The Boeing Company

Theboeing Company

Christopher Esposito

James J Troy

Vladimir Karakusevic

Kevin Puterbaugh

John Carney Gass

Nikoli Prazak

William Eric Ward

Jeff Alan Heisserman

Bruce Lydell Nelson

William McGarry

Methods and devices that determine a position on the ground of a laser that emits a laser beam that strikes an aircraft. The process includes determining a strike position from a camera that is located on the aircraft. A relative direction vector of the laser beam is computed with respect to the camera. The relative direction vector is converted into a global coordinate direction vector. The position on the ground of the laser is determined based on a point where the global coordinate direction vector intersects with the ground representation.

Laser strike origin determination for an aircraft

A method and apparatus for checking compliance of a design for a product with design rules. An executable rule module comprising the design rules is received. The design rules comprise design checking rules that specify conditions. Design data representing the design is received. The executable rule module is run using the design data to determine compliance of the design with the design rules by determining whether the design satisfies the conditions. A compliance report to indicate the compliance of the design with the design rules is generated. The design data may be used to manufacture the product in response to a determination that the design complies with the design rules.

Rule compliance checking and design generation with rule access security

A method for providing just-in-time access to data for calibrating an augmented reality (AR) device relative to an operation environment and then using the calibration data to register virtual content generated by the AR device with a scene being viewed by a user in the operation environment. An AR device is calibrated by pairing marker identifiers of 2-D markers affixed to objects in a physical environment with 3-D locations of those objects specified in a virtual environment containing 3-D model of those objects and then a marker-to-model location pairing list is generated. The pairing list is used to align displayed virtual 3-D content with an object appearing in the visualized physical environment. A location correction is computed at run-time based on a current AR device-to-marker offset computed from an image of the 2-D marker and the 3-D location of the object retrieved from the pairing list.

Marker-to-model location pairing and registration for augmented reality applications

In an example, a method for navigating within a visual representation of a three-dimensional (3D) environment is described. The method includes detecting a selection of a translational input trigger at a translational origin in a translational input region of a user interface. The method includes detecting that the translational input trigger has been moved from the translational origin to a point on a translational control border. The method includes detecting that the translational input trigger has been moved from within the position direct control zone to a location within the position rate control zone. The method includes, responsive to detecting that the translational input trigger has been moved from within the position direct control zone to the location within the position rate control zone, translating the field of view in the visual representation of the 3D environment at a velocity corresponding to the location within the position rate control zone.

Systems and methods for navigating within a visual representation of a three-dimensional environment

Apparatus and methods for displaying a three-dimensional model image of a portion of a target object. An imaging device is equipped with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a processor configured to execute a three-dimensional (3-D) visualization application. The IMU is used to track movement of the imaging device relative to a known initial location in a frame of reference of the target object. Imaging device position offsets are computed using relative position and orientation information acquired by a dead-reckoning process. The processor is configured to execute an algorithm that combines orientation data from the IMU with walking step information to produce a piecewise linear approximation for relative motion measurement. The resulting relative location data can then be used by the 3-D visualization application to provide an estimated 3-D viewpoint to display a 3-D model of a feature in the imaged area of interest.

Positioning enhancements to localization process for three-dimensional visualization

An apparatus includes a directional scanner configured to receive signals from at least three RFID tags at a plurality of orientations of the directional scanner. The apparatus includes a pose estimator configured to estimate a pose of a device that includes or is coupled to the directional scanner based on orientation data indicating orientations of the directional scanner associated with determined peak signal strengths associated with the at least three RFID tags.

Pose estimation using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags

Systems and methods for constructing and saving files containing computer-generated image data with associated virtual camera location data during 3-D visualization of an object (e.g., an aircraft). The process tags computer-generated images with virtual camera location and settings information selected by the user while navigating a 3-D visualization of an object. The virtual camera location data in the saved image file can be used later as a way to return the viewpoint to the virtual camera location in the 3-D environment from where the image was taken. For example, these tagged images can later be drag-and-dropped onto the display screen while the 3-D visualization application is running to activate the process of retrieving and displaying a previously selected image. Multiple images can be loaded and then used to determine the relative viewpoint offset between images.

