US 12,085,407 B2
Updating a 3D map of an environment
Christoph Vogel, Zurich (CH); Jan-Willem Buurlage, Zurich (CH); Johannes Lutz Schonberger, Zurich (CH); Juan Ignacio Nieto Couadeau, Zurich (CH); Marc Andre Leon Pollefeys, Zurich (CH); Timon Esli Knigge, London (GB); and Marcel Nicolas Geppert, Zurich (CH)
Assigned to Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC., Redmond, WA (US)
Filed by Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed on May 12, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/743,430.
Prior Publication US 2023/0366696 A1, Nov. 16, 2023
Int. Cl. G01C 21/00 (2006.01); G06T 17/05 (2011.01)
CPC G01C 21/3811 (2020.08) [G01C 21/3848 (2020.08); G06T 17/05 (2013.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for updating a three dimensional (3D) map of an environment, the 3D map comprising sensor data items depicting the environment, the method comprising:
receiving, at a management node of a communications network comprising a plurality of worker nodes, the sensor data items, each of the sensor data items having an associated variable, a variable being a pose of a capture device or a position of a landmark, the sensor data items having been captured by the capture devices, wherein the landmark is located within the environment;
using at least the received sensor data items, calculating a graph, wherein the graph comprises nodes and edges, wherein a node represents a variable and wherein an edge represents a relationships between variables;
partitioning the graph into a plurality of subgraphs;
allocating each of the plurality of subgraphs to a respective one of the worker nodes of the plurality of worker nodes;
at each worker node, computing updated values of the variables of the subgraph;
updating values of variables which are shared between subgraphs to a common value using a consensus process, the updating including performing a global optimization on the variables to constrain the values of the variables shared between the plurality of the subgraphs to be the same; and
updating the 3D map according to the updated values of the variables.