Map obtaining method

• US 9,466,139 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2015
• Issued: 10/11/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Inventec Corporation, Inventec Pudong Technology Corp (Inventec Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Inventec Corporation, Inventec Pudong Technology Corp (Inventec Corporation)
• Inventors: Chen, Li-Te
• Primary Examiner(s): Brier, Jeffery A
• Application Number:
  US14/687,147
• Publication Number:
  US 20160155250A1
• Time in Patent Office: 545 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3811 Point data, e.g. Point of Interest [POI]
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3815 Road data
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3837 Data obtained from a single source
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/10 Terrestrial scenes scenes under surveillance with static cameras G06V20/52; scenes perceived from the exterior of a vehicle G06V20/56; scenes perceived from the interior of a vehicle G06V20/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/02 Recognising information on displays, dials, clocks

Abstract

A method for obtaining a map comprises: capturing a map image from a physical map, obtaining a plurality of geographical coordinates corresponding to a plurality of reference points from one of the physical map and the map image, calculating a corresponding geographical coordinate of each pixel in the map image, and embedding a relationship between each pixel and its corresponding geographical coordinate into the map image.

Claims

1. A method for obtaining a map by using an electronic device, comprising:

capturing a map image from a physical map;

obtaining a plurality of geographic coordinates corresponding to a plurality of reference points on the physical map from one of the physical map and the map image;

calculating a corresponding geographic coordinate of each pixel in the map image according to the plurality of geographic coordinates corresponding to the plurality of reference points and a plurality of pixels corresponding to the plurality of reference points; and

embedding the corresponding geographic coordinate of each pixel into the map image.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining a plurality of corresponding coordinates from a built-in map of the electronic device according to the plurality of geographic coordinates corresponding to the plurality of reference points; and

interpolating the map image into the built-in map according to the plurality of reference points and the plurality of corresponding coordinates.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of interpolating the map image into the built-in map comprises:

building a coordinate transformation matrix according to the plurality of pixels corresponding to the plurality of reference points and the plurality of pixels corresponding to the plurality of corresponding coordinates;

converting the map image to a normalized map with the coordinate transformation matrix; and

interpolating the normalized map into the built-in map according to the plurality of corresponding coordinates.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of obtaining the plurality of geographic coordinates corresponding to a plurality of reference points from one of the physical map and the map image comprises:

executing an image recognition procedure to one of the physical map or the map image to recognize a barcode block therein; and

decoding the barcode block to obtain the plurality of geographic coordinates corresponding to the plurality of reference points.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of obtaining the plurality of geographic coordinates corresponding to a plurality of reference points from one of the physical map and the map image comprises:

executing an image recognition procedure to one of the physical map or the map image to recognize a plurality of latitude and longitude coordinate blocks therein; and

executing a character recognition procedure to the plurality of latitude and longitude coordinate blocks to obtain the plurality of geographic coordinates corresponding to the plurality of reference points.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising recognizing at least one road image block in the map image to update a road database of the built-in map.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of recognizing at least one road image block in the map image comprises:

recognizing at least one line in the map image as a road according to a road location in the built-in map; and

recognizing the at least one road image block in the map image according to a feature of the at least one line.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of obtaining the plurality of geographic coordinates corresponding to a plurality of reference points from one of the physical map and the map image comprises:

executing an image recognition procedure to one of the physical map or the map image to recognize a barcode block therein; and

decoding the barcode block to obtain the plurality of geographic coordinates corresponding to the plurality of reference points.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of obtaining the plurality of geographic coordinates corresponding to a plurality of reference points from one of the physical map and the map image comprises:

executing an image recognition procedure to one of the physical map or the map image to recognize a plurality of latitude and longitude coordinate blocks therein; and

executing a character recognition procedure to the plurality of latitude and longitude coordinate blocks to obtain the plurality of geographic coordinates corresponding to the plurality of reference points.

10. The method of claim 2, further comprising recognizing at least one road image block in the map image to update a road database of the built-in map.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of recognizing at least one road image block in the map image comprises:

recognizing at least one line in the map image as a road according to a road location in the built-in map; and

recognizing the at least one road image block in the map image according to a feature of the at least one line.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating a scale in association with the map image according to the plurality of reference points.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of reference points are the coordinates of at least three corners in the physical map.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of reference points is the coordinate of one of a plurality of landmarks in the map image.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining the plurality of geographic coordinates corresponding to a plurality of reference points from one of the physical map and the map image comprises:

executing an image recognition procedure to one of the physical map or the map image to recognize a barcode block therein; and

decoding the barcode block to obtain the plurality of geographic coordinates corresponding to the plurality of reference points.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining the plurality of geographic coordinates corresponding to a plurality of reference points from one of the physical map and the map image comprises:

executing an image recognition procedure to one of the physical map or the map image to recognize a plurality of latitude and longitude coordinate blocks therein; and

executing a character recognition procedure to the plurality of latitude and longitude coordinate blocks to obtain the plurality of geographic coordinates corresponding to the plurality of reference points.