IP Library Granted Patent US 10,120,397
Granted Patent B1
US 10,120,397 · App. 15/042,074 · Granted Nov 6, 2018

Interior climate control utilizing multimodal sensor positioning

Inventors: Avideh Zakhor (Berkeley, CA); Joseph Menke (Berkeley, CA); Plamen Levchev (Berkeley, CA)
Assignee: INDOOR REALITY INC.
G05D23/1393F24F11/30F24F11/62F24F11/70F24F11/46F24F11/56F24F11/63F24F2110/00F24F2120/10F24F2120/12F24F2130/10
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,120,397
App. No.
15/042,074
Granted
Nov 6, 2018
Kind
B1
Abstract

Methods for interior climate control of a building utilizing multimodal sensor positioning using an electronic mobile device are presented, the method including: causing the electronic mobile device to receive a building floor plan; generating a number of fingerprint databases corresponding with the building floor plan; determining positions of users each having a mobile electronic device in the building; receiving occupancy climate parameters; and adjusting interior climate control for a zone corresponding with users in the zone and occupation climate parameters. In some embodiments, generating a number of fingerprint databases further includes: performing a single walkthrough of the building with the mobile electronic device; gathering spatial sensor data corresponding with the mobile electronic device during the single walkthrough, where the spatial sensor data corresponds with any of images WiFi signal strength, Bluetooth signal strength, and/or magnetic vector fingerprint captured along a path traversed during the walkthrough.

Claims (98)

1. A method for interior climate control of a building utilizing multimodal sensor positioning using an electronic mobile device, the method comprising:

causing the electronic mobile device to receive a building floor plan;

generating a plurality of fingerprint databases corresponding with the building floor plan;

determining a position of a user having a mobile electronic device in the building, wherein determining the position of the user with an electronic mobile device in the building further comprises,

receiving any of the following singly or in combination,

initial WiFi data corresponding with a start position of the user,

initial image data corresponding with a start position of the user,

initial Bluetooth data corresponding with a start position of the user, and

receiving initial magnetic data corresponding with a start position of the user, and

performing an initialization of the start position corresponding with the received data;

receiving occupancy climate parameters; and

adjusting interior climate control for a zone corresponding with the position of the user and a plurality of occupancy climate parameters.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating a plurality of fingerprint databases further comprises:

performing a single walkthrough of the building with the mobile electronic device;

gathering spatial sensor data corresponding with the mobile electronic device during the single walkthrough, wherein the spatial sensor data corresponds with at least one of,

a plurality of images captured along a path traversed during the walkthrough,

a plurality of WiFi scans captured along the path traversed during the walkthrough,

a plurality of Bluetooth scans captured along the path traversed during the walkthrough

a plurality of magnetic vectors captured along the path traversed during the walkthrough;

aligning a path traversed during the walkthrough to the building floor plan; and

generating at least an image fingerprint database, a WiFi fingerprint database, a Bluetooth fingerprint database and a magnetic vector database corresponding with a common coordinate frame.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising: providing an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) which may or may not be mounted on a shoe for tracking the path traversed during the walkthrough.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the position of the user in the building using particle filtering further comprises:

initializing the particles

performing step detection on the mobile electronic device; and

propagating a position of a plurality of particles at each step detected to track the mobile electronic device.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein propagating a position of a plurality of particles at each step detected to track the user further comprises;

computing any of the following singly or in combination:

a first weight of each of the plurality of particles based on a current WiFi observation;

a second weight of each of the plurality of particles based on a current Bluetooth observation

a third weight of each of the plurality of particles based on a current image observation;

a fourth weight of each of the plurality of particles based on a current magnetic observation;

resampling the plurality of particles to find a current position of the mobile electronic device based on the observations; and

estimating the current position of the mobile electronic device.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

outputting the current position of the mobile electronic device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of occupancy climate parameters are selected from the group consisting of: user defined climate settings, mobile electronic device temperature readings, user schedules, building schedules, meeting schedules, building control settings, interior temperature readings, exterior temperature readings, airflow equipment capacities, heating equipment capacities, and cooling equipment capacities.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein adjusting interior climate control for the zone corresponding with the position of the user further comprises:

adjusting the interior climate control for the zone in response to a scheduled occupancy change; and

adjusting the interior climate control for the zone in response to an occupancy change.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein adjusting interior climate control for a zone corresponding with the position of the user further comprises:

adjusting the interior climate control for the zone accounting for any combination of the plurality of occupancy climate parameters.

