LOCATION BASED OBJECT TRACKING

• US 20090215471A1
• Filed: 02/21/2008
• Published: 08/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Russ, V. Kevin, Sands, Ian M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,903,430 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/457
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/876 Combination of several spaced transponders or reflectors of known location for determining the position of a receiver G01S13/874 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72427 for supporting games or graphical animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/10 including a GPS signal receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/52 including functional features of a camera constructional features concerning the integration of cameras in portable phones H04M1/0264
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A user of a mobile device is able to display information about objects in the surrounding environment and to optionally interact with those objects. The information may be displayed as a graphical overlay on top of a real-time display of imagery from a camera in the mobile device with the overlay indexed to the real-time display. The graphical overlay may include positional information about an external object and may include navigational information intended to assist the user in moving to the object'"'"'s location. There may also be a graphical user interface which allows the user to utilize the mobile device to interact with an external object.

Claims

1. ) A method of locating and interacting with an external object comprising:

(a) obtaining real-time imagery from a mobile camera;

(b) presenting the real-time imagery having content on a mobile display collocated with the mobile camera;

(c) determining at least one item of information related to the content of the real-time imagery; and

(d) presenting the information as a graphical overlay on the real-time imagery.

2. ) The method of claim 1 further comprising:

(a) determining a location of the mobile camera;

(b) determining a heading of the mobile camera; and

(c) using the location and the heading of the mobile camera for indexing the graphical overlay to the real-time imagery on the mobile display.

3. ) The method of claim 2 further comprising analyzing the real-time imagery to identify at least one known object.

4. ) The method of claim 3 wherein determining the heading comprises calculating a relative bearing to the at least one known object having a known position.

5. ) The method of claim 3 further comprising presenting a user interface usable to interact with the at least one known object which is displayed on the mobile display.

6. ) The method of claim 5 wherein the user interface is presented to the user in response the camera location moving to within a predetermined distance from the at least one known object.

7. ) The method of claim 6 wherein the user interface comprises information about the at least one known object which is displayed as an overlay indexed to the image of the object.

8. ) A method of locating and interacting with an external object comprising:

(a) obtaining real-time imagery from a mobile camera;

(b) presenting the real-time imagery having content on a mobile display collocated with the mobile camera;

(c) determining the location of the mobile camera;

(d) determining the location of an external object relative to the location of the camera;

(e) determining information related to the external object; and

(f) presenting the information as a graphical overlay on the real-time imagery.

9. ) The method of claim 8 further comprising determining a heading of the mobile camera and using the location and the heading of the mobile camera to index the graphical overlay to the real-time imagery on the mobile display.

10. ) The method of claim 9 wherein the information comprises navigational information to the external object.

11. ) The method of claim 10 wherein the navigational information comprises a highlighted path indexed to the content of the imagery.

12. ) The method of claim 9 wherein the graphical data overlay indicates a position of the external object.

13. ) The method of claim 12 wherein the position of the external object is indicated by highlighting a container within which the external object is located.

14. ) The method of claim 8 further comprising presenting a user interface usable to interact with the external object.

15. ) A system for locating and interacting with external objects, the system comprising:

(a) a mobile camera, having a known position, adapted to capture real-time imagery and adapted to supply the real-time imagery in a digital format;

(b) a video display, physically proximate the mobile camera and adapted to display the supplied real-time imagery in a viewfinder mode and adapted to display graphical data overlaid on and indexed to the real-time imagery.

16. ) The system of claim 15 further comprising a data store having the location of at least one external object relative to the location of the camera and wherein the graphical data indicates a position of the external object.

17. ) The system of claim 16 wherein the position of the at lest one external object is indicated by highlighting a container within which the object is located.

18. ) The system of claim 16 wherein the position of the at least one external object is indicated by highlighting a navigable path from the known position of the mobile camera to the location of the at least one external object.

19. ) The system of claim 16 wherein the at least one external object is portable and the data store is updated to track the location of the external object as it is moved.

20. ) The system of claim 16 further comprising a user interface adapted to interact with the at least one external object.