Course profiling and sharing

• US 10,410,320 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2016
• Issued: 09/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Taylor, Michael, Castleman, Dennis Dale
• Primary Examiner(s): Osinski, Michael S
• Application Number:
  US15/394,511
• Publication Number:
  US 20180096455A1
• Time in Patent Office: 985 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/102 specially adapted for vertical take-off of aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10032 Satellite or aerial image; Remote sensing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30241 Trajectory
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/40 Scaling of whole images or parts thereof, e.g. expanding or contracting
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/70 Determining position or orientation of objects or cameras camera calibration G06T7/80

Abstract

Systems and methods for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) course profiling are provided. A plurality of images may be captured by a UAV flying along a course at a first location. A profile may be constructed for the course based on the images captured by the UAV. The constructed course profile is transmitted over a communication network to a virtual reality system at a second location. The virtual reality system may generate a virtual environment corresponding to the course based on the constructed course profile, and a second UAV at the second location may fly along the virtual course.

Claims

1. A system for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) course profiling, the system comprising:

an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that captures a plurality of images while flying along a course at a first location;

a processor that executes instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by the processor constructs a profile for the course based on the images captured by the UAV while flying along the course; and

a network interface that transmits the constructed course profile over a communication network to a virtual reality system at a second location, wherein the virtual reality system generates a virtual environment corresponding to the course based on the constructed course profile.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the UAV comprises at least one mounted camera or sensor that captures the images while the UAV is flying along the course.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a virtual reality system at the first location, wherein the virtual reality system generates one or more virtual course elements placed along the course.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the constructed course profile further includes information regarding the one or more virtual course elements.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein available space at the second location has different dimensions than space required by the course at the first location, and wherein the processor further executes instructions to scale the course profile based on the different dimensions at the second location.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein a UAV at the second location has different dimensions than the UAV at the first location, and wherein the processor further executes instructions to scale the course profile based on the different dimensions of the UAV at the second location.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a server accessible over the communication network, wherein the network interface further transmits the constructed course profile over the communication network to the server.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the server hosts a session with a plurality of virtual reality systems, each virtual reality system generating a corresponding course at a different location based on the constructed course profile.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein each virtual reality system at a respective location further:

receives real-time information from each other virtual reality system regarding a corresponding UAV;

incorporates a representation of each corresponding UAV in the generated virtual environment at the respective location; and

adjusts the generated virtual reality based on interactions between a UAV at the respective location and the representations of UAVs corresponding to each other virtual reality system.

10. A method for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) course profiling, the method comprising:

capturing a plurality of images by a UAV flying along a course at a first location;

executing instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor constructs a profile for the course based on the images captured by the UAV while flying along the course; and

transmitting the constructed course profile over a communication network to a virtual reality system at a second location, wherein the virtual reality system generates a virtual environment corresponding to the course based on the constructed course profile.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the images are captured by a camera or sensor mounted on the UAV.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising generating one or more virtual course elements placed along the course, wherein the virtual course elements are generated by a virtual reality system at the first location.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the constructed course profile further includes information regarding the one or more virtual course elements.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein available space at the second location has different dimensions than space required by the course at the first location, and further comprising scaling the course profile based on the different dimensions at the second location.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein a UAV at the second location has different dimensions than the UAV at the first location, and further comprising scaling the course profile based on the different dimensions of the UAV at the second location.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising transmitting the constructed course profile over the communication network to a server.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising joining a session hosted by the server, wherein the session further includes a plurality of other virtual reality systems, each other virtual reality system generating a corresponding course at a different location based on the constructed course profile.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving real-time information from at least one other virtual reality system regarding a corresponding UAV;

incorporating a representation of each corresponding UAV in a generated virtual environment at the first location; and

adjusts the generated virtual environment based on interactions between a UAV at the respective location and the representations of UAVs corresponding to each other virtual reality system.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor to perform a method for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) course profiling, the method comprising:

capturing a plurality of images by a UAV flying along a course at a first location;

constructing a profile for the course based on the images captured by the UAV while flying along the course; and

transmitting the constructed course profile over a communication network to a virtual reality system at a second location, wherein the virtual reality system generates a virtual environment corresponding to the course based on the constructed course profile.