Industrial augmented reality

• US 20040183751A1
• Filed: 04/13/2004
• Published: 09/23/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services GmbH (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Dempski, Kelly L
• Granted Patent: US 7,372,451 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/8
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/017 Head mounted

Abstract

This invention includes a system and method for displaying a data including detecting visual markers (18) within view of a wearable camera (14) worn by a human worker, determining the environmental status and displaying data associated with at least one of those visual markers and based on the environmental status on a see-through wearable display (12) worn by the operator. Another aspect of the invention provides a system and method for coordinating the movement of human workers comprising detecting one or more visual markers (18) within view of a camera (14) worn by the worker, and determine the location of the worker from the stored location of the visual marker within view of the camera.

Claims

1. A method for displaying data associated with one or more objects within a field of view of a human operator in an environment, the method comprising:

directing the view of a wearable camera worn by a human operator towards within the field of view of the operator;

detecting one or more visual markers within a field of view of the camera, at least one of said visual markers associated with and proximate to an object within the field of view of the operator;

determining an environmental status;

selecting data from a memory storage based on the environmental status and the one or more of said visual markers; and

displaying the data on a wearable display worn by said operator.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting data includes identifying which of said visual markers is located within a predetermined zone of view of said camera for a predetermined amount of time.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said zone is a central 50% of the field of view of the camera.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is displayed on a see-through display such that the data are superimposed on a real image seen in the field of view of the operator.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying additional data associated with said object in response to a request sent by the operator.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising processing the image the detected visual marker to determine a unique identifier associated with the marker, and transmitting the unique identifier to a processor for selecting said data.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said request is an electric signal generated by a voice command from the operator.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the request is an electric signal generated by a physical touch by the operator.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the request is determined by maintaining the object of interest within the predetermined zone of view for a predetermined period of time.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the predetermined period of time is determined by accessing a user profile associated with the human operator, identifying the period of time associated with the object of interest.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting of data further comprises accessing a user profile associated with the human operator, and identifying the data based on preferences in the user profile.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising tracking the location of the human operator by tracking detected markers, and further identifying the data based on the location of the human operator.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected data are instructional commands directing the activity of the human operator.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the environmental status comprises assessing the needs of the environment based on at least one of unfulfilled tasks, status of other operators in the environment, process control and automation data, and enterprise resource planning data.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the selecting data further comprises identifying the operator;

analyzing a user profile associated with the human operator; and

selecting data based on relevant attributes in the use profile.

16. A method for coordinating the movement of human workers in an environment having one or more objects labeled with a visual marker therein, the method comprising:

directing the view of a wearable camera worn by a human operator towards a field of view of the operator;

detecting one or more visual markers within a field of view of the camera, at least one of said visual markers associated with and proximate to each of the objects;

processing the image of the visual marker and determining a unique identifier associated with the marker;

obtaining the physical location of the marker maintained in a memory storage; and

determining the location of the operator based on the location of the one or more markers within the field of view of the camera.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising tracking the movement of the operator by determining the location of the camera based on the perspective of an image of the one or more visual markers within the field of view of the camera, analyzing the movement of the image across the field of view of the camera and determining the movement of the camera corresponding to the movement of the image.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising tracking the movement of the operator by monitoring the series of markers passing within the field of view of the camera.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising displaying data on a see-through display such that the data are superimposed on a real image seen in the field of view of the operator, wherein said data includes information directing the operator to a new location.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said data is based on the optimization of the movement of a plurality of human operators in the environment.

21. A system for displaying data associated with one or more objects within a field of view of a human operator comprising:

a wearable camera worn by a human operator, said camera capable of viewing at least a substantial portion of a field of view of the operator, and capable of viewing visual markers proximate to objects within the field of view of the operator;

a wearable computer system having logic capable of detecting one or more visual markers within the field of view of the camera, determining an identifier associated with the marker, and wirelessly transmitting the identifier to a computer network and wirelessly receiving data associated with the identifier from the computer network;

a memory storage in communication with the network for storing the data associated with the markers, wherein the data includes documentation and operating commands for the movement of the human operator;

logic on computer readable medium in communication with the network capable of selecting the appropriate data for transmission to the wearable computer system; and

a wearable display for displaying the selected data.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the wearable display is a see-through display permitting simultaneous viewing of information on the display and of objects within the field of view of the operator.

23. The system of claim 21 further comprising a second memory storage in communication with the network for storing user profiles and preferences associated with the human operator wearing the camera and display.

24. The system of claim 23 further comprising logic stored on computer readable memory capable of selecting data from a plurality of data associated with an object based on the stored user profiles and preferences.

25. The system of claim 24 further comprising logic stored on computer readable memory capable of modifying the user profiles and preferences based on the human operator interaction with the system.

26. The system of claim 21 further comprising a third memory storage in communication with the network for storing locations of visual markers and logic stored on computer readable memory capable of storing in memory the location at specific times of human operators wearing the camera based on comparing detected markers with the stored location of the markers.