Analysis and monitoring of a positioning infrastructure

• US 10,200,965 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2017
• Issued: 02/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (HERE Holding Corporation)
• Original Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (HERE Holding Corporation)
• Inventors: Wirola, Lauri Aarne Johannes, Khan, Muhammad Irshan, Ivanov, Pavel, Syrjarinne, Jari Tapani
• Primary Examiner(s): Doan, Phuoc H
• Application Number:
  US15/638,824
• Publication Number:
  US 20180007654A1
• Time in Patent Office: 585 Days
• Field of Search: 370328, 370331, 455405, 455410, 4554561
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0244 Accuracy or reliability of position solution or of measurements contributing thereto
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02521 using a radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/04 using association of physical positions and logical data in a dedicated environment, e.g. buildings or vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/30 Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/244 using a network of reference devices, e.g. beaconing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

It is disclosed a method comprising one or more of the following: a first determining whether or not at least one characteristic that has been derived from a coverage map being representative of respective coverage areas of a plurality of beacons deployed in an area is affected at least by a count of the beacons deployed in the area and to their respective positions and affects an accuracy of a positioning of one or more terminals located in the area that is at least based on the coverage map and on respective fingerprints provided by the one or more terminals, is considered at least partially insufficient, and a providing, in case the first determining has come to an affirmative result, of first information on the at least one characteristic considered at least partially insufficient and/or on instances that at least contributed to the at least one characteristic being considered at least partially insufficient; a second determining, at least based on one or more fingerprints received from one or more terminals, whether or not an existing coverage map for an area can still be considered to be representative of respective coverage areas of a plurality of beacons deployed in the area, and a providing, in case the second determining has come to an affirmative result, of second information indicative of the result and/or indicative of why the existing coverage map is no longer considered to be representative of the respective coverage areas of the plurality of beacons deployed in the area; a third determining whether or not a status of a beacon on which information is transmitted by the beacon and received and provided by a terminal is considered improvable, and a providing, in case the third determining has come to an affirmative result, of third information on the beacon and/or on the status of the beacon; a deriving, from a coverage map that is representative of respective coverage areas of a plurality of beacons deployed in an area, of respective positions of one or more of the beacons, and a providing of fourth information representative of one or more of the derived respective positions of the one or more beacons.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause an apparatus at least to perform and/or control:

a first determining whether or not at least one characteristic that has been derived from a coverage map being representative of respective coverage areas of a plurality of beacons deployed in an area is affected at least by a count of the beacons deployed in the area and to their respective positions and affects an accuracy of a positioning of one or more terminals located in the area that is at least based on the coverage map and on respective fingerprints provided by the one or more terminals, is considered at least partially insufficient, and a providing, in case the first determining has come to an affirmative result, of first information on the at least one characteristic considered at least partially insufficient and/or on instances that at least contributed to the at least one characteristic being considered at least partially insufficient;

a second determining, at least based on one or more fingerprints provided by one or more terminals, whether or not an existing coverage map for an area can still be considered to be representative of respective coverage areas of a plurality of beacons deployed in the area, and a providing, in case the second determining has come to an affirmative result, of second information indicative of the result and/or indicative of why the existing coverage map is no longer considered to be representative of the respective coverage areas of the plurality of beacons deployed in the area;

a third determining whether or not a status of a beacon on which information is transmitted by the beacon and received and provided by a terminal is considered improvable, and a providing, in case the third determining has come to an affirmative result, of third information on the beacon and/or on the status of the beacon; and

a deriving, from a coverage map that is representative of respective coverage areas of a plurality of beacons deployed in an area, of respective positions of one or more of the beacons, and a providing of fourth information representative of one or more of the derived respective positions of the one or more beacons.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform and/or control the first determining and the providing of the first information, and wherein at least one of the at least one characteristic considers at least one or more of the following:

respective numbers of all respective one or more beacons respectively observable at a plurality of pre-defined locations in the area or of a subgroup of these all respective one or more beacons;

at least one characteristic of respective signal strengths with which one or more respective beacons are respectively observable at a plurality of pre-defined locations in the area;

