System for guidance and navigation in a building

• US 8,538,687 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2010
• Issued: 09/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Plocher, Tom, Chen, Henry, Du, Jian Geng
• Primary Examiner(s): Algahaim, Helal A
• Application Number:
  US12/773,688
• Publication Number:
  US 20110276264A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,232 Days
• Field of Search: 701/433, 701/434
• US Class Current: 701/434
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3881 Tile-based structures

Abstract

A system for guidance and navigation in a building. For example, the system may determine a route for egress or rescue of one or more people from a building with a hazardous condition. The system may process the route into waypoints and segments developed within a set of constraint rules. Semantic information about the building may be associated with the waypoints and/or segments. The waypoints and segments may be processed into navigation commands. The navigation commands may be formed in natural language from sentence templates. The system may additionally have 3D beacon audio to assist in guidance and navigation of the one or more people in the building.

Claims

1. A system for guidance and navigation in a building, comprising:

a module for obtaining locations of one or more people in the building;

a module for selecting a route based on the locations in a building;

a module for processing the route into waypoints and segments;

a module for associating semantic information with waypoints;

a module for processing the waypoints and segments into navigation commands formed from a sentence template; and

a module for providing and associating audio tones with waypoints; and

wherein;

the system comprising the modules is implemented on non-transitory computer readable media; and

the audio tones are for distinguishing waypoints from one another and pulse rates for indicating various distances of the recipient of the audio from a waypoint.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein

the sentence template is a form for sentences indicating waypoints and segments of the route.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the segments and waypoints of a route are based on constraint rules.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein:

selecting a route within the building defined in terms of a grid of the building;

selecting and modifying a route within the building occurs on the fly during run-time of the system; and

structural features and conditions within the building are provided to the module for selecting a route in the building.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the module for selecting a route in a building recalls locations of a person to identify a route of ingress followed by the person; and

the module for selecting a route computes a reverse of the route of ingress and selects the reverse as a route of egress.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein:

semantic information is attached to waypoints and segments; and

semantic information comprises landmarks.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the route is for egress from the building;

or

the route is for rescue of one or more people from the building.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the module for providing and associating audio tones with waypoints provides a 3D audio beacon; and

the 3D audio beacon provides directional indications to a recipient of the beacon.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising, wherein the sentence templates comprise:

an action word;

a where word following the action word; and

an amount word following the where word.

9. A method for providing guidance and navigation inside a building, comprising:

obtaining structural information for the building with a floor plan generator and obtaining condition information about the building with hazard detectors;

selecting a route for a person inside of the building with a route generator;

processing the route into waypoints and segments with the route generator;

associating semantic information with the waypoints with the route generator;

providing navigation commands formed in natural language with a sentence template to the person for proceeding along the route via the waypoints and segments; and

providing and associating audio tones with waypoints; and

wherein the audio tones are for distinguishing waypoints from one another and pulse rates for indicating various distances of the recipient of the audio from a waypoint.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining a location of a person for whom the route is selected.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the location is of a person seeking egress from the building;

or

the location is of a person to be rescued and of a person who is to do the rescue.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising providing 3D audio for indicating information about the waypoints to a recipient of the 3D audio.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein:

structural information comprises floor plans of the building; and

condition information comprises fire and smoke locations in the building.

14. A system for guidance and navigation in a building, comprising:

a floor plan generator;

a sensor for indicating a location of with a person in the building;

a route generator connected to the floor plan generator and location sensor for generating a route for the person; and

a sound generator for providing and associating audio tones with waypoints; and

wherein;

the route is in a form of segments and waypoints demarking the segments;

the audio tones are for distinguishing waypoints from one another and pulse rates for indicating various distances of the recipient of the audio from a waypoint;

a waypoint is associated with a location;

a sequence of waypoints indicates the route;

natural language navigation commands are generated from the segments and waypoints;

natural language navigation commands are formed from sentence templates; and

semantic information is attached to one or more waypoints and/or segments.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein:

the segments and waypoints are formed according to constraint rules; and

the constraint rules comprise;

a segment is less than X length;

a waypoint is situated between two segments; and

two waypoints less than Y distance apart combine into one waypoint.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a 3D beacon audio simulator for providing information about waypoints to the person pursuing the route in the building; and

wherein;

feedback audio is generated to aid the person in staying on the route;

the feedback audio is in the form of either audio tones or natural language navigation commands; and

the route is established and updated on-the-fly during runtime of the system.