Internal location address and automatic routing of intra-facility movement

• US 10,129,698 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2016
• Issued: 11/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: United Parcel Service Of America Incorporated (United Parcel Service Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: United Parcel Service Of America Incorporated (United Parcel Service Incorporated)
• Inventors: Gillen, Robert J., Bonin, Paul H.
• Primary Examiner(s): HTUN, SAN A
• Application Number:
  US15/378,515
• Publication Number:
  US 20180020326A1
• Time in Patent Office: 699 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/005 including pedestrian guidance indicator
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/48 for in-vehicle communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Various embodiments are directed to systems and methods for facilitating movement within a facility by providing internal navigation instructions to a user, and/or for automatically operating various transportation mechanisms within the facility to move the user therein. Various embodiments thus comprise a computing entity configured to receive location information/data indicative of a current location of a user and destination information/data indicative of a desired destination for the user, generate a recommended route for the user, and transmit one or more signals to location devices along the recommended route to provide navigations cues to the user, or to one or more transportation mechanisms to enable the user to board the transportation mechanism at a first location, and disembark the transportation mechanism closer to the desired destination.

Claims

1. A system for providing internal navigation instructions within a facility, the system comprising:

a computing system comprising at least one computer readable medium and at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to;

receive, via a communication receiver, location data indicative of a current location of a user;

receive, via the communication receiver, destination data indicative of a desired destination for the user;

generate a recommended route between the current location of the user and the desired destination for the user; and

transmit, via a communication transmitter, one or more signals indicative of at least a portion of the recommended route, wherein each of the one or more signals comprises one or more navigational instructions for the recommended route and each navigational instruction corresponds to a particular location within the facility;

monitor a location of the user as the user moves within the facility to determine the current location of the user; and

one or more of a plurality of location devices each associated with respective locations within the facility and positioned between the current location of the user and the desired destination for the user, each of the one or more of the plurality of location devices are configured to;

receive, via an onboard communication interface, one or more of the transmitted signals from the computing system, the one or more transmitted signals indicating the one or more of the plurality of location devices that will emit a navigational cue based upon the determined current location of the user;

emit one or more navigational cues indicative of a navigational instruction corresponding to the respective location of the location device selected from the one or more navigational instructions of the transmitted signals, wherein the one or more navigational cues are selected from at least one of;

(a) one or more illuminated lights indicating a direction of travel along the recommended route;

or

(b) a sound indicating a direction of travel along the recommended route; and

in response to monitoring the location of the user as the user moves within the facility, receive, via an on board communication interface, one or more transmitted signals from the computing system to terminate emitting the one or more navigational cues upon the computer system determining that the user has passed the one or more of the plurality of locations devices emitting the one or more navigational cues.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing system is a mobile computing device.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein receiving location data comprises receiving location data broadcast from a location device indicative of a current location of the location device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein receiving destination data comprises at least one of:

(a) receiving user input indicative of the desired destination data;

(b) receiving data indicative of a delivery location for an item;

or

(c) receiving data indicative of the location of an appointment for the user.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing entity system is a central computing system, and wherein:

receiving location data comprises receiving data indicative of a current location of a mobile computing device associated with the user; and

receiving destination data comprises receiving data indicative of a desired destination for the user from the mobile computing device associated with the user.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the location data is generated by comparing the current location of the user against the respective locations of one or more of the location devices.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein each of the plurality of location devices are configured to broadcast data indicative of their location, and

wherein a mobile device is configured to receive broadcast data from one or more location devices and to generate the location data based on the received broadcast data.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein transmitting the one or more signals indicative of the recommended route comprises transmitting the one or more signals to a subset of the plurality of location devices, wherein the subset of the plurality of location devices are identified based at least in part on the location data.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more of the plurality of location devices are integrated into light fixtures.

10. A method for providing internal navigation instructions within a facility, the method comprising:

receiving, via a communication receiver of a computing system location data indicative of a current location of a user;

receiving, via the communication receiver of the computing system destination data indicative of a desired destination for the user;

generating, via the computing system a recommended route between the current location of the user and the desired destination for the user;

monitoring, via the computing system, a location of the user as the user moves within the facility to determine the current location of the user; and

transmitting, from a communication transmitter of the computing system one or more signals indicative of at least a portion of the recommended route to one or more of a plurality of location devices based upon the determined current location of the user, wherein each of the one or more signals comprises one or more navigational instructions for the recommended route and each navigational instruction corresponds to a particular location within the facility, and wherein the one or more of the plurality of location devices are each associated with respective locations within the facility and are positioned between the current location of the user and the desired destination of the user;

causing the one or more of the plurality of location devices to emit one or more navigational cues indicative of a navigational instruction corresponding to the respective location of the location device selected from the one or more navigational instructions of the transmitted signals, wherein the one or more navigational cues are selected from at least one of;

(a) one or more illuminated lights indicating a direction of travel along the recommended route;

or

(b) a sound indicating a direction of travel along the recommended route; and

in response to monitoring the location of the user as the user moves within the facility, receiving one or more transmitted signals from the computing system to terminate emitting the one or more navigational cues upon the computing system determining that the user has passed the one or more of the plurality of locations devices emitting the one or more navigational cues.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the computing system is a mobile computing device.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving destination data comprises at least one of:

(a) receiving user input indicative of the desired destination data;

(b) receiving data indicative of a delivery location for a shipment;

or

(c) receiving data indicative of the location of an appointment for the user.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the computing entity system is a central computing system, and wherein:

receiving location data comprises receiving data indicative of a current location of a mobile computing device associated with the user; and

receiving destination data comprises receiving data indicative of a desired destination for the user from the mobile computing device associated with the user.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the location data is generated by comparing the current location of the user against the respective locations of one or more of the location devices.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein transmitting the one or more signals indicative of the recommended route comprises transmitting the one or more signals to a subset of the plurality of location devices, wherein the subset of the plurality of location devices are identified based at least in part on the location data.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more of the plurality of location devices are integrated into light fixtures.

17. The method of claim 10, further wherein determining that the desired destination is one of a stationary location or a mobile location.

18. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising:

an executable portion configured to receive location data indicative of a current location of a user;

an executable portion configured to receive destination data indicative of a desired destination for the user;

an executable portion configured to generate a recommended route between the current location of the user and the desired destination for the user; and

an executable portion configured to transmit one or more signals indicative of the recommended route to one or more of a plurality of location devices, wherein each of the one or more signals comprises one or more navigational instructions for the recommended route and each navigational instruction corresponds to a particular location within the facility, and wherein the location devices are each associated with respective locations within the facility and are positioned between the current location of the user and the desired destination of the user;

an executable portion configured to monitor a location of the user as the user moves within the facility to determine the current location of the user; and

an executable portion configured to cause the one or more of the plurality of location devices to emit one or more navigational cues indicative of a navigational instruction corresponding to the respective location of the location device selected from the one or more navigational instructions of the transmitted signals, wherein the one or more navigational cues are selected from at least one of;

(a) one or more illuminated lights indicating a direction of travel along the recommended route;

or

(b) a sound indicating a direction of travel along the recommended route; and

an executable portion configured to receive, in response to monitoring the location of the user as the user moves within the facility, one or more transmitted signals to terminate emitting the one or more navigational cues upon a determination that the user has passed the one or more of the plurality of location devices emitting the one or more navigational cues.