Navigation aid

• US 20080319664A1
• Filed: 06/25/2007
• Published: 12/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Tidex Systems Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Tidex Systems Ltd.
• Inventors: Kremin, Itzhak, Banitt, Shmuel
• Application Number:
  US11/819,167
• Publication Number:
  US 20080319664A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/213
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/005 with correlation of navigation data from several sources, e.g. map or contour matching G01C21/30 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/147 Details of sensors, e.g. sensor lenses fingerprint or palmprint sensors G06V40/13; vascular sensors G06V40/145; eye sensors G06V40/19
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/24 Aligning, centring, orientation detection or correction of the image

Abstract

A method and apparatus for calculating exact positioning using a digital camera and a GPS, comprising calibrating the camera; initiating GPS navigation; capturing and storing images and GPS coordinates; calculating ego-motion of the camera using a pre-defined number of stored images; and calculating current position of the camera using the last stored GPS coordinates and the calculated camera ego-motion.

Claims

1. Navigation aid comprising:

a processor comprising camera control, computation modules and a user interface control;

a digital camera connected with said processor; and

a GPS receiver connected with said processor,

said processor adapted to receive positioning signals from said GPS receiver and pictures captured by said camera and calculate current position therefrom.

2. The navigation aid according to claim 1, wherein said processor comprises a Personal Digital Assistant.

3. The navigation aid according to claim 1, wherein said computation modules comprise a camera calibration module, camera ego-motion calculation module and camera current-position calculation module.

4. The navigation aid according to claim 3, wherein said camera ego-motion calculation comprises calculating the optical flow of selected objects between at least two captured images.

5. A method of calculating exact positioning using a digital camera and a GPS, comprising the steps of:

a. calibrating the camera;

b. initiating GPS navigation;

c. capturing and storing an image and GPS coordinates;

d. repeating step (c) until navigation aid is requested;

e. calculating ego-motion of the camera using a pre-defined number of stored images; and

f. calculating current position of the camera using the last stored GPS coordinates and the calculated camera ego-motion.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein said calculating the ego-motion comprises calculating the optical flow of selected objects between said pre-defined number of stored images.

7. A method of calculating exact positioning using a digital camera and a GPS, comprising the steps of:

a. calibrating the camera;

b. initiating GPS navigation;

c. capturing and storing two images and a their respective GPS coordinates;

d. calculating ego-motion of the camera using said two stored images; and

e. calculating current position of the camera.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein said calculating current position of the camera comprises using the Kalman Filter algorithm for integrating the GPS coordinates and the calculated camera ego-motion.

9. The method according to claim 7, additionally comprising, after step (e), the steps of:

f. capturing and storing a new image and its respective GPS coordinates;

g. calculating ego-motion of the camera using said stored new image and the last calculated camera ego-motion;

h. calculating current position of the camera using the last calculated camera position and the newly calculated camera ego-motion; and

i. optionally repeating steps (f) through (h).

10. The method according to claim 9, said calculating current position of the camera comprises using the Kalman Filter algorithm for integrating the GPS coordinates and the calculated camera ego-motion.

11. A method of calculating exact positioning using a digital camera and reference coordinates, comprising the steps of:

a. calibrating the camera;

b. capturing and storing two images;

c. calculating ego-motion of the camera using said two stored images; and

d. calculating current position of the camera using the reference coordinates and the calculated camera ego-motion.

12. The method according to claim 11, additionally comprising, after step (d), the steps of:

e. capturing and storing a new image;

f. calculating ego-motion of the camera using said stored new image and the last calculated camera ego-motion;

g. calculating current position of the camera using the last calculated camera position and the newly calculated camera ego-motion; and

h. optionally repeating steps (e) through (g).