Smartphone Patent Review: Augmented Reality Service Using Location Based Information

US20110165893

Assignee: Samsung Electronics

Summary: This invention relate to an apparatus to provide an Augmented Reality (AR) service by combining a real camera image with local information provided by a location-based service (LBS).

Background: Conventionally, an AR service is deployed by tracking the current location of a camera with the aid of a Base Station (BS) of a mobile communication network and combining a camera image with a virtual image in real time, or by extracting a feature point (an image patch) to detect the current location and posture of a camera and positioning a 3D graphic or 3D information at an intended position by Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM). However, the BS-based location tracking method has limited accuracy because a BS basically covers a large area, whereas the SLAM-based feature point extraction method requires a huge amount of information to implement AR over an entire area (e.g. nationwide or worldwide) and the huge amount of information may not be stored in a terminal, because SLAM performs localization and mapping simultaneously.

Therefore, it is an aspect of the example embodiments to provide an apparatus, computer-readable medium and method of providing an Augmented Reality (AR) service using both a BS-based location tracking technique and a Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM)-based feature point detection technique by dividing an area for each BS, and allowing the BS to manage image patch data regarding the divided area. As a result, a user terminal needs less information.

The first Claim: An apparatus to provide an Augmented Reality (AR) service using location-based information in a user terminal communicating with a plurality of Base Stations (BSs), the apparatus comprising:

a camera to capture an actual image;

a controller to receive feature point information about the captured image from at least one of the plurality of BSs, detect a location of the camera by matching data of feature points to data of the image, and provide location-based information in a same direction as the captured image according to the location of the camera; and

a display to provide an AR service by combining the captured image with the location-based information under control of the controller.


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