Indoor positioning and recording system

Abstract

An indoor recording and positioning system for use in construction projects, as well as in a host of related industries and governmental activities, which system provides for immediate and complete retrieval of construction documents, such as floorplans, blueprints, and other specifications and requirements, keyed to and calibrated by the position of the user at the construction site, and allows for the efficient and timely completion of punch lists, reports, and the like.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A multilingual system to facilitate communications among persons located at targeted real property comprising:
 a plurality of handheld electronic mobile devices each having positioning and wireless capability, each of which being programmed to store locational information relating to said targeted real property in a preset language;   at least one electronic scanning device for scanning documents relating to said targeted real property; and   at least one computer under the control of an application program, which computer has capability for uploading of said scanned documents and which application program provides for communication between said computer and said devices in order to download said documents to each of said devices in the appropriate preset language based on the location of the user of said device at said targeted real property.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  in which said device is a smartphone. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1  in which said scanned documents are selected from the group comprising: surveys, floorplans, blueprints, and construction plans. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1  in which said persons are selected from the group comprised of: building inspectors, real estate agents, developers, maintenance teams, safety inspectors, property managers, contractors, subcontractors, surveyors, law enforcement officers, school administrators, warehouse managers, manufacturing managers, first responders, firemen, public safety workers, state officials, local officials, municipal officials, and government agency officials. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1  in which said preset languages are selected from the group comprising: English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German. 
     
     
         6 . A multilingual system for providing locational information to a person based on said person's indoor location at targeted real property comprising:
 at least one handheld electronic mobile device having positioning and wireless capability and being programmed to store indoor locational information relating to said targeted real property in a preset language;   at least one electronic scanning device for scanning documents relating to said targeted real property; and   at least one computer under the control of an application program, which computer has capability for uploading of said scanned documents and which application program downloads said documents to said device in the appropriate preset language based on the location of the person using said device at said targeted real property.   
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6  in which said device is a smartphone. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 6  in which said scanned documents are selected from the group comprising: surveys, floorplans, blueprints, and construction plans. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 6  in which said person is selected from the group comprised of: building inspectors, real estate agents, developers, maintenance teams, safety inspectors, property managers, contractors, subcontractors, surveyors, law enforcement officers, school administrators, warehouse managers, manufacturing managers, first responders, firemen, public safety workers, state officials, local officials, municipal officials, and government agency officials. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 6  in which said preset languages are selected from the group comprising: English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German. 
     
     
         11 . A multilingual method for facilitating communications among persons located at targeted real property and tracking their positions at said property comprising the steps of:
 scanning hardcopy plans for said property into uploadable electronic files;   labelling said electronic files;   uploading said electronic files into a server running under the control of an application program;   providing a handheld electronic mobile device having communication capability and global positioning capability to each of said persons in a preset language;   said server communicating with each of said mobile devices;   said program calibrating said files with locations of said at said property as determined by global positioning of each of said mobile devices at said property location;   downloading electronic files applicable to said property location into each of said mobile devices at such location,   displaying the position of and proximity to each of said persons on the screen of his or her mobile device on said plan of said property location and the proximity;   tracking said positions and proximities; and   recording each of said positions and proximities,   whereby each of said persons are able to communicate with each other in his or her language while navigating said property location using said plans and the proximity of each of said persons to others is recorded.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11  in which said mobile devices are smartphones. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11  in which said hardcopy plans are selected from the group comprising: surveys, floorplans, blueprints, construction plans, and punch lists. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11  in which said preset languages are selected from a group comprising: English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German. 
     
