MOBILE DEVICE INDOOR NAVIGATION

• US 20150380003A1
• Filed: 06/23/2015
• Published: 12/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Davis, Bruce L., Rodriguez, Tony F., Thagadur Shivappa, Shankar
• Granted Patent: US 9,412,387 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/22 Position of source determined by co-ordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements G01S5/28 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 29/007 for public address systems public address systems per se H04R27/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings

Abstract

An audio playback system receives digitally watermarked audio programming and distributes it to audio speakers in a venue, enabling a variety of location and product dependent services to be delivered to mobile devices in the venue. Mobile devices sense audio from speakers and decode digital identifying information, including characteristics to distinguish audio sources. The mobile device communicates with a networked computer to provide the identifying information, which in turn, triggers an alert for output on the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method for audio signaling for indoor positioning in a venue comprising:

receiving at a processor in a venue, an audio signal program in which at least a first watermark layer is embedded, the first watermark layer conveying an identifier;

for each of plural speakers in the venue, altering the audio signal program to include distinguishing characteristics corresponding to a speaker from which the audio signal is to be played;

transmitting the altered audio signal programs to corresponding speakers in the venue for playback;

receiving from a mobile device, a distinguishing characteristic corresponding to a first speaker and an auxiliary signal decoded from an electronic audio signal sensed by a microphone on the mobile device, the auxiliary signal comprising the identifier;

based on the distinguishing characteristic and the identifier, selecting an alert associated with the first speaker; and

triggering the alert for output on the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the distinguishing characteristic comprises a set of frequency tones.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the distinguishing characteristic comprises an echo pattern.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the distinguishing characteristic comprises a second watermark layer added to the audio program over the first watermark layer, wherein the first and second watermark layers comprise direct sequence spread spectrum modulated signals.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of speakers comprise loudspeakers of a sound masking system.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of speakers comprise loudspeakers of a public address system.

7. The method of claim 1 including:

tracking position derived from audio signals captured through the microphone of the mobile device; and

based on tracking the position, providing feedback on indoor navigation in the venue.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the feedback comprises a depiction of the path traveled relative to a path in the venue computed based on preferences derived from user input.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the feedback corresponds to location based alerts computed by:

deriving preferences about products in the venue from input;

determining locations of the products in the venue;

and scheduling location based alerts to be triggered when the mobile device is detected to be in proximity of the locations of the products in the venue.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the deriving comprises identifying the products in a shopping list entered as the input.

11. The method of claim 1 including tracking orientation of the mobile device based on sampling orientation data from an orientation sensor on the mobile device.

12. The method of claim 11 including providing a product alert on the mobile device based on position derived from audio capture and orientation from sampling orientation data.

13. The method of claim 1 including monitoring user traffic in the venue and deriving a product alert from the monitoring of the user traffic in the venue.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the user traffic is monitored through position detection of mobile devices in the venue from audio signals captured on the mobile devices.

15. A system comprising:

speakers;

an audio playback system coupled to the speakers and comprising a signal processor configured to receive an audio signal program in which at least a first watermark layer is embedded, the first watermark layer conveying an identifier;

the signal processor configured to alter the audio signal program to include distinguishing characteristics corresponding to a speaker from which the audio signal is to be played; and

a networked computer configured to receive from a mobile device, a distinguishing characteristic corresponding to a first speaker and an auxiliary signal decoded from an electronic audio signal sensed by a microphone on the mobile device, the auxiliary signal comprising the identifier, the networked computer programmed to select an alert associated with the first speaker based on the distinguishing characteristic and the identifier, and programmed to trigger the alert for output on the mobile device.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the distinguishing characteristic comprises a set of frequency tones.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the distinguishing characteristic comprises an echo pattern.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the distinguishing characteristic comprises a second watermark layer added to the audio program over the first watermark layer, wherein the first and second watermark layers comprise direct sequence spread spectrum modulated signals.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein the speakers comprise loudspeakers of a sound masking system.

20. The system of claim 15 wherein the speakers comprise loudspeakers of a public address system.