Navigation using sensor fusion

• US 10,641,613 B1
• Filed: 06/24/2019
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Andersson, Eve Astrid, Burkhardt, Casey John, Lundblad, John Ove Peter Nilsson, Tseng, David, Chen, Charles L., Zheng, Ying, Raman, Tiruvilwamalai Venkatram
• Primary Examiner(s): Badii, Behrang
• Application Number:
  US16/450,225
• Time in Patent Office: 316 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6804 Garments; Clothes
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0408 transmitting the signals by non-mechanical means from the wheel or tyre to a vehicle body mounted receiver
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/005 specially adapted for viewing traffic-lights
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 11/04 Mounting of cameras operative during drive; Arrangement of controls thereof relative to the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/04 specially adapted for measuring length or width of objects while moving
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/14 for measuring distance or clearance between spaced objects or spaced apertures G01B11/26 takes precedence; rangefinders G01C3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/2755 using photoelectric detection means
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/1656 with passive imaging devices, e.g. cameras
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3667 Display of a road map G01C21/3614 takes precedence; guidance using 3D or perspective road maps G01C21/3635
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/00 Measuring distance traversed on the ground by vehicles, persons, animals or other moving solid bodies, e.g. using odometers, using pedometers
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/00 Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or space vehicles, e.g. using automatic pilots drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/20 Image signal generators
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/40 Circuit details for pick-up tubes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 Control of cameras or camera modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/04 Synchronising for television systems using pulse code modulation H04N7/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/067 Arrangements or circuits at the transmitter end
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/073 for mutually locking plural sources of synchronising signals, e.g. studios or relay stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/222 Studio circuitry; Studio devices; Studio equipment cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors, or control thereof H04N23/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/265 : Mixing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 : Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 : for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/023 : in a chair, pillow
• 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 4/38 : for collecting sensor information

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for resolving erroneous movement signals and for providing navigation instructions. One of the methods includes receiving data from two or more sensors, synchronizing the received data, determining a first subset of the synchronized data from the camera for a particular period of time and a second subset of the synchronized data from the other sensor for the particular period of time, comparing the first subset with the second subset to determine whether the first subset and the second subset indicate an erroneous movement signal, based on determining that the first subset and the second subset indicate an erroneous movement signal, selecting data for one of the sensors based on a sensor priority scheme for the sensors, and resolving the erroneous movement signal based on the selected data for the one of the sensors.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a user device, data from two or more sensors included in the user device, the two or more sensors comprising a camera and an accelerometer;

synchronizing the received data from the two or more sensors so that the data from the camera corresponds in time to the data from the other sensor;

determining a first subset of the synchronized data from the camera for a particular period of time and a second subset of the synchronized data from the other sensor for the particular period of time, the first subset of the synchronized data and the second subset of the synchronized data each being representative of movement of the user device and the first subset of the synchronized data being representative of objects in a physical area surrounding a particular physical location of the user device;

determining, from the first subset of synchronized data and the second subset of synchronized data, a plurality of feature points for a respective plurality of locations of the physical area; and

storing, as map data, the plurality of feature points and the respective plurality of locations of the physical area, the map data describing respective locations objects corresponding to the feature points in the physical area.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein detecting the plurality of feature points in the one or more images captured by the camera and represented by the first subset of the synchronized data comprises detecting the plurality of feature points in two or more images captured by the camera and represented by the first subset of the synchronized data.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising determining navigation instructions using one or more of the plurality of feature points.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving data from two or more sensors included in the user device comprises receiving data from two or more sensors included in the user device, the two or more sensors comprising at least one sensor selected from the group consisting of an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a global positioning system receiver, and a wireless receiver.

5. An apparatus, comprising:

two or more sensors comprising a camera and another sensor;

a data processing apparatus; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium in data communication with the data processing apparatus and storing instructions executable by the data processing apparatus and upon such execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising;

receiving, at a user device, data from two or more sensors included in the user device, the two or more sensors comprising a camera and an accelerometer;

synchronizing the received data from the two or more sensors so that the data from the camera corresponds in time to the data from the other sensor;

determining a first subset of the synchronized data from the camera for a particular period of time and a second subset of the synchronized data from the other sensor for the particular period of time, the first subset of the synchronized data and the second subset of the synchronized data each being representative of movement of the user device and the first subset of the synchronized data being representative of objects in a physical area surrounding a particular physical location of the user device;

determining, from the first subset of synchronized data and the second subset of synchronized data, a plurality of feature points for a respective plurality of locations of the physical area; and

storing, as map data, the plurality of feature points and the respective plurality of locations of the physical area, the map data describing respective locations objects corresponding to the feature points in the physical area.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein detecting the plurality of feature points in the one or more images captured by the camera and represented by the first subset of the synchronized data comprises detecting the plurality of feature points in two or more images captured by the camera and represented by the first subset of the synchronized data.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, the operations further comprising determining navigation instructions using one or more of the plurality of feature points.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein receiving data from two or more sensors included in the user device comprises receiving data from two or more sensors included in the user device, the two or more sensors comprising at least one sensor selected from the group consisting of an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a global positioning system receiver, and a wireless receiver.

9. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a computer and upon such execution cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at a user device, data from two or more sensors included in the user device, the two or more sensors comprising a camera and an accelerometer;

synchronizing the received data from the two or more sensors so that the data from the camera corresponds in time to the data from the other sensor;

determining a first subset of the synchronized data from the camera for a particular period of time and a second subset of the synchronized data from the other sensor for the particular period of time, the first subset of the synchronized data and the second subset of the synchronized data each being representative of movement of the user device and the first subset of the synchronized data being representative of objects in a physical area surrounding a particular physical location of the user device;

determining, from the first subset of synchronized data and the second subset of synchronized data, a plurality of feature points for a respective plurality of locations of the physical area; and

storing, as map data, the plurality of feature points and the respective plurality of locations of the physical area, the map data describing respective locations objects corresponding to the feature points in the physical area.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein detecting the plurality of feature points in the one or more images captured by the camera and represented by the first subset of the synchronized data comprises detecting the plurality of feature points in two or more images captured by the camera and represented by the first subset of the synchronized data.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, the operations further comprising determining navigation instructions using one or more of the plurality of feature points.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein receiving data from two or more sensors included in the user device comprises receiving data from two or more sensors included in the user device, the two or more sensors comprising at least one sensor selected from the group consisting of an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a global positioning system receiver, and a wireless receiver.