     
         15 . A multilingual system for remotely recording information relating to the completion of a punchlist for a construction project by construction team members working at the construction site and tracking the positions and proximities of said team members to each other comprising:
 a plurality of handheld electronic mobile devices each having indoor positioning capability and wireless capability, each of which being programmed to store construction progress information remotely at the construction project in a preset language;   at least one electronic scanning device;   at least one electronic punchlist; and   at least one computer having wireless capability connected to said scanning device, said computer running an application program that accesses said electronic punchlist stored in said computer and uploads construction plans scanned by said electronic scanning device into said computer, labels and calibrates said plans with indoor positioning information, connects wirelessly to said mobile devices, downloads said electronic punchlist and said scanned and labelled plans to each of said mobile devices wirelessly based on the then said team member's positioning at said construction project, uploads into said computer construction progress information related to said team member's construction work or observation of the progress of said construction work at said positioning at said construction project in said team member's preset language as entered into said team member's mobile device, tracks and records the positions of each team member at said construction project site and the proximities of each team member to other team members, processes said recorded uploaded progress information and tracking information, enters said progress information into said punchlist until its completion, and provides a record of said positions and proximities of each of said team members at said construction project site.   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15  in which said preset languages are selected from a group comprising: English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 15  in which said construction team members are selected from a group comprising: managers, employers, employees, construction workers, contractors, and owners. 
     
     
         18 . A method for completing a punchlist for a construction project at an indoor jobsite and tracking the proximity of construction team members to each other at said jobsite comprising the steps of:
 scanning floor plans into a server running under the control of an application program;   labelling said scanned floor plans by said application program;   uploading said scanned and labelled floor plans into said application program;   uploading one or more punchlists into said application program;   calibrating said scanned and labelled plans and punchlists with positioning information by said application program;   presetting a default language for each of a plurality of handheld electronic mobile devices having indoor positioning capability and wireless capability,   sending said calibrated punchlist and floor plans wirelessly to each of said plurality of said mobile devices each of which being programmed to accept the entering of construction progress information remotely at the indoor jobsite by members of said construction team in said preset default language;   calibrating each of said punchlist and floor plans with positioning information resident in each of said mobile devices;   recording progress of said indoor construction project by team members entering construction progress information into said mobile devices, which information is entered by each of said team members in his or her own preset language;   recording the positions of each of said team members at said jobsite and the proximity of each to others of said team members at said jobsite;   recording the completion of construction project tasks as reported by said team members in said punchlist; and   checking said punchlist to determine whether said project has been completed.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18  in which said preset languages are selected from a group comprising: English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18  in which said construction team members are selected from a group comprising: managers, employers, employees, construction workers, contractors, and owners. 
     
     
         21 . A system for tracking and recording positional information of persons at targeted real property comprising:
 a plurality of handheld electronic mobile devices having positioning and wireless capability and being programmed to store locational information relating to said targeted real property in the possession of said persons;   at least one electronic scanning device for scanning locational documents relating to said targeted real property; and   at least one computer under the control of an application program, which computer has capability for uploading of said scanned documents and which application program downloads said documents to said devices based on the location of the person using said device at said targeted real property, whereby the locations of each of said persons and the proximities of each of said persons to other persons is tracked is tracked and recorded by said computer.   
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 21  in which each of said devices is a smartphone. 
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 21  in which said scanned documents are selected from the group comprising: surveys, floorplans, blueprints, and construction plans. 
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 21  in which said persons are selected from the group comprised of: building inspectors, real estate agents, developers, maintenance teams, safety inspectors, property managers, contractors, subcontractors, surveyors, law enforcement officers, teachers, students, school administrators, warehouse managers, manufacturing managers, first responders, firemen, public safety workers, state officials, local officials, municipal officials, and government agency officials. 
     
     
         25 . A method for tracking and recording positional information of persons located at targeted real property comprising the steps of:
 scanning hardcopy plans for said property into uploadable electronic files;   labelling said electronic files;   uploading said electronic files into a server running under the control of an application program;   providing a plurality of handheld electronic mobile devices having positioning capability into the possession of each of said persons;   said server communicating with each of said mobile devices;   said program calibrating said files with locations of said at said property as determined by positioning of each of said mobile devices at said property location;   downloading electronic files applicable to said property location into each of said mobile devices at such location,   displaying the position of and proximity to each of said persons on the screen of his or her mobile device on said plan of said property location and the proximity;   tracking said positions and proximities; and   recording each of said positions and proximities,   whereby the locations of each of said persons and the proximities of each of said persons to other persons is tracked is tracked and recorded by said computer.   
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25  in which said mobile devices are smartphones. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 25  in which said hardcopy plans are selected from the group comprising: surveys, floorplans, blueprints, construction plans, and punch lists.