The disclosure generally relates to a system and a method for vectoring service initiation based on sensor assisted positioning and, more particularly, to a system and a method using location sensors built in devices with positioning technology to provide an instinctive user-machine interface for facilitating an user to invoke service initiation from a source device to a target device.
In recent years, the portable hand-held devices have become more and more important in the daily life, and a variety of hand-held devices have become more powerful when it comes to the dealing with tasks such as retrieving/sending emails, accessing RSS or even playing multi-media contents. The things that were dealt with on personal computers are now dealt with on portable hand-held devices because the hand-held devices are becoming more sophisticated and equipped with more sensors for the user. For example, for the hand-held devices, such as Apple iPhone, HTC Touch Diamond, and the like, users are able to operate these smart devices intuitively and easily through a variety of touch-base interfaces that are provided thereon.
There were plenty of examples of improved user-machine interfaces that shook the market. Apple introduced touch pads on MacBooks (notebook computers) to replace the mouse long before iPhone was launched. Such a special and friendly user-machine interface attracted a large amount of fans of MacBooks. Moreover, iPhone uses multi-touch control so that the user can use the device by the drag and zoom operations and the embedded auto-rotate and smart sensor functions without using the touch pen. In addition, the Wii console launched by Nintendo at 2006 uses wireless control to replace the button interfaces on conventional gaming machines. Such an innovative user-machine interface adapted on Wii evoked a positive response to Nintendo by getting ahead of SONY's Play Station series in gaming machine sales.
The user-machine interface is based on the so-called “human technology”, which makes the user-machine interface less complex and user-friendly to win a passionate response from the user and is suitable not only for the hand-set devices, but also for other IT products.
Nevertheless, the currently available user-machine interfaces such as touch panels and sensors are used on single machines. For example, the touch interfaces on iPhone and the wireless sensors on Wii are used on single machines. As the portable hand-held devices are becoming more and more powerful to deal with the tasks that are dealt with on personal computers, some user-machine interfaces have been developed for retrieving/sending emails, accessing RSS or even playing multi-media contents. However, there is still no user-friendly user-machine interface for service initiation between modern hardware platforms.
This disclosure provides a system and a method for vectoring service initiation based on sensor assisted positioning, using the location sensors built in hand-held devices with positioning technology to provide an instinctive 2-D or 3-D user-machine interface so that the user is able to invoke service initiation from a source device to a target device.
This disclosure provides a system and a method for vectoring service initiation based on sensor assisted positioning, using sensor assisted positioning technology to provide an instinctive user-machine interface so that the user is able to invoke service initiation, such as data transfer, game initiation, media download/media streaming initiation, house application and the like, from a source device to a target device.
The embodiments of this disclosure will be readily understood by the accompanying drawings and detailed descriptions, wherein:
This disclosure can be exemplified but not limited by various embodiments as described hereinafter.
Please refer to
In step 101, an initial communication environment of a plurality of devices is set up and a proxy server is determined.
In step 102, the devices acquire the location information of each of the plurality of devices using positioning technology and synchronize real-time location information of the plurality of devices and the proxy server.
In step 103, a source device of the plurality of devices acquires transferred positioning information of each of the plurality of devices so that a user is able to use the transferred positioning information of each of the plurality of devices to assign a target device for service initiation.
In step 104, initiate service between a source device and a target device.
The flowchart in
However, when the system needs the proxy server and no such proxy server exists, either said source device or said target device can be a proxy server being capable of real-time receiving and transferring real-time location information of each of said devices.
It is noted that the proxy server provides information of map and topography of a building if the plurality of devices are disposed indoors and particle filtering algorithm and sensor assisted seamless hybrid positioning are used, and the initial communication environment of the plurality of devices provide: wireless networking based on WiFi, WiMAX or GSM so as communicate with the proxy server or the other devices; a global positioning system or a wireless triangulation positioning and pattern-matching positioning system and a sensor feedback element capable of sensing current inertial trajectories and behaviors and transmitting the current inertial trajectories and behaviors to the positioning system; and protocols for MSN, HTTP and P2P and settings for the protocols, the settings comprising usernames, passwords and IP's so that the plurality of devices are capable of transferring files.