respective arrangements of one or more respective beacons respectively observable at a plurality of pre-defined locations in the area with respect to the respective pre-defined location;

respective distances between beacons of the beacons and other beacons of the beacons.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform and/or control the first determining and the providing of the first information, and wherein the at least one characteristic comprises one or more of the following:

a first characteristic that is a set of respective numbers of all respective one or more beacons respectively observable at a plurality of pre-defined locations in the area or of a subgroup of these all respective one or more beacons;

the first characteristic being considered at least partially insufficient if one or more of the numbers of the set is smaller than or equal-to-or-smaller-than a predefined threshold;

a second characteristic that is a set of respective properties of respective signal strengths with which one or more respective beacons are respectively observable at a plurality of pre-defined locations in the area;

the second characteristic being considered at least partially insufficient if one or more of the properties of the set of properties are in pre-defined relation with respect to a pre-defined threshold;

a third characteristic that is a set of respective measures related to a respective arrangement of one or more respective beacons observable at a plurality of pre-defined locations in the area with respect to the respective pre-defined location;

the third characteristic being considered at least partially insufficient if one or more of the measures of the set are in a pre-defined relation with respect to a pre-defined threshold;

a fourth characteristic that is a set of respective distances between all beacons of the beacons and their respectively closest neighboring beacon of the beacons, the fourth characteristic being considered at least partially insufficient if one or more of the distances are larger or equal-to-or-larger-than a pre-defined threshold.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the measure related to an arrangement of one or more beacons observable at a pre-defined location is a dilution-of-precision metric, or is related to the size or normalized size of the line segment, area or volume spanned by the tips of respective units vectors originating in the pre-defined location and having a direction that is determined by the respective position of the one or more beacons, or is related to a trace of an inverse of a matrix product H^T·

H, where T denotes transposition, H is an N×

m matrix that contains in each row an m-dimensional unit vector originating in the pre-defined location and pointing towards the beacon n with n ranging from 1 to N and N denoting the number of beacons observable at the pre-defined location.

5. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the measure related to an arrangement of one or more beacons observable at a pre-defined location is the minimum angle from a set of angles, wherein each angle of the set of angles relates to a different pair of beacons of the one or more beacons observable at the pre-defined location, wherein for each possible pair of beacons of the one or more beacons observable at the pre-defined location, a respective angle is comprised in the set of angles and is defined as the absolute value of the difference between the smaller angle between a first vector originating in the pre-defined location and pointing towards a position of a beacon of the pair of beacons and a second vector originating in the pre-defined location and pointing towards a position of the other beacon of the pair of beacons and 90°

.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform and/or control the second determining and the providing of the second information, wherein one or more of the following is considered in the second determining:

a deviation of a strength of a respective signal received from a beacon by at least one terminal at an estimated position in the area from a value indicated by the existing coverage map for this position and beacon;

at least one beacon in the area that has been observed by one or more terminals but is not yet represented in the existing coverage map;

at least one beacon represented in the existing coverage map by a coverage area but which is not observed by one or more terminals at respective estimated positions within the coverage area;

at least one beacon represented in the existing coverage map by a coverage area but which is observed by one or more terminals at respective estimated positions outside the coverage area.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform and/or control the second determining and the providing of the second information, wherein it is determined that the existing coverage map is no longer considered to be representative of respective coverage areas of the plurality of beacons deployed in the area in one or more of the following cases:

a number of beacons, for any of which in at least a pre-defined number of instances, a deviation of a strength of a respective signal received from the beacon by a respective terminal at a respective estimated position in the area from a value indicated by the existing coverage map for this respective position and beacon is larger than or larger-than-or-equal-to a pre-defined threshold, is larger than or larger-than-or-equal-to a pre-defined threshold;

a number of beacons, each of which has been observed by one or more respective terminals but is not yet represented in the existing coverage map, is larger than or larger-than-or-equal-to a pre-defined threshold;

a number of beacons, each of which is represented in the existing coverage map by a respective coverage area but is not observed by one or more respective terminals at respective estimated positions within the respective coverage area, is larger than or larger-than-or-equal-to a pre-defined threshold;

