Drone interacting with a stranger having a cellphone

• US 20190047695A1
• Filed: 08/10/2017
• Published: 02/14/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wesley Boudville
• Original Assignee: Wesley Boudville
• Inventors: Boudville, Wesley John
• Granted Patent: US 10,625,854 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/24 using electronic identifiers containing a code not memorised by the user
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/00 UAVs specially adapted for particular uses or applications
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/30 for imaging, photography or videography
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/20 Remote controls
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0016 characterised by the operator's input device input arrangements for computing systems in general G06F3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0038 by providing the operator with simple or augmented images from one or more cameras located onboard the vehicle, e.g. tele-operation images analyzed by a computer and used for automatic navigation G05D1/0246
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 Rental transactions; Leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/006 Mixed reality object pose determination, tracking or camera calibration for mixed reality G06T7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

A pedestrian with a cellphone is in a public area. He sees a drone airborne nearby. He rents the drone to control its actions. His phone shows a signal encoding his electronic address, like a phone number. The drone decodes and sends a message with an URL, deep link or linket. The latter is a brand of the drone owner that maps to a deep link. The deep link designates an app in an app store. He installs the app and interacts with the owner, taking control of the drone for a specified time. The app shows images from the drone camera. The drone can crowdsource public safety. And check the presence of players at locations in Augmented Reality games. It can distribute electronic prizes to players. It can distribute keys for cryptosystems. The drone can pick up data from users at different places. Drone-drone interactions can optimise drone routes. Drones can be used with a blimp and electronic billboards to increase crowd use of an app.

Claims

1. A method of a drone controlled by a ground-based controller device;

the drone has a camera, geolocation and knows an orientation of the camera;

the drone is airborne and near a person on the ground;

the person being different from a human operating the controller;

the drone receives a wireless signal from a mobile device of the person;

the signal is decoded to an electronic address of the person or mobile device;

the controller sends a message to the address;

the controller performs a wireless interaction with the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, where the drone uses the camera to scan a screen of the mobile device;

the signal is decoded from a scanned image.

3. The method of claim 2, where the scanned image is a barcode.

4. The method of claim 3, where the barcode is a QR code.

5. The method of claim 3, where the barcode is a Data Matrix code.

6. The method of claim 2, where the scanned image depicts Unicode characters;

where Optical Character Recognition is used to decode the image.

7. The method of claim 1, where the drone decodes an audio signal from the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 1, where the drone decodes a combination of an audio signal and a visual signal from the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 1, where the drone uses image recognition to detect a posture of the person;

the drone maneuvering close to the person, to image a screen of the mobile device.

10. The method of claim 9, where the posture includes an upraised hand of the person;

the hand holding the mobile device.

11. The method of claim 1, where the signal is a phone number;

the controller ringing the number;

the controller having an automated assistant program interacting with the mobile device.

12. The method of claim 1, where the signal is a phone number;

the controller sending a text message to the number.

13. The method of claim 1, where the signal is a deep link;

the deep link having an id of an app in an app store;

the controller using the app to interact with the mobile device.

14. The method of claim 13, the deep link having an identifier of an Internet address of the mobile device;

the controller using the app to send messages to the address.

15. The method of claim 1, where the signal is a linket;

the linket is a bit string;

the controller presenting the linket to a Registry server;

the controller receiving a deep link from the Registry;

the deep link having an id of an app in an app store;

the controller using the app to interact with the mobile device.

16. The method of claim 1, where the drone sends images or video to the mobile device.

17. The method of claim 16, where the controller cedes partial control of the drone to the mobile device for a given amount of time.

18. The method of claim 16, where the drone has audio input from a microphone embedded in the drone;

the drone sending audio data to the mobile device.

19. The method of claim 1, where the message sent by the controller includes an URL of a webpage served by the controller;

the webpage lets the mobile device rent the drone.

20. The method of claim 1, where the message sent by the controller includes a deep link;

the deep link has an id of an app in an app store;

the controller interacts with an instance of the app on the mobile device.