Navigation using sensor fusion

• US 9,140,555 B1
• Filed: 03/14/2014
• Issued: 09/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Chen, Charles L., Zheng, Ying, Raman, Tiruvilwamalai Venkatram, Andersson, Eve Astrid, Burkhardt, Casey John, Lundblad, John Ove Peter Nilsson, Tseng, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Badii, Behrang
• Application Number:
  US14/212,978
• Time in Patent Office: 557 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6804 Garments; Clothes
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0408 transmitting the signals by non-mechanical means from the wheel or tyre to a vehicle body mounted receiver
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/005 specially adapted for viewing traffic-lights
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 11/04 Mounting of cameras operative during drive; Arrangement of controls thereof relative to the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/04 specially adapted for measuring length or width of objects while moving
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/14 for measuring distance or clearance between spaced objects or spaced apertures G01B11/26 takes precedence; rangefinders G01C3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/2755 using photoelectric detection means
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/1656 with passive imaging devices, e.g. cameras
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3667 Display of a road map G01C21/3614 takes precedence; guidance using 3D or perspective road maps G01C21/3635
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/00 Measuring distance traversed on the ground by vehicles, persons, animals or other moving solid bodies, e.g. using odometers, using pedometers
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/00 Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or space vehicles, e.g. using automatic pilots drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/20 Image signal generators
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/40 Circuit details for pick-up tubes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 Control of cameras or camera modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/04 Synchronising for television systems using pulse code modulation H04N7/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/067 Arrangements or circuits at the transmitter end
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/073 for mutually locking plural sources of synchronising signals, e.g. studios or relay stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/222 Studio circuitry; Studio devices; Studio equipment cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors, or control thereof H04N23/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/265 : Mixing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 : Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 : for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/023 : in a chair, pillow
• 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 4/38 : for collecting sensor information

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for resolving erroneous movement signals and for providing navigation instructions. One of the methods includes receiving data from two or more sensors, synchronizing the received data, determining a first subset of the synchronized data from the camera for a particular period of time and a second subset of the synchronized data from the other sensor for the particular period of time, comparing the first subset with the second subset to determine whether the first subset and the second subset indicate an erroneous movement signal, based on determining that the first subset and the second subset indicate an erroneous movement signal, selecting data for one of the sensors based on a sensor priority scheme for the sensors, and resolving the erroneous movement signal based on the selected data for the one of the sensors.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a user device, data from two or more sensors included in the user device, the two or more sensors comprising a camera and another sensor;

synchronizing the received data from the two or more sensors so that the data from the camera corresponds in time to the data from the other sensor;

determining a first subset of the synchronized data from the camera for a particular period of time and a second subset of the synchronized data from the other sensor for the particular period of time, the first subset of the synchronized data and the second subset of the synchronized data each being representative of movement of the user device and the first subset of the synchronized data being representative of objects in a physical area surrounding a particular physical location of the user device;

comparing the first subset of the synchronized data with the second subset of the synchronized data to determine whether the first subset and the second subset indicate an erroneous movement signal;

based on determining that the first subset and the second subset indicate an erroneous movement signal, selecting, from the first subset and the second subset of the synchronized data, data for one of the sensors, the selection based on a sensor priority scheme for the sensors; and

resolving the erroneous movement signal based on the selected data for the one of the sensors.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first subset of the synchronized data represents at least two image frames.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor priority scheme indicates that the other sensor has a higher priority than the camera.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected data for one of the sensors indicate that the user device is not moving.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected data for one of the sensors indicate that the user device is moving, the method comprising:

determining a plurality of feature points of the physical area using at least the first subset of the synchronized data; and

providing navigation instructions to a user using the plurality of feature points.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein providing the navigation instructions to the user using the plurality of feature points comprises providing at least one navigation instruction selected from the group consisting of an audible instruction, a haptic instruction, and a visual instruction.

7. The method of claim 5, comprising:

determining whether the plurality of feature points indicate that the particular physical location of the user device corresponds with a particular location on a map,

wherein providing the navigation instructions to the user using the plurality of feature points comprises providing the navigation instructions based on the particular location on the map.

8. The method of claim 5, comprising:

creating a map using the feature points.

9. The method of claim 8, comprising:

determining, using at least the first subset of the synchronized data, that at least one of the feature points represents a moving object, and not using the at least one of the feature points that represents the moving object when creating the map.

