AUDIO NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED

• US 20160259027A1
• Filed: 03/07/2016
• Published: 09/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sensible Innovations, LLC
• Original Assignee: Sensible Innovations, LLC
• Inventors: Said, Rasha
• Granted Patent: US 9,726,746 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/08 Systems for determining direction or position line
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/42 Determining position
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0027 of actual mobile position, i.e. position determined on mobile
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02529 not involving signal parameters, i.e. only involving identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/12 by co-ordinating position lines of different shape, e.g. hyperbolic, circular, elliptical or radial
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A navigation system featuring audio prompts including: a database including a plurality of beacon identifiers corresponding to physical beacons that are members of quadrants including one or more beacons, the database including navigation instructions between beacons in a quadrant and between beacons and adjacent quadrants; a controller adapted to: provide a first beacon and a destination beacon, determine a route from the first beacon to the destination beacon in a destination quadrant, announce, via the speaker, navigation instructions from the first beacon to a first quadrant of the route, for each quadrant along the route: receive, a newly encountered beacon identifier; and announce navigation instructions for the user to navigate from the newly encountered beacon to the next quadrant in the ordered list, and upon receiving a beacon identifier of a detected beacon in the destination quadrant, announce navigation instructions to navigate from the detected beacon to the destination beacon.

Claims

1. A navigation system featuring audio prompts comprising:

a database including a plurality of beacon identifiers, wherein each beacon identifier corresponds to a physical beacon, wherein each beacon identifier is associated with a venue and a location, wherein the venue is defined as a collection of related locations and the location is defined as a specific position within a venue,

wherein each beacon is a member of a quadrant, wherein the database defines adjacent quadrants for every quadrant, wherein each quadrant includes one or more beacons, wherein the database includes navigation instructions from each beacon in a quadrant to every other beacon in that quadrant, wherein the database includes navigation instructions from each beacon in a quadrant to every adjacent quadrant;

a user interface;

a speaker;

a Bluetooth communications module that detects and communicates with nearby beacons;

a controller in communication with the user interface, the speaker, and the Bluetooth communications module;

a memory in communication with the controller, the memory including instructions that, when executed by the controller, cause the controller to;

provide a first beacon and a destination beacon,

determine a route from the first beacon to the destination beacon in a destination quadrant, wherein the route is determined by finding a path from the first beacon to the destination beacon, wherein the route is an ordered list of navigation points to be encountered as the user moves from the first beacon to the destination beacon, wherein navigation points include beacons and quadrants,

announce, via the speaker, navigation instructions for the user to navigate from the first beacon to a first quadrant of the route,

for each quadrant along the route;

in response to user movement along the route, receive, from the Bluetooth module, a newly encountered beacon identifier; and

announce, via the speaker, navigation instructions for the user to navigate from the newly encountered beacon to the next quadrant in the ordered list, and

upon receiving a beacon identifier of a detected beacon in the destination quadrant, announce, via the speaker, navigation instructions for the user to navigate from the detected beacon to the destination beacon.

2. The navigation system of claim 1, wherein the step to provide the first beacon and the destination beacon is accomplished by sub-steps to:

receive, via the Bluetooth module, a first beacon identifier to determine the first beacon,

lookup, in the database, a current venue associated with the first beacon identifier,

lookup, in the database, a list of locations in the current venue,

display the list of locations in the current venue as a selectable list on the user interface, and

receive a selection of one of the displayed locations from a user through the user interface, the beacon corresponding to the selected location being the destination beacon.

3. The navigation system of claim 2, wherein the list of locations includes an exit in the first position in the list, and a restroom in the second position in the list.

4. The navigation system of claim 1, wherein, when the newly encountered beacon identifier matches a beacon identifier of the quadrant, announce, via the speaker, arrival at the newly encountered beacon.

5. A navigation system featuring audio prompts comprising:

a database including a plurality of beacon identifiers, wherein each beacon identifier corresponds to a physical beacon, wherein each beacon identifier is associated with a venue and a location, wherein the venue is defined as a collection of related locations and the location is defined as a specific position within a venue, wherein the database links a pair of beacon identifiers when a person is able to walk between the locations of the corresponding pair of beacons without passing the location of any other beacon;

a user interface;

a speaker;

a Bluetooth communications module that detects and communicates with nearby beacons;

a controller in communication with the user interface, the speaker, and the Bluetooth communications module;

a memory in communication with the controller, the memory including instructions that, when executed by the controller, cause the controller to;

receive, via the Bluetooth module, a first beacon identifier from a first beacon,

lookup, in the database, a current venue associated with the first beacon identifier,

lookup, in the database, a list of locations in the current venue,

display the list of locations in the current venue as a selectable list on the user interface,

receive a selection of one of the displayed locations from a user through the user interface, the beacon corresponding to the selected location being a destination beacon,

determine a route from the first beacon to the destination beacon, wherein the route is determined by finding a path from the first beacon to the destination beacon, wherein the route is an ordered list of beacons to be encountered as the user moves from the first beacon to the destination beacon,

for each beacon along the route;

announce, via the speaker, navigation instructions for the user to navigate to a next beacon in the ordered list;

in response to user movement along the route, receive, from the Bluetooth module, a newly encountered beacon identifier;

when the newly encountered beacon identifier matches a beacon identifier of the next beacon in the ordered list, announce, via the speaker, arrival at the next beacon; and

update the next beacon to the following beacon in the ordered list, and

upon receiving a beacon identifier of the selected location, announce, via the speaker, arrival at the selected location.