a number of beacons, each of which is represented in the existing coverage map by a respective coverage area but is observed by one or more terminals at respective estimated positions outside the respective coverage area, is larger than or larger-than-or-equal-to a pre-defined threshold.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform and/or control the third determining and the providing of the third information, wherein the status of the beacon is related to a power source of the beacon, in particular to a battery thereof.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform and/or control the deriving of the respective positions of the one or more beacons from the coverage map and the providing of the fourth information, wherein the respective position of at least one the one or more beacons is determined as the position where the coverage map indicates a maximum value of a strength of a signal received from the beacon.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first, second, third and/or fourth information is provided by displaying it or a representation thereof on a display.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the first, second, third and/or fourth information or the representation thereof is at least partially displayed together and/or aligned with a map or plan of the area.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform and/or control the deriving of the respective positions of the one or more beacons from the coverage map and the providing of the fourth information, and further one or more of the first determining and the providing of the first information, the second determining and the providing of the second information, and the third determining and the providing of the third information, wherein at least for those one or more beacons, to which the first information, the second information and/or the third information respectively pertains, information representative of their derived positions is provided.

13. A method performed and/or controlled by at least one apparatus, the method comprising one or more of the following:

a first determining whether or not at least one characteristic that has been derived from a coverage map being representative of respective coverage areas of a plurality of beacons deployed in an area is affected at least by a count of the beacons deployed in the area and to their respective positions and affects an accuracy of a positioning of one or more terminals located in the area that is at least based on the coverage map and on respective fingerprints provided by the one or more terminals, is considered at least partially insufficient, and a providing, in case the first determining has come to an affirmative result, of first information on the at least one characteristic considered at least partially insufficient and/or on instances that at least contributed to the at least one characteristic being considered at least partially insufficient;

a second determining, at least based on one or more fingerprints provided by one or more terminals, whether or not an existing coverage map for an area can still be considered to be representative of respective coverage areas of a plurality of beacons deployed in the area, and a providing, in case the second determining has come to an affirmative result, of second information indicative of the result and/or indicative of why the existing coverage map is no longer considered to be representative of the respective coverage areas of the plurality of beacons deployed in the area;

a third determining whether or not a status of a beacon on which information is transmitted by the beacon and received and provided by a terminal is considered improvable, and a providing, in case the third determining has come to an affirmative result, of third information on the beacon and/or on the status of the beacon; and

a deriving, from a coverage map that is representative of respective coverage areas of a plurality of beacons deployed in an area, of respective positions of one or more of the beacons, and a providing of fourth information representative of one or more of the derived respective positions of the one or more beacons.

14. The method according to claim 13, comprising at least the first determining and the providing of the first information, wherein at least one of the at least one characteristic considers at least one or more of the following:

respective numbers of all respective one or more beacons respectively observable at a plurality of pre-defined locations in the area or of a subgroup of these all respective one or more beacons;

at least one characteristic of respective signal strengths with which one or more respective beacons are respectively observable at a plurality of pre-defined locations in the area;

respective arrangements of one or more respective beacons respectively observable at a plurality of pre-defined locations in the area with respect to the respective pre-defined location;

respective distances between beacons of the beacons and other beacons of the beacons.

15. The method according to claim 13, comprising at least the first determining and the providing of the first information, wherein the at least one characteristic comprises one or more of the following:

a first characteristic that is a set of respective numbers of all respective one or more beacons respectively observable at a plurality of pre-defined locations in the area or of a subgroup of these all respective one or more beacons;

the first characteristic being considered at least partially insufficient if one or more of the numbers of the set is smaller than or equal-to-or-smaller-than a predefined threshold;

a second characteristic that is a set of respective properties of respective signal strengths with which one or more respective beacons are respectively observable at a plurality of pre-defined locations in the area;

the second characteristic being considered at least partially insufficient if one or more of the properties of the set of properties are in pre-defined relation with respect to a pre-defined threshold;

a third characteristic that is a set of respective measures related to a respective arrangement of one or more respective beacons observable at a plurality of pre-defined locations in the area with respect to the respective pre-defined location;

the third characteristic being considered at least partially insufficient if one or more of the measures of the set are in a pre-defined relation with respect to a pre-defined threshold;

a fourth characteristic that is a set of respective distances between all beacons of the beacons and their respectively closest neighboring beacon of the beacons, the fourth characteristic being considered at least partially insufficient if one or more of the distances are larger or equal-to-or-larger-than a pre-defined threshold.