10. A system of electronic hardware for interior climate control of a building utilizing multimodal sensor positioning comprising:

an occupancy server having a processor for

receiving a building floor plan,

generating a plurality of fingerprint databases corresponding with the building floor plan, wherein generating a plurality of fingerprint databases further comprises:

performing a single walkthrough of the building with a mobile electronic device,

gathering spatial sensor data corresponding with the mobile electronic device during the single walkthrough, wherein the spatial sensor data corresponds with at least one of,

a plurality of images captured along a path traversed during the walkthrough,

a plurality of WiFi scans captured along the path traversed during the walkthrough,

a plurality of Bluetooth scans captured along the path traversed during the walkthrough,

a plurality of magnetic vectors captured along the path traversed during the walkthrough;

aligning a path traversed during the walkthrough to the building floor plan; and

generating at least an image fingerprint database, a WiFi fingerprint database, a Bluetooth fingerprint database and a magnetic vector database corresponding with a common coordinate frame;

determining a position of a user in the building,

receiving occupancy climate parameters, and

adjusting interior climate control for a zone corresponding with the position of the user and a plurality of occupancy climate parameters;

a mobile electronic device for capturing relevant data for determining the position of the user; and

a Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) and lighting control module for receiving input from the occupancy server for determining control configurations.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the mobile electronic device further controls the HVAC and lighting control module via the occupancy server.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of occupancy climate parameters are selected from the group consisting of: user defined climate settings, mobile electronic device temperature readings, user schedules, building schedules, meeting schedules, building control settings, interior temperature readings, exterior temperature readings, airflow equipment capacities, heating equipment capacities, and cooling equipment capacities.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein adjusting interior climate control for the zone corresponding with the position of the user further comprises:

adjusting the interior climate control for the zone in response to a scheduled occupancy change; and

adjusting the interior climate control for the zone in response to an occupancy change.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein adjusting interior climate control for a zone corresponding with the position of the user further comprises:

adjusting the interior climate control for the zone accounting for any combination of the plurality of occupancy climate parameters.

15. A computing device program product for interior climate control of a building utilizing multimodal sensor positioning using an electronic mobile device, the method comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium;

first programmatic instructions for causing the electronic mobile device to receive a building floor plan;

second programmatic instructions for generating a plurality of fingerprint databases corresponding with the building floor plan;

third programmatic instructions for determining a position of a user having a mobile electronic device in the building, wherein third programmatic instructions for determining the position of the user with an electronic mobile device in the building further comprises:

tenth programmatic instructions for receiving any of the following singly or in combination:

initial WiFi data corresponding with a start position of the user, initial image data corresponding with a start position of the user,

initial Bluetooth data corresponding with a start position of the user, and

receiving initial magnetic data corresponding with a start position of the user, and

eleventh programmatic instructions for performing an initialization of the start position corresponding with the received data;

fourth programmatic instructions for receiving occupancy climate parameters; and

fifth programmatic instructions for adjusting interior climate control for a zone corresponding with the position of the user and a plurality of occupancy climate parameters, wherein the programmatic instructions are stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium.

16. The computing device program product of claim 15 , wherein second programmatic instructions for generating a plurality of fingerprint databases further comprises:

sixth programmatic instructions for performing a single walkthrough of the building with the mobile electronic device;

seventh programmatic instructions for gathering spatial sensor data corresponding with the mobile electronic device during the single walkthrough, wherein the spatial sensor data corresponds with at least one of,

a plurality of images captured along a path traversed during the walkthrough,

a plurality of WiFi scans captured along the path traversed during the walkthrough,

a plurality of Bluetooth scans captured along the path traversed during the walkthrough

a plurality of magnetic vectors captured along the path traversed during the walkthrough;

eighth programmatic instructions for aligning a path traversed during the walkthrough to the building floor plan; and

ninth programmatic instructions for generating at least an image fingerprint database, a WiFi fingerprint database, a Bluetooth fingerprint database and a magnetic vector database corresponding with a common coordinate frame.

17. The computing device program product of claim 15 , wherein third programmatic instructions for determining the position of the user in the building using particle filtering further comprises:

twelfth programmatic instructions for initializing the particles

thirteenth programmatic instructions for performing step detection on the mobile electronic device;

fourteenth programmatic instructions for propagating a position of a plurality of particles at each step detected to track the mobile electronic device, wherein fourteenth programmatic instructions for propagating a position of a plurality of particles at each step detected to track the user further comprises;

fifteenth programmatic instructions for computing any of the following singly or in combination:

a first weight of each of the plurality of particles based on a current WiFi observation;

a second weight of each of the plurality of particles based on a current Bluetooth observation

a third weight of each of the plurality of particles based on a current image observation;

a fourth weight of each of the plurality of particles based on a current magnetic observation;

sixteenth programmatic instructions for resampling the plurality of particles to find a current position of the mobile electronic device based on the observations; and

seventeenth programmatic instructions for estimating the current position of the mobile electronic device.

Assignments (3)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 20, 2019
From: INDOOR REALITY, INC.
To: HILTI AG
Reel/Frame 049542/0552 →
CORRECTIVE ASSIGNMENT TO CORRECT THE ASSIGNEE NAME PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL: 037865 FRAME: 0146. ASSIGNOR(S) HEREBY CONFIRMS THE ASSIGNMENT . Recorded Aug 27, 2016
From: ZAKHOR, AVIDEH; MENKE, JOSEPH; LEVCHEV, PLAMEN
To: INDOOR REALITY INC.
Reel/Frame 039851/0009 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Mar 1, 2016
From: ZAKHOR, AVIDEH; MENKE, JOSEPH; LEVCHEV, PLAMEN
To: INDOOR REALITY
Reel/Frame 037865/0146 →
Cited By (13)
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