Synthetic geotagging for computer-generated images

Systems and methods for determining locations of a device in an environment where features are present. Passive code pattern markers are used as unique location landmarks to provide on-demand location information to the user of the device in an abstract, landmark-based reference system that can then be mapped into an underlying physical 3-D coordinate system to give location coordinates that can be used by other tools to determine a viewpoint. For example, a 3-D visualization system can be configured to set a viewpoint so that an image concurrently generated by a computer system presents a scene which approximates the scene being viewed by the user in the physical world at that moment in time.

Method for tracking a device in a landmark-based reference system

Methods for identifying parts of a target object (e.g., an airplane) using geotagged photographs captured on site by a hand-held imaging device. The geotagged photographs contain GPS location data and camera setting information. The embedded image metadata from two or more photographs is used to estimate the location (i.e., position and orientation) of the imaging device relative to the target object, which location is defined in the coordinate system of the target object. Once the coordinates of the area of interest on the target object are known, the part number and other information associated with the part can be determined when the imaging device viewpoint information is provided to a three-dimensional visualization environment that has access to three-dimensional models of the target object.

Methods for localization using geotagged photographs and three-dimensional visualization

A method for electronically pairing a plurality of control units with a plurality of objects in an aircraft is provided. The method includes identifying a selected control unit from the plurality of control units that will control a selected object from the plurality of objects, placing a hand-held scanner in close proximity to a first machine-readable tag on the selected control unit to acquire a first unique ID for only the selected control unit, placing the hand-held scanner in close proximity to a second machine-readable tag on the selected object to acquire a second unique ID for only the selected object, and associating the first unique ID with the second unique ID to pair the selected control unit with the selected object.

Systems and methods for electronically pairing devices

A system is provided that includes a scanner movable relative to seat units and controllable devices each having RFID tags, the scanner configured to obtain a continuum of received signals, a distance sensor configured to determine a relative position of the scanner, a filter configured to disregard outliers and smooth the continuum into respective sets of received signal data, wherein each set of received signal data includes data points having a unique ID and a received signal strength, and wherein a relative time and a relative position are determined for each data point, and a processor configured to determine a relative location of each RFID tag, based on the relative position associated with maximum received signal strength within the set of received signal data, and generate a data file including pairings of seat units and associated controllable devices based on similar relative positions of RFID tags.

Systems and methods for automated device pairing

A method and apparatus for locating a part in an aircraft. A part is identified in the aircraft. A series of views is generated from a model of the aircraft with graphical indicators in the series of views configured to provide guidance to a position of the part in the aircraft. The series of views is displayed on a display device.

Locator system for three-dimensional visualization

In one embodiment, a computer-based system comprises a measurement device, a display, a processor, and logic instructions stored in a tangible computer-readable medium coupled to the processor which, when executed by the processor, configure the processor to determine a position and orientation in a real three dimensional space of the measurement device relative to at least one real object in the three dimensional space and render on the display, a perspective view of a virtual image of a virtual object corresponding to the real object in a virtual three-dimensional space, wherein the perspective view of the virtual object corresponds to the perspective view of the real object from the position of the measurement device.

Sensor-enhanced localization in virtual and physical environments

A system and method for determining the position and orientation of a handheld device relative to a known object is presented. The system comprises a handheld device having an inertial measurement unit and a sighting device, such as a laser pointer, that are used to determine the position of the handheld device relative to a target object, such as a structure, aircraft, or vehicle. The method comprises calibrating a handheld device to find the current location of the handheld device relative to a target object, tracking the movement of the handheld device using an inertial measurement unit, and presenting an updated position of the handheld device relative to a target object.

Growing community of inventors

Issaquah, WA, United States of America

Christopher Esposito