16. The method according to claim 13, comprising at least the second determining and the providing of the second information, wherein one or more of the following is considered in the second determining:

a deviation of a strength of a respective signal received from a beacon by at least one terminal at an estimated position in the area from a value indicated by the existing coverage map for this position and beacon;

at least one beacon in the area that has been observed by one or more terminals but is not yet represented in the existing coverage map;

at least one beacon represented in the existing coverage map by a coverage area but which is not observed by one or more terminals at respective estimated positions within the coverage area;

at least one beacon represented in the existing coverage map by a coverage area but which is observed by one or more terminals at respective estimated positions outside the coverage area.

17. The method according to claim 13, comprising at least the second determining and the providing of the second information, wherein it is determined that the existing coverage map is no longer considered to be representative of respective coverage areas of the plurality of beacons deployed in the area in one or more of the following cases:

a number of beacons, for any of which in at least a pre-defined number of instances, a deviation of a strength of a respective signal received from the beacon by a respective terminal at a respective estimated position in the area from a value indicated by the existing coverage map for this respective position and beacon is larger than or larger-than-or-equal-to a pre-defined threshold, is larger than or larger-than-or-equal-to a pre-defined threshold;

a number of beacons, each of which has been observed by one or more respective terminals but is not yet represented in the existing coverage map, is larger than or larger-than-or-equal-to a pre-defined threshold;

a number of beacons, each of which is represented in the existing coverage map by a respective coverage area but is not observed by one or more respective terminals at respective estimated positions within the respective coverage area, is larger than or larger-than-or-equal-to a pre-defined threshold;

a number of beacons, each of which is represented in the existing coverage map by a respective coverage area but is observed by one or more terminals at respective estimated positions outside the respective coverage area, is larger than or larger-than-or-equal-to a pre-defined threshold.

18. The method according to claim 13, comprising at least the third determining and the providing of the third information, wherein the status of the beacon is related to a power source of the beacon, in particular to a battery thereof.

19. The method according to claim 13, comprising the deriving of the respective positions of the one or more beacons from the coverage map and the providing of the fourth information, wherein the respective position of at least one the one or more beacons is determined as the position where the coverage map indicates a maximum value of a strength of a signal received from the beacon.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer program code, the computer program code when executed by a processor causing an apparatus to perform:

a first determining whether or not at least one characteristic that has been derived from a coverage map being representative of respective coverage areas of a plurality of beacons deployed in an area is affected at least by a count of the beacons deployed in the area and to their respective positions and affects an accuracy of a positioning of one or more terminals located in the area that is at least based on the coverage map and on respective fingerprints provided by the one or more terminals, is considered at least partially insufficient, and a providing, in case the first determining has come to an affirmative result, of first information on the at least one characteristic considered at least partially insufficient and/or on instances that at least contributed to the at least one characteristic being considered at least partially insufficient;

a second determining, at least based on one or more fingerprints provided by one or more terminals, whether or not an existing coverage map for an area can still be considered to be representative of respective coverage areas of a plurality of beacons deployed in the area, and a providing, in case the second determining has come to an affirmative result, of second information indicative of the result and/or indicative of why the existing coverage map is no longer considered to be representative of the respective coverage areas of the plurality of beacons deployed in the area;

a third determining whether or not a status of a beacon on which information is transmitted by the beacon and received and provided by a terminal is considered improvable, and a providing, in case the third determining has come to an affirmative result, of third information on the beacon and/or on the status of the beacon; and

a deriving, from a coverage map that is representative of respective coverage areas of a plurality of beacons deployed in an area, of respective positions of one or more of the beacons, and a providing of fourth information representative of one or more of the derived respective positions of the one or more beacons.