Indoor Navigation Techniques to Calibrate/Recalibrate Inertial Sensors and Navigation Processing

• US 20130211711A1
• Filed: 02/04/2013
• Published: 08/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Design Reactor, Inc.
• Original Assignee: mCube, Inc.
• Inventors: Kelly, Joe, Price, Jobe, Bakshi, Rahul
• Granted Patent: US 9,097,536 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/445
• 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: G01S 19/49 whereby the further system is an inertial position system, e.g. loosely-coupled

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for determining geographic locations of a device includes receiving with a GPS receiver within the device, satellite signals from a plurality of GPS satellites, determining with the device, an approximate geographic location in response to the satellite signals, determining in the device, a potential GPS signal reduction condition in response to the satellite signals and to a GPS signal threshold, determining with physical perturbation sensors in the device, physical perturbations, determining with the device, an augmented geographic location in response to the approximate geographic location, the physical perturbations, and a weighting factor, determining with the device, a user display in response to the augmented geographic location, and outputting on a display of the device, the user display.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for determining geographic locations of a device implemented on a device programmed to perform the method comprising:

receiving with a GPS receiver within the device, satellite signals from a plurality of GPS satellites;

determining with the device, an approximate geographic location in response to the satellite signals;

determining in the device, a potential GPS signal reduction condition in response to the satellite signals and to a GPS signal threshold;

determining with physical perturbation sensors in the device, physical perturbations;

determining with the device, an augmented geographic location in response to the approximate geographic location, the physical perturbations, and a weighting factor;

determining with the device, a user display in response to the augmented geographic location; and

outputting on a display of the device, the user display.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining a building identifier associated with the approximate geographic location; and

determining an internal layout of at least a portion of a building in response to the building identifier.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the building identifier is selected from a group consisting of:

a street address, a building name.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein determining with the device, the user display is also in response to the internal layout of at least the portion of the building.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein determining with the physical perturbation sensors in the device, physical perturbations is also in response to the potential GPS signal reduction condition.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein determining with the physical perturbation sensors in the device further comprises:

increasing with the device sampling frequency of the physical perturbation sensors.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein determining with the physical perturbation sensors in the device further comprises:

applying with the device power to the physical perturbation sensors.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the weighting factor is determined in response to the potential GPS signal reduction condition.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the augmented geographic location is more heavily weighted with the physical perturbations when a potential GPS signal reduction condition is determined.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the augmented geographic location is more heavily weighted to the approximate geographic location when a potential GPS signal reduction condition is not determined.

11. A device programmed to determine geographic locations of a user comprising:

a GPS receiver configured to receive satellite signals from a plurality of GPS satellites;

a plurality of physical perturbation sensors configured to determine physical perturbations;

a processing unit coupled to the GPS receiver and to the plurality of physical perturbation sensor, wherein the processing unit is programmed to determine an approximate geographic location in response to the satellite signals, wherein the processing unit is programmed to determine a potential GPS signal reduction condition in response to the satellite signals and to a GPS signal threshold, wherein the processing unit is programmed to determine an augmented geographic location in response to the approximate geographic location, the physical perturbations, and a weighting factor, and wherein the processing unit is programmed to determine a user display in response to the augmented geographic location; and

a display coupled to the processing unit, wherein the display is configured to display the user display to the user.

outputting on a display of the device, the user display.

12. The device of claim 11

wherein the processing unit is programmed to determine a building identifier associated with the approximate geographic location;

and

wherein the device includes a memory coupled to the processing unit, wherein the memory is configured to store an internal layout of at least a portion of a building in response to the building identifier.

13. The device of claim 12 wherein the building identifier is selected from a group consisting of:

a street address, a building name.

14. The device of claim 12 wherein the user display is also determine in response to the internal layout of at least the portion of the building.

15. The device of claim 11 wherein the processing unit is programmed to determine the augmented geographic also in response to the potential GPS signal reduction condition.

16. The device of claim 11 wherein the processing unit is programmed to increase a sampling frequency of the physical perturbation sensors in response to the potential GPS signal reduction condition.

17. The device of claim 11 wherein the processing unit is programmed to apply device power to the physical perturbation sensors in response to the potential GPS signal reduction condition.

18. The device of claim 11 wherein the processing unit is programmed to determine the weighting factor in response to the potential GPS signal reduction condition.

19. The device of claim 18 wherein the processing unit is programmed to less heavily weight the approximate geographic location from the augmented geographic location when the potential GPS signal reduction condition is determined.

20. The device of claim 18 wherein the processing unit is programmed to more heavily weight the approximate geographic location from the augmented geographic location when the potential GPS signal reduction condition is not determined.