Patents by Inventor Christopher Brunner

Christopher Brunner has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20170374518
    Abstract: A mobile station improves its position estimate using dead reckoning and wireless signal distance estimates. The mobile station calculates a first round trip time (RTT) based distance at a first mobile station position between the first mobile station position and an access point. The mobile station moves to a second position and calculates a dead reckoning transition distance between the first mobile station position and the second mobile station position. The mobile station calculates a wireless signal transition distance between the first mobile station position and the second mobile station position based on a second RTT-based distance calculated between the access point and the second mobile station position. The mobile station computes an uncertainty associated with the first RTT-based distance and/or the second RTT-based distance using the dead reckoning transition distance and the wireless signal transition distance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 7, 2017
    Publication date: December 28, 2017
    Inventors: Christopher Brunner, Victor Kulik
  • Publication number: 20170357858
    Abstract: A first map comprising local features and 3D locations of the local features is generated, the local features comprising visible features in a current image and a corresponding set of covisible features. A second map comprising prior features and 3D locations of the prior features may be determined, where each prior feature: was first imaged at a time prior to the first imaging of any of the local features, and lies within a threshold distance of at least one local feature. A first subset comprising previously imaged local features in the first map and a corresponding second subset of the prior features in the second map is determined by comparing the first and second maps, where each local feature in the first subset corresponds to a distinct prior feature in the second subset. A transformation mapping a subset of local features to a subset of prior features is determined.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 9, 2016
    Publication date: December 14, 2017
    Inventors: Paulo Mendonca, Christopher Brunner, Arvind Ramanandan, Murali Ramaswamy Chari, Dheeraj Ahuja
  • Patent number: 9714955
    Abstract: An accelerometer in a mobile device is calibrated by taking multiple measurements of acceleration vectors when the mobile device is held stationary at different orientations with respect to a plane normal. A circle is calculated that fits respective tips of measured acceleration vectors in the accelerometer coordinate system. The radius of the circle and the lengths of the measured acceleration vectors are used to calculate a rotation angle for aligning the accelerometer coordinate system with the mobile device surface. A gyroscope in the mobile device is calibrated by taking multiple measurements of a rotation axis when the mobile device is rotated at different rates with respect to the rotation axis. A line is calculated that fits the measurements. The angle between the line and an axis of the gyroscope coordinate system is used to align the gyroscope coordinate system with the mobile device surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2017
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Mahesh Ramachandran, Arvind Ramanandan, Christopher Brunner, Murali Ramaswamy Chari
  • Patent number: 9541393
    Abstract: Example methods, apparatuses, or articles of manufacture are disclosed herein that may be utilized, in whole or in part, to facilitate or support one or more operations or techniques for reducing power consumption or error of a digital compass.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2017
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Christopher Brunner, Victor Kulik
  • Publication number: 20160307328
    Abstract: Embodiments disclosed pertain to the use of user equipment (UE) for the generation of a 3D exterior envelope of a structure based on captured images and a measurement set associated with each captured image. In some embodiments, a sequence of exterior images of a structure is captured and a corresponding measurement set comprising Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) measurements, wireless measurements (including Global Navigation Satellite (GNSS) measurements) and/or other non-wireless sensor measurements may be obtained concurrently. A closed-loop trajectory of the UE in global coordinates may be determined and a 3D structural envelope of the structure may be obtained based on the closed loop trajectory and feature points in a subset of images selected from the sequence of exterior images of the structure.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2016
    Publication date: October 20, 2016
    Inventors: Mark Leo Moeglein, Christopher Brunner, Arvind Ramanandan, Mahesh Ramachandran, Abhishek Tyagi, Murali Ramaswamy Chari
  • Patent number: 9405972
    Abstract: Embodiments disclosed pertain to the use of user equipment (UE) for the generation of a 3D exterior envelope of a structure based on captured images and a measurement set associated with each captured image. In some embodiments, a sequence of exterior images of a structure is captured and a corresponding measurement set comprising Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) measurements, wireless measurements (including Global Navigation Satellite (GNSS) measurements) and/or other non-wireless sensor measurements may be obtained concurrently. A closed-loop trajectory of the UE in global coordinates may be determined and a 3D structural envelope of the structure may be obtained based on the closed loop trajectory and feature points in a subset of images selected from the sequence of exterior images of the structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Mark Leo Moeglein, Christopher Brunner, Arvind Ramanandan, Mahesh Ramachandran, Abhishek Tyagi, Murali Ramaswamy Chari
  • Patent number: 9400930
