Patent Issued for Systems and methods for position-based building guidance (USPTO 11125565): United Services Automobile Association

2021 OCT 12 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Blair, Matthew (San Antonio, TX, US), Buentello, Andre Rene (San Antonio, TX, US), Dyl, Mateusz Peter (San Antonio, TX, US), Garcia, Paul (San Antonio, TX, US), Humphreys, Rachael Ann (San Antonio, TX, US), Waful, Christopher James (San Antonio, TX, US), Wang, Xin (San Antonio, TX, US), filed on June 22, 2020, was published online on September 21, 2021.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11125565 is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for position-based building guidance. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to generating alerts for users to provide information related to building features that may be within a close proximity to the user.

“This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it may be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.

“Modern buildings or campuses may be large, widespread facilities that include various features located at large distances relative to one another. As such, signs or other physical visual navigation information may be posted within a building to help direct users to desired features of the building. However, the signs or physical visual navigation information may be omitted in some buildings or may be inaccessible to certain visually-impaired users. To better inform users so they may more efficiently navigate the building, it may be beneficial to improve the manner in which navigation information is provided to users of a building.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “One or more specific embodiments will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, not all features of an actual implementation are described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers’ specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.

“The present disclosure relates generally to generating alerts for individuals (i.e., users) within a building, near the building, or otherwise associated with the building to provide information related to certain building features via a building navigation system. When traveling or walking through a building, users may find it difficult to obtain information about certain building features (e.g., artwork, rooms, schedules, menus). For example, information regarding a building feature may be displayed in a visual form (e.g., sign), which may not be useful for visually-impaired users. As such, a building navigation system may be useful in providing information regarding building features based on a user’s proximity to various building features. However, the use of standard navigation techniques, such as a global positioning system (GPS), may not be reliable within the building, thus limiting an ability of a computing device to recognize its position inside the building.

“With the foregoing in mind, in certain embodiments, a building navigation system may generate alerts for the users via an electronic display or an audible output to provide information related to building features located within a proximity to the user. The alerts (e.g., visualizations, audio outputs) or may be modified in size, volume, and/or duration to be accessible to users of all ability levels. The alerts may be indicative of information associated with building features that may not be otherwise readily available to the users, such as information regarding artwork, cafeteria menus, nearby users, nearby available meeting rooms, or the like.

“In some embodiments, the building navigation system may be a computing device (e.g., smart phone) that is associated with an individual (e.g., user). The building guidance system may determine an absolute position of the building guidance system within the building based on various communication equipment disposed throughout the building. The absolute position of the building guidance system may be a coordinate position within the building, such as a latitude position and a longitude position. Moreover, the absolute position may include an elevation position that may be useful for locating the building guidance system in a multi-floored building. To determine the absolute position, the building guidance system may rely on navigation devices such as routers, communication beacons, GPS, indoor GPS, or any suitable combination thereof to locate the position of the building guidance system within the building. Indeed, by using more than one type of navigation device, the building navigation system may operate with increased redundancy and accuracy.

“Further, in some embodiments, the building navigation system may identify building features within a threshold distance or proximity of the absolute position of the building guidance system (e.g., nearby building features). For example, the building navigation system may query a building information database that includes identification information associated with building features, absolute positions of building features, and other interactive information associated with the building features. In some embodiments, the building navigation system may identify a subset of the building features that are within the threshold distance of the absolute position of the building guidance system. The building guidance system may then generate an alert to provide information associated with the nearby building features to the user. In this manner, the building guidance system may provide position-based information and interactive functions regarding nearby building features to users traveling through the building. Additional details regarding the building guidance system and various processes performed by the building guidance system will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1-11.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system, comprising: a plurality of display devices, wherein each display device of the plurality of display devices is coupled as a fixture of a building; and a processor communicatively coupled to the plurality of display devices and a computing device, wherein the processor is configured to: determine an absolute position of the computing device within the building based on communications between the computing device and one or more navigation devices of the building; receive a signal indicative of selection of a building feature of one or more building features of the building from the computing device; generate a list of directions between the absolute position of the computing device and the building feature based on a query of a database associated with the one or more building features; determine whether the absolute position of the computing device is located within a first threshold distance of a first display device of the plurality of display devices; transmit a first alert configured to cause the first display device to display a first portion of the list of directions in response to determining that the absolute position of the computing device is located within the first threshold distance of the first display device; determine whether the absolute position of the computing device is located within a second threshold distance of a second display device of the plurality of display devices; and transmit a second alert configured to cause the second display device to display a second portion of the list of directions in response to determining that the absolute position of the computing device is located within the second threshold distance of the second display device, wherein the second portion of the list of directions is subsequent to the first portion of the list of directions.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more navigation devices comprise one or more routers, one or more communication beacons, or both, and wherein the processor is configured to determine the absolute position of the computing device based on a first data set acquired from the one or more routers, a second data set acquired from the one or more communication beacons, or a combination thereof.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to receive identification information from a communication beacon within the building, and wherein the processor is configured to determine the absolute position of the computing device based on a query of an additional database comprising the identification information of the communication beacon and an absolute position of the communication beacon.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to determine the absolute position of the computing device based on a first distance between the computing device and a first router of the building and a second distance between the computing device and a second router of the building.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the building feature comprises a cafeteria of the building, and wherein the processor is configured to generate an additional alert configured to cause the computing device to display information comprising a menu associated with the cafeteria.