Various devices employing the present disclosure for service initiation are illustrating in the following circumstances. As shown in
In one embodiment of service initiation between fix device and fix device, the user can transfer data from a home PC to a digital TV by “pointing” the file from the PC to the TV thru gesture operation. And in the example illustrating the service initiation from fix device to a mobile device, the user is able to transfer the supermarket DM coupon showing in an electronic advertisement board to the user's cellular phone thru gesture operation.
The step 102 for acquiring the location information of each of the plurality of devices using positioning technology and synchronizing real-time location information of the plurality of devices and the proxy server further comprises steps herein.
In the system employing the vector service initiation technology of the present disclosure, one embodiment shows the user is able to use “drag and drop” of gesture operation to move a file to a target device and the “preview” function of the target device will display the information of the file, such as file name, file type and file size for user's preview, the schematic diagram is shown in Step 1 of
In step 202: the location information in an XML format of the plurality of devices is uploaded to the proxy server at designated time.
In step 203, the proxy server integrates the location information of the plurality of devices into a global map.
More particularly, in step 201, location information can be acquired by any positioning technology, capable of acquiring positioning information, such as GPS (global positioning system) or WiFi positioning. The proxy server stores the location information of each of the devices so that it can assist the user to assign a target device for file transfer.
The embodiment using particle filtering algorithm and sensor assisted seamless hybrid positioning system is described herein.
Please refer to
The particle filtering algorithm 36 can be exemplified by sampling history information in a continuous space to select a couple of sample spaces as location sets of the user. One of the sample spaces is then sifted as an optimal location according to the detected data.
Equation (1) describes a mathematical expression of particle filtering algorithm, which indicates the probability that a state Xt takes place at T=k under a series of observations Z1:k (from t=1 to k).
Bel(xt)=p(xk|z1:k)∞p(zk|xk)∫p(xk|xk-1)p(xk-1|z1:k)dxk-1 (1)
If such a mathematical expression is implemented as positioning, each estimated positioning result is denoted as N samples then a prediction module is used to determine a possible one from the N samples using Equation (2) to continuously calculate the weight of each sample. A next positioning result can be acquired by re-sampling according to the distribution of the samples.
Therefore, the particle filtering algorithm in
In step (a), each state in the state equation is selected.
In step (b), initial sampling is performed.
In step (c), weight prediction is performed by observation and calculation.
In step (d), resampling is performed according to the distribution of the samples.
By continuously repeating steps (b) to (d), a positioning method is completed as shown in
Practically, more detected data may lead to better performance by particle filtering algorithm. In fact, tracking algorithm is based on the conventional mobility model of the user to predict the user's current location. Since the motion behaviors and the locations of the user are strongly correlated, positioning by the motion behaviors of the user and conventional wireless signal intensity and particle filtering algorithm may result in better performance. Since the mobility model of the user is known, the particles can be observed directly based on the mobility model.
Then, the current accumulative counts of steps (denoted by 31 in
In
The converter 33 is capable of processing the detected into another format. In other words, the changes in accumulative counts of steps and the angle of the user within a positioning range are integrated as a motion vector.
{right arrow over (u)} is defined as a motion vector representing each step of the user to comprise a motion length and a motion direction. The number of motion vectors {right arrow over (u)} within each positioning range is s.
{right arrow over (U)} denotes the total motion vector of the user within the positioning range. d is the distance of each steep of the user. The relation between {right arrow over (U)} and d can be expressed as Equation (3).
{right arrow over (U)}={right arrow over (u1)}+{right arrow over (u2)}+ . . . +{right arrow over (us)}″
{right arrow over (us)}=d*cos(90°−θs){right arrow over (I)}+d*sin(90°−θs){right arrow over (J)} (3)
According to
Therefore, information of the user's mobility model (denoted by 39 in
The input data of the user's mobility model (39 in
The user's mobility model is used for decomposing the total motion vector within a positioning range to obtain the motion vector components so that the particle filtering algorithm can perform coordinate conversion to simulate the user's motion.
