IMAGE ASSISTANCE FOR INDOOR POSITIONING

• US 20140152809A1
• Filed: 11/30/2012
• Published: 06/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm technologies international, ltd. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cambridge Silicon Radio Limited (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jarvis, Murray Robert
• Granted Patent: US 9,369,677 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/135
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0252 Radio frequency fingerprinting
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0264 at least one of the systems being a non-radio wave positioning system
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/16 using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

A method for tracking collector devices in an indoor area associated with imaging devices and RF signal sources covering the area includes generating aspects of a plurality of coarse position tracks of the collector devices based on RF signal measurements obtained by the collector devices from the RF signal sources. Imaging devices capture image frames of the collector devices in the indoor area which are then processed in order to determine aspects of a plurality of fine position tracks of the collector devices. The server and the collector device communicate with each other and match aspects of at least one of the fine position tracks to the aspects of the coarse position track of the communicating collector device in order to determine the precise location of the collector device in the indoor area.

Claims

1. A method for determining a fine position of a collector device associated with a server and a plurality of imaging devices coupled to the server, the method comprising the collector device:

collecting multiple sets of sensor measurements from at least one sensor associated with the collector device;

determining at least aspects of a coarse position track based on the multiple sets of sensor measurements;

receiving from the server at least respective one of the aspects of a plurality of fine position tracks imaged by the imaging devices; and

determining the fine position of the collector device by matching at least the aspects of the coarse position track to the aspects of at least one of the fine position tracks.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor associated with the collector device includes a pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) sensor and the step of determining at least the aspects of the coarse position track further includes using PDR sensor data to quantify a path, including the aspects of the coarse position track.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of determining at least the aspects of the coarse position track based on pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) further includes a step of calibrating the PDR using at least the aspects of the fine position tracks.

4. The method of claim 1, further including a plurality of RF signal sources, wherein the collecting step collects sensor measurement data representing respective signal strengths of at least a portion of the plurality of RF signal sources.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving at least the aspects of the fine position tracks further includes a step of receiving the of the fine position tracks labeled with respective time-stamps.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving further includes a step of time calibration of the collector device with the server and the imaging devices.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving includes receiving at least the aspects of the fine position tracks over a secure link from the server.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving at least the aspects of fine position tracks further includes a step of receiving the aspects of the fine position tracks lying within a region of uncertainty of the coarse position track to the exclusion of the aspects of any fine position tracks lying outside of the region of uncertainty of the coarse position track.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the aspects include at least one of a left turn, right turn, u-turn, acceleration and a deceleration.

10. A method for determining a fine position of a collector device associated with a server and a plurality of imaging devices coupled to the server, the method comprising the server:

receiving a plurality of fine position tracks from a plurality of imaging devices and aggregating corresponding ones of the fine position tracks;

receiving requests from the collector devices for aspects of the fine position tracks and sending the aspects of the aggregated corresponding fine position tracks to the requesting collector devices.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of receiving further includes a step of receiving aspects of a plurality of coarse position tracks of the plurality of collector devices respectively.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of aggregating the fine position tracks further includes a step of aggregating overlapping fine position tracks, captured by at least two different imaging devices, into a single fine position track.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of aggregating the overlapping fine position tracks further includes a step of averaging the overlapping fine position tracks.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the overlapping fine position tracks, captured by at least two different imaging devices, are in respective coordinate systems and the method further includes a step of transforming the respective fine position tracks into a common coordinate system.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of transforming the fine position tracks further includes a step sending reference images in the common coordinate system to the imaging devices.

16. A method for determining a fine position of a collector device associated with a server and a plurality of imaging devices coupled to the server, the method comprising the imaging devices:

capturing a plurality of image frames of a plurality of moving objects;

wherein each of the image frames comprises a plurality of pixels;

determining motion information of at least one of the moving objects by analyzing the pixel differences among consecutive image frames including the moving object;

generating a plurality of fine position tracks based on the motion information of the moving objects; and

sending at least aspects of the fine position tracks to the server.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of capturing a plurality of image frames is performed by a plurality of networked cameras.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of capturing a plurality of image frames further includes a step of mapping the plurality of pixels to a plurality of coordinate positions.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of determining motion information further includes a step of determining motion of contiguous pixels representing the object.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of mapping pixels further includes a step of mapping pixels to biometric information of the moving object.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of determining motion of contiguous pixels representing the object further includes a step of determining a trajectory of the object.