INDUSTRIAL AUGMENTED REALITY

• US 20060244677A1
• Filed: 10/19/2001
• Published: 11/02/2006
• 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 7,126,558 B1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/8
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/017 Head mounted

Abstract

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

Claims

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

positioning one or more visual markers proximate an object within a working environment of the human operator;

storing information associated with objects within the working environment of the human operator in a database on a memory storage, the information including identification information for at least one visual marker being positioned proximate to an object and data corresponding to the object;

receiving an image from a wearable camera worn by a human operator and directed towards the field of view of the operator;

automatically detecting one or more visual markers within the received image through the use of pattern recognition, at least one of said visual markers associated with and proximate to an object within the field of view of the operator;

in response to automatically detecting one or more visual markers, selecting data from the database located on a memory storage, said data being selected according to the identification information for the detected one or more visual markers and having a predefined association with one of said objects associated with the detected one or more 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 of the detected visual marker to determine a stored unique identifier associated with the marker, and transmitting the stored 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.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual marker comprises a physical real-world machine-recognizable pattern.

22. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing one or more real world visual markers on one or more objects in a work environment of a human operator.

23. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing an employee preference and profile in the database.

24. The method of claim 9 further comprising storing an employee preference and profile in the database.

25. The method of claim 24 where the predetermined period of time is determined according to the employee preference and profile.

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

receiving an image from a wearable camera worn by a human operator and directed towards a field of view of the operator;

automatically detecting one or more visual markers within the image through the use of pattern recognition, at least one of said visual markers associated with and proximate to at least one of the objects;

in response to automatically detecting one or more visual markers, processing the image of the visual marker and determining a unique identifier associated with the marker;

in response to determining the unique identifier, obtaining the physical location of the marker maintained in a database located on a memory storage, the database storing predefined associations of unique identifiers and locations of the visual markers; 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.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising tracking the movement of the operator by monitoring the change of the location of the markers within the field of view of the camera.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising tracking the movement of the operator by monitoring the series of markers passing within the field of view of the camera.

13. The method of claim 10, 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.

26. The method of claim 10, wherein the visual marker comprises a physical real-world machine-recognizable pattern.

27. The method of claim 10 further comprising providing one or more real world visual markers on one or more objects in a work environment of a human operator.

14. A system for viewing data 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 in response to detecting one or more visual markers, and wirelessly transmitting the identifier to a computer network and wirelessly receiving predefined data associated with the identifier from the computer network;

a memory storage in communication with the network, the memory storage storing the identifier associated with the visual markers with the predefined data associated with the identifier and providing the predefined data associated with the identifier in response to receiving the identifier; and

a wearable display configured to display the predefined data.

15. The system of claim 14 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.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein data associated with the identifier is superimposed on the see-through display on a real image of the field of view of the operator.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the memory storage further comprises at least one database storing information associated with the marker.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the memory storage further comprises at least one database storing information associated with a profile of the operator.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the wearable computer comprises logic capable of detecting one or more visual markers within the field of view of the camera based on a predetermined amount of time that the one or more visual markers are within the field of view of the camera.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the predetermined amount of time is based on the operator profile stored in the memory storage.

28. The system of claim 14, further comprising a library of visual markers including real-world machine recognizable patterns.

29. The system of claim 14, wherein detecting one or more visual markers within the field of view of the camera is based on contextual clues observed through presently viewed visual markers.

30. The system of claim 14, wherein detecting one or more visual markers within the field of view of the camera is based on contextual clues observed through previously viewed visual markers.