducing system complexity and ease of use.
Data Source
AI summary
An interactive viewing system of the present invention provides a user with a viewing duality in which a user is shown a floor plan, schematic layout, or other diagram on one side of a display and a visual representation, such as a digital image, corresponding to a selected portion of the schematic layout or diagram, on the other side of the same display. The user is presented with a current position marker and a directional indicator as they navigate through the schematic layout. At designated positions within the schematic layout, a corresponding image is concurrently displayed. In this manner, the user maintains a sense of where they are within the entire structure, while at the same time seeing images of the corresponding area.