The particle filtering algorithm can be expressed in Equation (5), wherein Pi(t) indicates the position of the ith particle at time t in X-Y coordinate; Ø is a random angle from X axis; α is a random variable with uniform distribution between 0≦α≦1; r is a pre-determined maximum random distance, r=2; {right arrow over (N)} and denotes the north pole direction of the compass.
The location of the particle at time=(t−1) can be updated according to Equation (5) to obtain the location at time=t. The distribution of the locations of particles can be acquired by adding the X-axis and Y-Axis components of the corresponding total motion vector to the previous locations of the particles.
As mentioned above, the positioning system in the present embodiment performs the positioning process based on the particle filtering algorithm in
The positioning system operates based on particle filtering algorithm. By the use of externally detected data, the possible locations of the user can be sifted. These possible locations are referred to as particles. Each particle has a weight representing the probability that the user is at the location referred to as the particle. A particle filter comprises three modules. Each module operates in order according to the result of the previous module. A positioning result is generated when each of the three modules operates for one time.
In
The resampling model 301 omits particles with weights that are too low according to the previous (time=t−1) positioning process because these particles represent the locations at which the user is less likely to be at time=(t−1). The sampling model 302 performs coordinate conversion on the sifted particles according to the information of the user's mobility model to synchronize with the motion of the user so that the possible location of the user at time=t is calculated. The prediction model 303 calculates the weights of the particles according to the estimated locations of the particles so that wireless signals with higher weights can be acquired. The higher the weights, the higher probability the user is at the locations referred to as the particles.
Step 202 in
After the proxy server receives the uploaded data by the hand-held device, the device information is converted into a data stored in the database of a proxy server.
In step 901, a device issues a service initiation request to a proxy server.
In step 902, the proxy server searches all devices from a global map within a visible range of the device to set up a device map to be transmitted to the device.
In step 903, the device converts the device map into a GUI-domain map.
In step 904: a target device is determined according to the motion or gesture of a user.
In one embodiment when a user is to transfer a file, the source device issues a service of data transfer request to a proxy server so that the proxy server searches all devices from a global map within a visible range of the source device to send the information of the devices (including locations and protocols) in an XML format to the source device.
After the source device receives the XML format data from the proxy server, the source device converts the locations of the neighboring devices from the absolute coordinate system into the GUI coordinate system with the assistance of inertial elements (such as compasses, a gyroscopes, etc).
Another embodiment employing XML format service initiation is shown in
The file being transferred can be a stream file. In order to transfer a stream file, the user need to set up the file protocol as “stream”, the corresponding section in the XML file will be changed accordingly. As shown in
As shown in
In the embodiment of transferring a file employing the service initiation of the present disclosure, since the relative locations of neighboring devices are displayed on the display, the user can assign a file to be transferred to one of the neighboring devices (i.e., a target device). The user selects one file to be transferred to the target device by two ways. The first one is by GUI selection, wherein the user directly drags the file and drops the file at an icon representing the target device or flings dragged file to the icon representing the target device.
In step 1301, the source device acquires a protocol table of a target device in a device map.
In step 1302: a protocol table of a source device is compared with the protocol table of the target device to decide an optimal protocol.
In step 1303: the optimal protocol is used to initiate service.
In these steps, firstly, the source device searches a protocol with the highest priority by matching its own protocol and the protocol of the target device. The device with fewer protocols available is searched. The protocols with higher priority are first compared until a protocol is determined when identical protocols are found. If there are no identical protocols found, GUI is used to inform the user that the target device fails to received files.
Accordingly, this disclosure provides a system and a method for vectoring service initiation based on sensor assisted positioning, using the location sensors built in hand-held devices with positioning technology to provide an instinctive 2-D or 3-D user-machine interface so that the user is able to transfer a file from a source device to a target device. Therefore, this disclosure is useful, novel and non-obvious.
Although this disclosure has been disclosed and illustrated with reference accelerometer to particular embodiments, the principles involved are susceptible for use in numerous other embodiments that will be apparent to persons skilled in the art. This disclosure is, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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098135358 | Oct 2009 | TW | national |