    Abstract: Embodiments disclosed obtain a plurality of measurement sets from a plurality of sensors in conjunction with the capture of a sequence of exterior and interior images of a structure while traversing locations in and around the structure. Each measurement set may be associated with at least one image. An external structural envelope of the structure is determined from exterior images of the structure and the corresponding outdoor trajectory of a UE. The position and orientation of the structure and the structural envelope is determined in absolute coordinates. Further, an indoor map of the structure in absolute coordinates may be obtained based on interior images of the structure, a structural envelope in absolute coordinates, and measurements associated with the indoor trajectory of the UE during traversal of the indoor area to capture the interior images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2016
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Mark Leo Moeglein, Christopher Brunner, Hui Chao, Murali Ramaswamy Chari, Arvind Ramanandan, Mahesh Ramachandran, Abhishek Tyagi
  • Patent number: 9305361
    Abstract: A homography between two captured images of a planar object is decomposed into at least one possible solution, and typically at least two ambiguous solutions. The ambiguity between the two solutions is removed, or a single solution validated, using measurements from orientation sensors. The measurements from orientation sensors may be used by comparing at least one of the yaw, pitch, and/or roll angles derived from a relative rotation matrix for the one or more solutions to a corresponding at least one of the yaw, pitch, and/or roll angles derived from the measurements from the orientation sensors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2016
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Bolan Jiang, Dheeraj Ahuja, Christopher Brunner
  • Publication number: 20150319577
    Abstract: A mobile station determines its position using measured parameters of a wireless signal to improve a satellite positioning system (SPS) enhanced dead reckoning based position estimate. The mobile station uses SPS enhanced dead reckoning to estimate a current position. The mobile station receives wireless signals from a plurality of access points and determines the round trip time. The estimated position of the mobile station is improved based on estimated positions of the plurality of access points and wireless signal based distance estimates from the plurality of access points that are determined using a channel model and the round trip time for the wireless signals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2015
    Publication date: November 5, 2015
    Inventors: Christopher Brunner, Victor Kulik
  • Patent number: 9159133
    Abstract: Systems, apparatus and methods for estimating gravity and/or scale in a mobile device are presented. A difference between an image-based pose and an inertia-based pose is using to update the estimations of gravity and/or scale. The image-based pose is computed from two poses and is scaled with the estimation of scale prior to the difference. The inertia-based pose is computed from accelerometer measurements, which are adjusted by the estimation for gravity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2015
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Arvind Ramanandan, Christopher Brunner, Mahesh Ramachandran, Murali Ramaswamy Chari
  • Patent number: 9135510
    Abstract: Apparatus for and method of processing sensor data for the purpose of navigating a vehicle (for example an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle), the sensor data being from a sensor (for example a camera) mounted on the vehicle. The method can include can include: for a number of time-steps, measuring a value of a parameter of a scene using the sensor to produce a sequence of images of the scene; determining a value of one or more image quality metrics (for example, spatial entropy and spatial information) in each image in the sequence; and identifying as either valid or invalid, a sub-sequence of images in the sequence based on the determined metric values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2015
    Assignee: UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
    Inventors: Thierry Peynot, Christopher Brunner
  • Patent number: 9123135
    Abstract: A mobile device tracks a relative pose between a camera and a target using Vision aided Inertial Navigation System (VINS), that includes a contribution from inertial sensor measurements and a contribution from vision based measurements. When the mobile device detects movement of the target, the contribution from the inertial sensor measurements to track the relative pose between the camera and the target is reduced or eliminated. Movement of the target may be detected by comparing vision only measurements from captured images and inertia based measurements to determine if a discrepancy exists indicating that the target has moved. Additionally or alternatively, movement of the target may be detected using projections of feature vectors extracted from captured images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2015
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Arvind Ramanandan, Christopher Brunner, Mahesh Ramachandran, Abhishek Tyagi, Daniel Knoblauch, Murali Ramaswamy Chari
  • Patent number: 9116001
    Abstract: A mobile device compensates for a lack of a time stamp when an image frame is captured by estimating the frame time stamp latency. The mobile device captures images frames and time stamps each frame after the frame time stamp latency. A vision based rotation is determined from a pair of frames. A plurality of inertia based rotations is measured using time stamped signals from an inertial sensor in the mobile device based on different possible delays between time stamping each frame and time stamps on the signals from the inertial sensors. The determined rotations may be about the camera's optical axis. The vision based rotation is compared to the plurality of inertia based rotations to determine an estimated frame time stamp latency, which is used to correct the frame time stamp latency when time stamping subsequently captured frames. A median latency determined using different frame pairs may be used.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Christopher Brunner, Mahesh Ramachandran, Arvind Ramanandan, Murali Ramaswamy Chari
  • Patent number: 9025856
