Global Localization from Monocular SLAM on a Mobile Phone

Abstract

We propose the combination of a keyframe-based monocular SLAM system and a global localization method. The SLAM system runs locally on a camera-equipped mobile client and provides continuous, relative 6DoF pose estimation as well as keyframe images with computed camera locations. As the local map expands, a server process localizes the keyframes with a pre-made, globally-registered map and returns the global registration correction to the mobile client. The localization result is updated each time a keyframe is added, and observations of global anchor points are added to the client-side bundle adjustment process to further refine the SLAM map registration and limit drift. The end result is a 6DoF tracking and mapping system which provides globally registered tracking in real-time on a mobile device, overcomes the difficulties of localization with a narrow field-of-view mobile phone camera, and is not limited to tracking only in areas covered by the offline reconstruction.