10. The method of claim 8, comprising:

sending the map to a server to allow other user devices to use the map to provide navigation instructions for the physical area represented in the map.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular physical location of the user device comprises a physical indoor location.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the two or more sensors comprise at least one sensor selected from the group consisting of an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a global positioning system receiver, and a wireless receiver.

13. An apparatus, comprising:

two or more sensors comprising a camera and another sensor;

a data processing apparatus; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium in data communication with the data processing apparatus and storing instructions executable by the data processing apparatus and upon such execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising;

receiving data from the two or more sensors;

synchronizing the received data from the two or more sensors so that the data from the camera corresponds in time to the data from the other sensor;

determining a first subset of the synchronized data from the camera for a particular period of time and a second subset of the synchronized data from the other sensor for the particular period of time, the first subset of the synchronized data and the second subset of the synchronized data each being representative of movement of the apparatus and the first subset of the synchronized data being representative of objects in a physical area surrounding a particular physical location of the apparatus;

comparing the first subset of the synchronized data with the second subset of the synchronized data to determine whether the first subset and the second subset indicate an erroneous movement signal;

based on determining that the first subset and the second subset indicate an erroneous movement signal, selecting, from the first subset and the second subset of the synchronized data, data for one of the sensors, the selection based on a sensor priority scheme for the sensors; and

resolving the erroneous movement signal based on the selected data for the one of the sensors.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the selected data for one of the sensors indicate that the apparatus is not moving.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the selected data for one of the sensors indicate that the apparatus is moving, the operations comprising:

determining a plurality of feature points of the physical area using at least the first subset of the synchronized data; and

providing navigation instructions to a user using the plurality of feature points.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein providing the navigation instructions to the user using the plurality of feature points comprises providing at least one navigation instruction selected from the group consisting of an audible instruction, a haptic instruction, and a visual instruction.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, comprising:

determining whether the plurality of feature points indicate that the particular physical location of the user device corresponds with a particular location on a map,

wherein providing the navigation instructions to the user using the plurality of feature points comprises providing the navigation instructions based on the particular location on the map.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the two or more sensors comprise at least one sensor selected from the group consisting of an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a global positioning system receiver, and a wireless receiver.

19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a data processing apparatus and upon such execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at a user device, data from two or more sensors included in the user device, the two or more sensors comprising a camera and another sensor;

synchronizing the received data from the two or more sensors so that the data from the camera corresponds in time to the data from the other sensor;

determining a first subset of the synchronized data from the camera for a particular period of time and a second subset of the synchronized data from the other sensor for the particular period of time, the first subset of the synchronized data and the second subset of the synchronized data each being representative of movement of the user device and the first subset of the synchronized data being representative of objects in a physical area surrounding a particular physical location of the user device;

comparing the first subset of the synchronized data with the second subset of the synchronized data to determine whether the first subset and the second subset indicate an erroneous movement signal;

based on determining that the first subset and the second subset indicate an erroneous movement signal, selecting, from the first subset and the second subset of the synchronized data, data for one of the sensors, the selection based on a sensor priority scheme for the sensors; and

resolving the erroneous movement signal based on the selected data for the one of the sensors.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the first subset of the synchronized data represents at least two image frames.

21. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the sensor priority scheme indicates that the other sensor has a higher priority than the camera.

22. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the selected data for one of the sensors indicate that the user device is not moving.

23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the selected data for one of the sensors indicate that the user device is moving, the operations comprising:

determining a plurality of feature points of the physical area using at least the first subset of the synchronized data; and

providing navigation instructions to a user using the plurality of feature points.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein providing the navigation instructions to the user using the plurality of feature points comprises providing at least one navigation instruction selected from the group consisting of an audible instruction, a haptic instruction, and a visual instruction.

25. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23, the operations comprising:

determining whether the plurality of feature points indicate that the particular physical location of the user device corresponds with a particular location on a map,

wherein providing the navigation instructions to the user using the plurality of feature points comprises providing the navigation instructions based on the particular location on the map.

26. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23, the operations comprising:

creating a map using the feature points.

27. The computer readable storage medium of claim 26, the operations comprising:

determining, using at least the first subset of the synchronized data, that at least one of the feature points represents a moving object, and not using the at least one of the feature points that represents the moving object when creating the map.

28. The computer readable storage medium of claim 26, the operations comprising:

sending the map to a server to allow other user devices to use the map to provide navigation instructions for the physical area represented in the map.