    Abstract: Vision based tracking of a mobile device is used to remotely control a robot. For example, images captured by a mobile device, e.g., in a video stream, are used for vision based tracking of the pose of the mobile device with respect to the imaged environment. Changes in the pose of the mobile device, i.e., the trajectory of the mobile device, are determined and converted to a desired motion of a robot that is remote from the mobile device. The robot is then controlled to move with the desired motion. The trajectory of the mobile device is converted to the desired motion of the robot using a transformation generated by inverting a hand-eye calibration transformation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Mahesh Ramachandran, Christopher Brunner, Arvind Ramanandan, Abhishek Tyagi, Murali Ramaswamy Chari
  • Patent number: 9013617
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for generating parameters for an application, such as an augmented reality application (AR app), using camera pose and gyroscope rotation is disclosed. The parameters are estimated based on pose from images and rotation from a gyroscope (e.g., using least-squares estimation with QR factorization or a Kalman filter). The parameters indicate rotation, scale and/or non-orthogonality parameters and optionally gyroscope bias errors. In addition, the scale and non-orthogonality parameters may be used for conditioning raw gyroscope measurements to compensate for scale and non-orthogonality.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2015
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Mahesh Ramachandran, Christopher Brunner, Murali R. Chari, Serafin Diaz Spindola
  • Publication number: 20150094089
    Abstract: Embodiments disclosed obtain a plurality of measurement sets from a plurality of sensors in conjunction with the capture of a sequence of exterior and interior images of a structure while traversing locations in and around the structure. Each measurement set may be associated with at least one image. An external structural envelope of the structure is determined from exterior images of the structure and the corresponding outdoor trajectory of a UE. The position and orientation of the structure and the structural envelope is determined in absolute coordinates. Further, an indoor map of the structure in absolute coordinates may be obtained based on interior images of the structure, a structural envelope in absolute coordinates, and measurements associated with the indoor trajectory of the UE during traversal of the indoor area to capture the interior images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2014
    Publication date: April 2, 2015
    Inventors: Mark Leo Moeglein, Christopher Brunner, Hui Chao, Murali Ramaswamy Chari, Arvind Ramanandan, Mahesh Ramachandran, Abhishek Tyagi
  • Publication number: 20150092985
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for estimating one or more parameters in a system. A device obtains measurements corresponding to a first set of features and a second set of features. The device estimates the parameters using an extended Kalman filter based on the measurements corresponding to the first set of features and the second set of features. The measurements corresponding to the first set of features are used to update the one or more parameters, and information corresponding to the first set of features. The measurements corresponding to the second set of features are used to update the parameters and uncertainty corresponding to the parameter. In on example, information corresponding to the second set of features is not updated during the estimating. Moreover, the parameters are estimated without projecting the information corresponding to the second set of features into a null-space.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2014
    Publication date: April 2, 2015
    Inventors: Mahesh RAMACHANDRAN, Arvind RAMANANDAN, Christopher BRUNNER, Abhishek TYAGI, Murali Ramaswamy CHARI, Mingyang LI
  • Publication number: 20150094952
    Abstract: Embodiments disclosed pertain to the use of user equipment (UE) for the generation of a 3D exterior envelope of a structure based on captured images and a measurement set associated with each captured image. In some embodiments, a sequence of exterior images of a structure is captured and a corresponding measurement set comprising Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) measurements, wireless measurements (including Global Navigation Satellite (GNSS) measurements) and/or other non-wireless sensor measurements may be obtained concurrently. A closed-loop trajectory of the UE in global coordinates may be determined and a 3D structural envelope of the structure may be obtained based on the closed loop trajectory and feature points in a subset of images selected from the sequence of exterior images of the structure.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2014
    Publication date: April 2, 2015
    Inventors: Mark Leo MOEGLEIN, Christopher BRUNNER, Arvind RAMANANDAN, Mahesh RAMACHANDRAN, Abhishek TYAGI, Murali Ramaswamy CHARI
  • Publication number: 20150092048
    Abstract: A Visual Inertial Tracker (VIT), such as a Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) system based on an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) framework (EKF-SLAM) can provide drift correction in calculations of a pose (translation and orientation) of a mobile device by obtaining location information regarding a target, obtaining an image of the target, estimating, from the image of the target, measurements relating to a pose of the mobile device based on the image and location information, and correcting a pose determination of the mobile device using an EKF, based, at least in part, on the measurements relating to the pose of the mobile device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2014
    Publication date: April 2, 2015
    Inventors: Christopher Brunner, Arvind Ramanandan, Mahesh Ramachandran, Abhishek Tyagi, Murali Ramaswamy Chari
  • Patent number: 8880373
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus are described herein for calibration and correction of non-constant sensor errors, and in particular non-constant compass errors, that are based in part on changing software and hardware modes of a host device. The non-constant errors induced in the sensor by each mode and combination of modes is determined in a calibration that may be determined during pre-production testing of one or more host devices. The calibration results can be incorporated into software and/or hardware of the host device. During normal operation, a sensor correction can be applied to sensor measurements based in part on the active mode or combination of modes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2014
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Victor Kulik, Christopher Brunner