Venue data framework

• US 10,244,359 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2018
• Issued: 03/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Agarwal, Ashish, Mondragon, Ian Aric, Ravikumar, Rahul, Lin, Calvin, Muller, III, Max, Stanger, Philip, Samsalovic, Vojislav
• Primary Examiner(s): Mitchell, Nathan A
• Application Number:
  US15/912,454
• Publication Number:
  US 20180249296A1
• Time in Patent Office: 386 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/30 Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings

Abstract

Techniques for storing information representing a venue are described. A venue data provider may upload venue data to a venue data service. The venue data can include locations, geometries, and business categories of the buildings and floors. The venue data service can validate the venue data, and request a survey service to survey the venue using the validated venue data. A survey can include recording measurements of an environment variable at various locations of the venue. The location service can generate location fingerprint data from the survey. The location fingerprint data can include expected measurements of the environment variable at various locations of the building. The venue data service can provide the location fingerprint data to a mobile device such that the mobile device can determine a location of the mobile device in the venue using sensor readings of the environment variable.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a venue data server, venue data representing a layout of a venue;

validating, by the venue data server, the venue data;

sending, by the venue data server, the validated venue data to a sampling device;

receiving, by the venue data server, measurements of wireless signals in the venue from the sampling device;

determining, by the venue data server, location fingerprint data of the venue based on the measurements of wireless signals in the venue, the location fingerprint data including expected measurements of the wireless signals at respective locations in the venue; and

transmitting, by the venue data server, the location fingerprint data to a device through at least one of a map service or an indoor location service.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the venue data is received through a web upload according to a venue data upload application programming interface (API).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein validating the venue data comprises performing at least one of a building footprint validation, a flyover validation, or a three dimensional visualization validation.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising:

generating a venue map by the venue data server, the venue map representing internal features of the venue; and

transmitting the venue map to a device operated by a venue data provider.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising transmitting, to the sampling device, a survey application for conducting a survey that generates the measurements of wireless signals in the venue, the survey application configured to:

display a venue map on a display device of the sampling device;

receive a user input at a starting location on the venue map to start the survey, wherein, when the survey is started, the survey application records sensor readings of one or more environmental variables as detected by a sensor and associates each of the sensor readings with a current location of the sampling device and a timestamp; and

submit the recorded sensor readings to the venue data server.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising integrating venue data with external data to generate map data that represents internal structure of the venue in a map of geographic features, the external data including:

base map data representing geometry and topology of geographic features;

probe data including anonymized location and heading information submitted by user devices;

flyover data including information on three dimensional geographic features;

user report data including user provided corrections on the base map data or venue data; and

web data on geographic features from web sites.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the location fingerprint data of the venue comprises:

identifying states of the venue against which measurements of wireless signals in the venue were conducted;

determining which state is compatible with the measurements based on respective temporal and respective geographic data associated with a plurality of data sets; and

determining the location fingerprint data of the venue based on compatible versions of the venue data and the measurements, wherein one or more compatible versions of the venue data are applied to support positioning in an indoor environment where satellite positioning signals are unavailable.

8. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more storage devices storing computer instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving, by a venue data server, venue data representing a layout of a venue;

validating, by the venue data server, the venue data;

sending, by the venue data server, the validated venue data to a sampling device;

receiving, by the venue data server, measurements of wireless signals in the venue from the sampling device;

determining, by the venue data server, location fingerprint data of the venue based on the measurements of wireless signals in the venue, the location fingerprint data including expected measurements of the wireless signals at respective locations in the venue; and

transmitting, by the venue data server, the location fingerprint data to a device through at least one of a map service or an indoor location service.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the venue data is received through a web upload according to a venue data upload application programming interface (API).

10. The system of claim 8, wherein validating the venue data comprises performing at least one of a building footprint validation, a flyover validation, or a three dimensional visualization validation.

11. The system of claim 8, the operations comprising:

generating a venue map by the venue data server, the venue map representing internal features of the venue; and

transmitting the venue map to a device operated by a venue data provider.

12. The system of claim 8, the operations comprising transmitting, to the sampling device, a survey application for conducting a survey that generates the measurements of wireless signals in the venue, the survey application configured to:

display a venue map on a display device of the sampling device;

receive a user input at a starting location on the venue map to start the survey, wherein, when the survey is started, the survey application records sensor readings of one or more environmental variables as detected by a sensor and associates each of the sensor readings with a current location of the sampling device and a timestamp; and

submit the recorded sensor readings to the venue data server.

13. The system of claim 8, the operations comprising integrating venue data with external data to generate map data that represents internal structure of the venue in a map of geographic features, the external data including:

base map data representing geometry and topology of geographic features;

probe data including anonymized location and heading information submitted by user devices;

flyover data including information on three dimensional geographic features;

user report data including user provided corrections on the base map data or venue data; and

web data on geographic features from web sites.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein determining the location fingerprint data of the venue comprises:

identifying states of the venue against which measurements of wireless signals in the venue were conducted;

determining which state is compatible with the measurements based on respective temporal and respective geographic data associated with a plurality of data sets; and

determining the location fingerprint data of the venue based on compatible versions of the venue data and the measurements, wherein one or more compatible versions of the venue data are applied to support positioning in an indoor environment where satellite positioning signals are unavailable.

15. A non-transitory storage device storing computer instructions operable to cause one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by a venue data server, venue data representing a layout of a venue;

validating, by the venue data server, the venue data;

sending, by the venue data server, the validated venue data to a sampling device;

receiving, by the venue data server, measurements of wireless signals in the venue from the sampling device;

determining, by the venue data server, location fingerprint data of the venue based on the measurements of wireless signals in the venue, the location fingerprint data including expected measurements of the wireless signals at respective locations in the venue; and

transmitting, by the venue data server, the location fingerprint data to a device through at least one of a map service or an indoor location service.

16. The non transitory storage device of claim 15, wherein the venue data is received through a web upload according to a venue data upload application programming interface (API).

17. The non transitory storage device of claim 15, wherein validating the venue data comprises performing at least one of a building footprint validation, a flyover validation, or a three dimensional visualization validation.

18. The non transitory storage device of claim 15, the operations comprising:

generating a venue map by the venue data server, the venue map representing internal features of the venue; and

transmitting the venue map to a device operated by a venue data provider.

19. The non transitory storage device of claim 15, the operations comprising transmitting, to the sampling device, a survey application for conducting a survey that generates the measurements of wireless signals in the venue, the survey application configured to:

display a venue map on a display device of the sampling device;

receive a user input at a starting location on the venue map to start the survey, wherein, when the survey is started, the survey application records sensor readings of one or more environmental variables as detected by a sensor and associates each of the sensor readings with a current location of the sampling device and a timestamp; and

submit the recorded sensor readings to the venue data server.

20. The non transitory storage device of claim 15, the operations comprising integrating venue data with external data to generate map data that represents internal structure of the venue in a map of geographic features, the external data including:

base map data representing geometry and topology of geographic features;

probe data including anonymized location and heading information submitted by user devices;

flyover data including information on three dimensional geographic features;

user report data including user provided corrections on the base map data or venue data; and

web data on geographic features from web sites.

21. The non transitory storage device of claim 15, wherein determining the location fingerprint data of the venue comprises:

identifying states of the venue against which measurements of wireless signals in the venue were conducted;

determining which state is compatible with the measurements based on respective temporal and respective geographic data associated with a plurality of data sets; and

determining the location fingerprint data of the venue based on compatible versions of the venue data and the measurements, wherein one or more compatible versions of the venue data are applied to support positioning in an indoor environment where satellite positioning signals are unavailable.