Mobile device indoor navigation

• US 8,660,581 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2011
• Issued: 02/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Davis, Bruce L., Rodriguez, Tony F., Shivappa, Shankar Thagadur
• Primary Examiner(s): Siddiqui, Kashif
• Application Number:
  US13/195,715
• Publication Number:
  US 20120214515A1
• Time in Patent Office: 939 Days
• Field of Search: 4554041-4042, 4554141-4144, 4554561-457, 342450-465, 705 261- 29, 705 141- 1473, 705/319
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• 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

A method for indoor navigation in a venue derives positioning of a mobile device based on sounds captured by the microphone of the mobile device from the ambient environment. It is particularly suited to operate on smartphones, where the sounds are captured using microphone that captures sounds in a frequency range of human hearing. The method determines a position of the mobile device in the venue based on identification of the audio signal, monitors the position of the mobile device, and generates a position based alert on an output device of the mobile device when the position of the mobile device is within a pre-determined position associated with the position based alert.

Claims

1. A method for indoor navigation in a venue comprising:

receiving through a microphone of a mobile device an audio signal, the microphone capturing sound in the venue in a frequency range including a frequency range of human hearing;

determining a position of the mobile device in the venue based on identification of the audio signal by processing the audio signal to detect distinguishing audio characteristics of similar sounding audio from plural different audio sources, identifying plural different audio sources from the distinguishing audio characteristics, obtaining positions of the different audio sources, and calculating the position of the mobile device based on the positions of the audio sources;

monitoring the position of the mobile device;

outputting a position based alert on an output device of the mobile device when the position of the mobile device is within a pre-determined position associated with the position based alert.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining comprises extracting identifying information from the audio signal.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the audio signal comprises a combination of audio signals captured through the microphone from output of plural different loudspeakers in a configuration of loudspeakers for outputting audio content to humans within an indoor facility.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the configuration of loudspeakers comprises loudspeakers of a sound masking system.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the configuration of loudspeakers comprises loudspeakers of a public address system.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the monitoring comprises 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.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the feedback comprises a depiction of a continuous path traveled by the mobile device on a map of an area around the mobile device.

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 6 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 9 wherein the deriving comprises identifying the products in electronic promotions sent to the user via electronic messaging.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the deriving comprises identifying the products from electronic messages posted to a social network site associated with the user of the mobile device.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein deriving comprises identifying products from input captured from an image capture of a product coupon or promotion on a mobile device.

14. The method of claim 6 wherein the feedback comprises automated audio messages from the mobile device providing navigation directions while the mobile device is docked in a cradle on a shopping cart.

15. 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.

16. The method of claim 15 including providing a product alert on the mobile device based on position derived from audio capture and orientation from sampling orientation data.

17. 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.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the user traffic is monitored through position detection of mobile devices in the venue from audio signals captured on the mobile devices.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the user traffic is monitored through a fiber optic cable sensor network in the venue.

20. The method of claim 1 including:

making a location based posting to a social network by receiving input from a user on the mobile device relating to a product at a first position, detecting the mobile device location at the first position, and sending a post including the user input and first position to the social network.

21. The method of claim 20 including;

determining when a mobile device is in proximity to the first location, determining whether the location based posting satisfies a preference of the user of the mobile device, and in response to determining that the location based posting satisfies the preference of the user of the mobile device, issuing an alert on the mobile device about the posting at the social network.

22. A system for indoor navigation in a venue comprising:

a configuration of audio sources, each transmitting a uniquely identifiable audio signal corresponding to a location;

one or more computers for receiving audio detection events from mobile devices in the venue, the detection events providing identifying information that distinguishes similar sounds in audio captured through a microphone of a mobile device from different audio sources in the venue and calculating mobile device location from the detection events, monitoring position of the mobile devices at the venue, and sending an alert to the mobile devices when the position of the mobile devices is at a position associated with the alert;

wherein calculating the mobile device location further comprises identifying plural different audio sources from the audio detection events, obtaining positions of the different audio sources, and calculating the position of the mobile device based on the positions of the audio sources.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the audio sources comprise loudspeakers of a public audio playback system in the venue.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the public audio playback system comprises a public address system.

25. The system of claim 23 wherein the public audio playback system comprises a sound masking system.

26. The system of claim 22 wherein the mobile devices comprise wireless telephones and the audio detection events are detection events of identifying information in sounds output from speakers in the venue and captured through microphones on the wireless telephones.

27. The system of claim 22 wherein the mobile devices are docked in shopping cart cradles within the venue.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein the mobile devices comprise wireless telephones and the shopping cart cradles include a battery charging station for wireless telephones.

29. The system of claim 22 further including a traffic monitoring system, wherein the traffic monitoring system provides information about traffic in the venue from which position based alerts are generated and sent to the mobile devices in the venue.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein the traffic monitoring system comprises a fiber optic sensor network.

31. A non-transitory computer readable medium, on which is stored instructions, which when executed by a computer, perform a method for indoor navigation comprising:

detecting audio source identifying information from an audio signal captured on a microphone;

providing the source identifying information to a process for computing position of a mobile device in a venue, the source identifying information identifying plural different audio sources from the audio signal captured on the microphone; and

generating a position based alert on an output device of the mobile device when the position of the mobile device is within a pre-determined position associated with the position based alert in the venue;

wherein computing position of the mobile device further comprises detecting distinguishing audio characteristics of similar sounding audio from the plural different audio sources, obtaining positions of the plural different audio sources, and calculating the position of the mobile device based on the positions of the plural different audio sources.

32. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 31, where the medium comprises a memory of the mobile device.

33. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 32 wherein the mobile device comprises a wireless phone, and the microphone is a microphone of the wireless phone.

34. A non-transitory computer readable medium, on which is stored instructions, which when executed by a computer, perform a method for indoor navigation comprising:

receiving audio source identifying information detected in audio captured from a microphone of a mobile device, the source identifying information identifying plural different audio sources from the audio signal captured on the microphone;

obtaining positions of the different audio sources;

computing position of a mobile device in a venue based on the positions of the audio sources; and

generating a position based alert for output on the mobile device when the position of the mobile device is within a pre-determined position associated with the position based alert in the venue.

35. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 34 wherein the computer readable medium comprises memory of a server computer in communication with the mobile device.