“6. The system of claim 1, wherein the building feature comprises one or more meeting rooms of the building, and wherein the processor is configured to generate an additional alert configured to cause the computing device to display information comprising a schedule of meetings associated with the one or more meeting rooms.

“7. The system of claim 6, wherein the processor is configured to: receive a first input indicative of a user request to schedule a meeting within an available meeting room of the one or more meeting rooms; identify one or more available meeting rooms of the one or more meeting rooms based on a query of an additional database comprising scheduling information associated with the one or more meeting rooms; cause the computing device to display an indication of the one or more available meeting rooms on the computing device; receive a second input indicative of a user selection of one of the one or more available meeting rooms, wherein the one of the one or more available meeting rooms is the building feature; and transmit an additional signal to change a status associated with the one of the one or more available meeting rooms to indicate that the one of the one or more available meeting rooms is unavailable for a time period.

“8. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to: determine an additional absolute position of a plurality of additional computing devices within the building; and generate a visualization indicative of a respective relative position of each additional computing device of the plurality of additional computing devices with respect to the computing device for display via the computing device.

“9. The system of claim 1, wherein the alert is configured to cause the first display device to present unique user identification information indicative of an identity of a user of the computing device adjacent to the first portion of the list of directions.

“10. A method, comprising: determining, via a processor communicatively coupled to a computing device, one or more relative positions of the computing device to one or more routers, one or more communication beacons, or a combination thereof; determining, via the processor, an absolute position of the computing device within a building based on the one or more relative positions; receiving, via the processor, a signal indicative of selection of a building feature of one or more building features of the building from the computing device; querying, via the processor, a database comprising data associated with one or more building features of the building based on the absolute position; generating, via the processor, a list of directions between the absolute position and the building feature based on the query, wherein the list of directions is configured to direct a user toward the building feature; determining, via the processor, whether the absolute position is located within a first threshold distance of a first display device of a plurality of display devices, wherein each display device of the plurality of display devices is coupled as a fixture of the building; transmitting, via the processor, a first visualization for display on the first display device in response to determining that the absolute position is located within the first threshold distance of the first display device, wherein the first visualization comprises a first portion of the list of directions; determining, via the processor, whether the absolute position is located within a second threshold distance of a second display device of the plurality of display devices; and transmitting, via the processor, a second visualization for display on the second display device in response to determining that the absolute position is located within the second threshold distance of the second display device, wherein the second portion of the list of directions is subsequent to the first portion of the list of directions.

“11. The method of claim 10, wherein the building feature comprises artwork displayed in the building, a cafeteria of the building, or a meeting room of the building, wherein the first portion of the list of directions indicates a first user instruction to move the absolute position closer to the building feature, and wherein the second portion of the list of directions indicates a second user instruction to be performed after the first user instruction to move the absolute position closer to the building feature.

“12. The method of claim 10, wherein the building feature comprises a second region of a plurality of regions of the building, wherein each region of the plurality of regions is associated with a respective audio file based on input from a building manager, and wherein the method comprises: determining, via the processor, that the absolute position of the computing device is within a first region of the plurality of regions; instructing, via the processor, the computing device to output a first audio file indicative of a first identity of the first region; and instructing, via the processor, the computing device to output a second audio file indicative of a second identity of the second region in response to determining that the absolute position has moved within the second region.

“13. The method of claim 12, wherein each region of the building is associated with a respective audible song.

“14. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the absolute position of the computing device comprises: determining a first relative distance between the computing device and a first router or a first communication beacon; determining a second relative distance between the computing device and a second router or a second communication beacon; and determining the absolute position of the computing device based on the first relative distance and the second relative distance.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For additional information on this patent, see: Blair, Matthew. Systems and methods for position-based building guidance. U.S. Patent Number 11125565, filed June 22, 2020, and published online on September 21, 2021. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11125565.PN.&OS=PN/11125565RS=PN/11125565

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