Methods and systems for accessing crowd sourced landscape images

• US 8,918,087 B1
• Filed: 06/08/2012
• Issued: 12/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Paczkowski, Lyle W., Rajagopal, Arun, Schlesener, Matthew Carl
• Primary Examiner(s): Prez-Gutirrez, Rafael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fang, Keith
• Application Number:
  US13/491,595
• Time in Patent Office: 928 Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/006 Mixed reality object pose determination, tracking or camera calibration for mixed reality G06T7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/359 Augmented reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/52 including functional features of a camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals

Abstract

A method. The method comprises maintaining a regional data store of landscape models for each of a plurality of base stations, wherein each regional data store is proximate to its corresponding base station and wherein each landscape model is derived from a plurality of images of a landscape located proximate to the base station. The method further comprises receiving a request for a landscape image from a mobile access terminal in the serving area of a first base station, wherein the first base station is one of the plurality of base stations and wherein the request for the landscape image identifies a landscape model maintained by the first base station. The method further comprises transmitting the landscape image to the mobile access terminal by the first base station, wherein the landscape image is created based on the landscape model identified in the request.

Claims

1. A method of accessing landscape images comprising:

maintaining a plurality of regional data stores of landscape models for each of a plurality of base stations, wherein each of the plurality of base stations is associated with one of the plurality of regional data stores, and wherein each regional data store is co-located with its corresponding base station and only maintains landscape models associated with landscapes located proximate to its corresponding base station;

analyzing, by a base station of the plurality of base stations, a plurality of landscape images to identify a sub-set of the plurality of landscape images that are associated with a same landscape located proximate to the base station, wherein the subset of the plurality of landscape images are associated with at least one of seasonal variations or time of day variations for the same landscape, and wherein the plurality of landscape images are provided to the base station by a plurality of mobile access terminals that took the plurality of landscape images of one or more landscapes located proximate to the base station while in a coverage area of the base station;

developing, by the base station, a landscape model for the same landscape based on the analyzing;

receiving, by the base station, a request for a landscape image of the plurality of landscape images from a mobile access terminal in a serving area of the base station, wherein the request for the landscape image identifies the landscape model maintained in the regional data store of the base station;

identifying, by the base station, the landscape image in the regional data store of the base station corresponding to the request; and

transmitting, by the base station, the landscape image to the mobile access terminal, wherein the landscape image is created based on the landscape model identified in the request.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising gathering multiple images of a landscape over time for each regional data store, wherein the multiple images of the landscape are associated with variations of perspective of the landscape.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating at least one landscape model of one of the regional data stores based on crowd-sourced images of at least one landscape associated with the at least one landscape model; and

eliminating redundant images of at least one landscape for at least one of the regional data stores.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising mapping a geography-based index of images of at least one landscape for at least one of the regional data stores to augmented reality operations to expedite building augmented reality content corresponding to an augmented reality request.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising mapping a perspective-based index of images of at least one landscape for at least one of the regional data stores to augmented reality operations to expedite building augmented reality content corresponding to an augmented reality request.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising mapping a time-based index of images of at least one landscape for at least one of the regional data stores to augmented reality operations to expedite building augmented reality content corresponding to an augmented reality request.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

extracting at least one of location information, compass information, or accelerometer information from the request for the landscape image; and

accessing an indexed landscape image and augmented reality content in the regional data store of the base station based on the extracted information to provide augmented reality content corresponding to the augmented reality request.

8. A system for accessing landscape images comprising:

a plurality of base stations; and

a plurality of regional data stores that each comprise a plurality of landscape models, wherein each of the plurality of base stations is associated with one of the plurality of regional data stores, and wherein each regional data store is co-located with its corresponding base station and only maintains landscape models associated with landscapes located proximate to its corresponding base station,

wherein a base station of the plurality of base stations, which is nearest to a mobile access terminal, is configured to;

analyze a plurality of landscape images to identify a sub-set of the plurality of landscape images that are associated with a same landscape located proximate to the base station, wherein the subset of the plurality of landscape images are associated with at least one of seasonal variations or time of day variations for the same landscape, and wherein the plurality of landscape images are provided to the base station by a plurality of mobile access terminals that took the plurality of landscape images of one or more landscapes located proximate to the base station while in a coverage area of the base station,

develop a landscape model for the same landscape based on the analysis,

receive an augmented reality request for the mobile access terminal,

identify the landscape model of the plurality of landscape models,

identify at least one of the sub-set of the plurality of landscape images associated with the landscape model in the regional data store of the base station corresponding to the augmented reality request, and

stream augmented reality content corresponding to the augmented reality request based on the identified at least one of the sub-set of the plurality of landscape images in the regional data store of the base station.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein at least one of the regional data stores comprises different versions of at least some of the plurality of landscape images, where the different versions are associated with different seasons throughout a year.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein at least one of the regional data stores comprises different versions of at least some of the plurality of landscape images, where the different versions are associated with different perspective variations.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein at least one of the regional data stores receives updates to its plurality of landscape images based on crowd-sourced data.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein at least one of the regional data stores comprises an indexing control scheme for its plurality of landscape images to expedite building the augmented reality content corresponding to the augmented reality request.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the augmented reality request comprises geographic location information, and wherein the geographic location information is used to access an indexed landscape image stored by the base station to build the augmented reality content corresponding to the augmented reality request.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the augmented reality request comprises accelerometer information, and wherein the accelerometer information is used to access an indexed landscape image stored by the base station to build the augmented reality content corresponding to the augmented reality request.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the augmented reality request comprises time information, and wherein the time information is used to access an indexed landscape image stored by the base station to build the augmented reality content corresponding to the augmented reality request.

16. A base station (BTS), comprising:

a processor;

a regional data store co-located with the base station that stores a plurality of landscape models, wherein the regional data store only maintains landscape models associated with landscapes located proximate to the base station; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium in communication with the processor and storing augmented reality servicing instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to;

analyze a plurality of landscape images to identify a sub-set of a plurality of landscape images that are associated with a same landscape located proximate to the base station, wherein the subset of the plurality of landscape images are associated with at least one of seasonal variations or time of day variations for the same landscape, and wherein the plurality of landscape images are provided to the base station by a plurality of mobile access terminals that took the plurality of landscape images of one or more landscapes located proximate to the base station while in a coverage area of the base station,

develop a landscape model for the same landscape based on the analysis,

receive an augmented reality request from a mobile access terminal,

identify the landscape model of the plurality of landscape models,

identify one of the sub-set of the plurality of landscape images associated with the landscape model in the regional data store corresponding to the augmented reality request, and

stream augmented reality content corresponding to the augmented reality request based on the identified one of the subset of the plurality of landscape images.

17. The base station of claim 16, wherein the augmented reality servicing instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to identify a season and perspective for the augmented reality request and to identify the one of the sub-set of the plurality of landscape images based on the identified season and perspective.

18. The base station of claim 16, wherein the augmented reality servicing instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to index crowd-sourced updates to the plurality of landscape images and to eliminate redundant images.

19. The base station of claim 16, wherein the augmented reality servicing instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to extract at least one of location information, compass information, and accelerometer information from the augmented reality request and to use the extracted information to access an indexed landscape image in the regional data store to prepare the augmented reality content corresponding to the augmented reality request.