Variable density depthmap

• US 9,322,656 B2
• Filed: 03/24/2014
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Barnes, Craig R., Mays, Joseph P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Dalena
• Application Number:
  US14/223,148
• Publication Number:
  US 20140207368A1
• Time in Patent Office: 764 Days
• Field of Search: 701/400, 701408-410, 382254-256, 382/276, 382/285, 382/286, 345/419, 348/143, 348/148, 348/161, 348/169
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/367 Details, e.g. road map scale, orientation, zooming, illumination, level of detail, scrolling of road map or positioning of current position marker
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3811 Point data, e.g. Point of Interest [POI]
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3881 Tile-based structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20016 Hierarchical, coarse-to-fine, multiscale or multiresolution image processing; Pyramid transform
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/50 Depth or shape recovery

Abstract

One or more systems, devices, and/or methods for organizing spatial data are disclosed. For example, a method includes receiving a location data point from a navigation device. A controller compares the distance from each of a plurality of data points to the location data point. In constructing a depthmap that associates each of the data points with the distance from the location data point, the controller assign data points within a minimum distance from the location data point into a first cell and data points greater than the minimum distance from the location data point into a second cell. The second cell is larger than the first cell and corresponds to a larger geographic area than the first cell. The depthmap may be configured to position points of interest in a panoramic or street level view image.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, from position circuitry, location data based on a geographic position;

accessing, from a database, data representing a plurality of points of interest based on the location data;

assigning a first subset of the plurality of points of interest to a first region in an augmented reality application of a navigation device, wherein the points of interest in the first subset is located within a threshold distance to the geographic position; and

assigning a second subset of the plurality of points of interest to a second region in the augmented reality application of the navigation device, wherein the points of interest in the second subset is located more than the threshold distance from the geographic position.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a geographic area for the first region is smaller than a geographic area for the second region.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a graphical representation of the first region adjacent to the second region in the augmented reality application.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the graphical representation includes the data representing a plurality of points of interest overlaid on a street side image.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first region is overlaid on an upper portion of the street side image and the second region is overlaid on a lower portion of the street side image.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first subset of the plurality of points of interest corresponds to a high density cell in a depthmap and the second subset of the plurality of points of interest corresponds to a low density cell in the depthmap.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold distance defines a cell size in a depthmap.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

defining the first subset and the second subset based on quantities of points of interest located in corresponding geographic regions.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adjusting the threshold distance over time.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adjusting a location component of at least one point of interest in the second subset of the plurality of points of interest.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adjusting the locations of the second subset of the plurality of points of interest to a single location.

12. A method comprising:

receiving, from position circuitry, location data based on a geographic position;

accessing, from a database, data representing a plurality of points of interest based on the location data;

assigning a first subset of the plurality of points of interest to a first region in an augmented reality application, wherein the points of interest in the first subset is located within a threshold distance to the geographic position; and

assigning a second subset of the plurality of points of interest to a second region in the augmented reality application, wherein the points of interest in the second subset is located more than the threshold distance from the geographic position,

wherein the cell size is defined according to

13. An apparatus comprising

at least one processor;

and

at least one memory including computer program code;

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform;

identifying a current location using position circuitry; and

selecting data representing a plurality of points of interest based on the current location, wherein the plurality of points of interest are binned into geographic cells of different geographic sizes,

wherein a first cell for the plurality of points of interest correspond to a first region in an augmented reality application of a navigation device, and a second cell for the plurality of points of interest correspond to a second region in the augmented reality application of the navigation device.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

a display configured to provide a graphical representation of the first region and the second region overlaid on a street side image in the augmented reality application.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first cell for the plurality of points of interest corresponds to a high density and the second cell for the plurality of points of interest corresponds to a low density.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the different geographic sizes are defined according quantities of points of interest located in corresponding geographic regions.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the geographic coordinates of a subset of the plurality of points are modified to a single location.

18. An apparatus comprising,

at least one processor;

and

at least one memory including computer program code;

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform;

identifying a current location; and

selecting data representing a plurality of points of interest based on the current location, wherein the plurality of points of interest are binned into geographic cells of different geographic sizes,

wherein a first cell for the plurality of points of interest correspond to a first region in an augmented reality application, and a second cell for the plurality of points of interest correspond to a second region in the augmented reality application,

wherein the different geographic sizes are defined according to

19. An apparatus comprising:

position circuitry to determine a current geographic position;

a memory configured to store data representing a plurality of points of interest; and

a controller configured to receive the current geographic position and assign a first subset of the plurality of points of interest to a first region in a street side image of an augmented reality application and a second subset of the plurality of points of interest to a second region in the street side image of augmented reality application,

wherein the points of interest in the first subset is located within a threshold distance to a geographic position and the points of interest in the second subset is located more than the threshold distance from the geographic position,

wherein the first region and the second region correspond to geographic areas of different sizes.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:

position circuitry configured to determine the geographic position as a current geographic position of the apparatus.