System and Method for Exploring 3D Scenes by Pointing at a Reference Object
AssigneeIpointer, Inc.
InventorDavid CADUFF
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The system and method are described for enhancing location-based services by enabling spatial database systems to respond to or answer spatial queries that use a reference object to identify objects or features of interest in environmental scene before a system user. The system and method present invention enhances pointing technology by permitting system users to use queries to identify objects or features within the system user's field of view by pointing at the reference object or feature, and linking it to the object of interest by using spatial prepositions.
Claims20
A computer-implemented method for identifying objects of interest in an environmental scene based on a reference object, comprising the steps of:
- (A) pointing a pointing device at an object within a system user's visual field within the environmental scene, with the pointing device being capable of determining its geographic location and identifying the object to which the pointing device is pointing in a system user's visual field in a system user's environment;
- (B) generating a spatial scene with a scene generator that coincides with the system user's visual field, with the spatial scene including a spatial configuration of the system user's environment;
- (C) designating the object identified in step (A) as a reference object;
- (D) determining semantics of the spatial scene, with the semantics geographically associating objects within the system user's visual field with the reference object designated at step (C);
- (E) generating queries relating to one or more objects of interest within a system user's visual field based on pointing at the reference object designated at step (C);
- and
- (F) identifying one or more objects of interest within the system user's visual field based on the queries relating to such one or more objects of interest generated at step (E) based on pointing at the reference object designated at step (C).
A system for responding to spatial queries about a real-world object of interest using a reference object to identify the object of interest, comprising:
- a pointing device for pointing at a reference object in a real-world scene and generating a query statement including a query topic and spatial preposition, relating to the object of interest according to a position of the reference object, with the pointing device determining a pointing device geodetic position and pointing direction, and with the pointing device communicating the query statement, and the pointing device geodetic position and pointing direction to a system server;
- and
- a system server further comprising,
- a mapping module for receiving and processing a projective three-dimensional representation of an environment that contains a real-world scene including the reference object and the object of interest,
- a scene generator that connects to the mapping module and receives an output from the mapping module for generating a two-dimensional digital representation of the real-world scene including the reference object and object of interest, and identifies the reference object according to the pointing device geodetic position and pointing direction applied to the two-dimensional digital representation,
- a scene annotator for annotating the two-dimensional digital representation for identifying the object of interest according to the position of the reference object, and the query topic and spatial preposition of the query statement by linking the query topic and spatial preposition to an object in the two-dimensional digital representation, and communicating to the pointing device the identification of the object of interest.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.