TECHNIQUES FOR COMMUNICATION WITH BODY-CARRIED DEVICES

• US 20150280818A1
• Filed: 03/29/2014
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Bradley A. Jackson, Mathys C. Walma, Richard D. Roberts
• Inventors: WALMA, MATHYS C., ROBERTS, RICHARD D., JACKSON, BRADLEY A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,009,099 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/1149 Arrangements for indoor wireless networking of information
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/116 Visible light communication

Abstract

Various embodiments are directed to techniques for employing a camera to receive multiple light transmissions conveying at least identifying data from multiple body-carried devices to enable locations of those devices within a venue to be determined and transmissions to individual ones of those devices to be made. An apparatus to communicate via light transmissions includes an analysis component to analyze a set of consecutively captured frames of a portion of a venue to determine whether a light source present in at least a predetermined number of the consecutively captured frames is a light transmission from a body-carried device located within the portion of the venue, and to demodulate the light transmission to retrieve an identification (ID) data associated with the body-carried device from the light transmission; and a communications component to employ the ID data to wirelessly transmit a command to the body-carried device. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus to communicate via light transmissions comprising:

a processor component;

an analysis component for execution by the processor component to analyze a set of consecutively captured frames of a portion of a venue to determine whether a light source present in at least a predetermined number of the consecutively captured frames is a light transmission from a body-carried device located within the portion of the venue, and to demodulate the light transmission to retrieve an identification (ID) data associated with the body-carried device from the light transmission; and

a communications component for execution by the processor component to employ the ID data to wirelessly transmit a command to the body-carried device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a capture component to operate a camera to consecutively capture a set of frames of the portion of the venue as the set of consecutively captured frames.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising:

an antenna; and

an interface coupling the antenna to the processor component to wirelessly transmit the command to the body-carried device in a radio frequency (RF) transmission.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a view correlation component for execution by the processor component to correlate a location of the light source in a field of view of the set of captured frames to a location within the portion of the venue to determine a location of the body-carried device within the portion of the venue.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, comprising a selection component for execution by the processor component to select the command to wirelessly transmit to the body-carried device based on the location of the body-carried device within the portion of the venue.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a device correlation component for execution by the processor component to correlate the ID data to an identity of a person to associate the person with the body-carried device.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, comprising a selection component for execution by the processor component to select the body-carried device to wirelessly transmit the command to based on the association of the body-carried device with the person.

8. An apparatus to communicate via light transmissions comprising:

an antenna;

a processor component;

an interface coupling the antenna to the processor component;

an analysis component for execution by the processor component to analyze a set of consecutively captured frames of a portion of a venue to determine whether a plurality of light sources present in at least a predetermined number of the consecutively captured frames are a plurality of light transmissions from a plurality of body-carried devices located within the venue, and to demodulate the plurality of light transmissions to retrieve identification (ID) data associated with each body-carried device of the plurality of body-carried device from the light transmissions, the ID data associated with each body-carried device comprising an identifier unique to each body-carried device; and

a communications component for execution by the processor component to operate the interface to employ the ID data of each body-carried device to serially transmit a command to each of the body-carried devices.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, comprising:

a camera positioned to place the portion of the venue in a field of view of the camera; and

a capture component to operate the camera to consecutively capture a set of frames of the portion of the venue as the set of consecutively captured frames to receive the plurality of light transmissions in parallel.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, comprising a view correlation component for execution by the processor component to correlate locations of the plurality of light sources in a field of view of the set of captured frames to locations within the portion of the venue to determine locations of each body-carried device of the plurality of body-carried devices within the portion of the venue.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, comprising a selection component for execution by the processor component to select a command to wirelessly transmit to each body-carried device of the plurality of body carried devices in multiple serial transmissions based on the location of each body-carried device within the portion of the venue.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, the command transmitted to each body-carried device of the plurality of body-carried devices comprising one of a command to illuminate a light emitting component of a body-carried device of the plurality of body-carried devices with a first color, to illuminate a light emitting component of a body-carried device of the plurality of body-carried devices with a second color, or to not illuminate a light emitting component of a body-carried device of the plurality of body-carried devices.

13. A computer-implemented method for communicating via light transmissions comprising:

analyzing a set of consecutively captured frames of a portion of a venue to determine whether a light source present in at least a predetermined number of the consecutively captured frames is a light transmission from a body-carried device located within the portion of the venue;

demodulating the light transmission to retrieve an identification (ID) data associated with the body-carried device from the light transmission; and

employing the ID data to wirelessly transmit a command to the body-carried device.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, comprising operating a camera to consecutively capture a set of frames of the portion of the venue as the set of consecutively captured frames, the camera positioned to place the portion of the venue in a field of view of the camera.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, comprising correlating a location of the light source in a field of view of the set of captured frames to a location within the portion of the venue to determine a location of the body-carried device within the portion of the venue.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, comprising retrieving data from the light transmission indicating a measure taken by a sensor of the body-carried device of a characteristic of at least one of the portion of the venue or a body of a person carrying the body-carried device.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, the characteristic comprising at least one of temperature, humidity, noise level, acceleration, heart rate, perspiration level or a level of a hazardous gas.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, comprising:

storing an indication of the location of the body-carried device within the portion of the venue as part of a detection record; and

discarding a duplicate indication of the location of the body-carried device within the portion of the venue from the detection record, the duplicate indication derived from a location of the body-carried device in another field of view that overlaps the field of view.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, comprising correlating the ID data to an identity of a person to associate the person with the body-carried device.

20. At least one machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to:

analyze a set of consecutively captured frames of a portion of a venue to determine whether a light source present in at least a predetermined number of the consecutively captured frames is a light transmission from a body-carried device located within the portion of the venue;

demodulate the light transmission to retrieve an identification (ID) data associated with the body-carried device from the light transmission; and

employ the ID data to wirelessly transmit a command to the body-carried device.

21. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 20, the computing device caused to correlate a location of the light source in a field of view of the set of captured frames to a location within the portion of the venue to determine a location of the body-carried device within the portion of the venue.

22. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 20, the computing device caused to correlate the ID data to an identity of a person to associate the person with the body-carried device.

23. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 22, the computing device caused to select the body-carried device to wirelessly transmit the command to based on the association of the body-carried device with the person.

24. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 23, the command comprising a command to operate a component of the body-carried device to present a message directed to the person.

25. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 22, the computing device caused to:

store an indication of the association of the body-carried device with the person as part of a detection record;

correlate a location of the light source in a field of view of the set of captured frames to a location within the portion of the venue to determine the location of the body-carried device within the portion of the venue; and

store an indication of the location of the body-carried device within the portion of the venue as part of the detection record.