Wireless communications terminal, computer program executable by wireless communications terminal and method for outputting positional information from wireless communications terminal

• US 20030043069A1
• Filed: 08/26/2002
• Published: 03/06/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Takeuchi, Toshihiro, Ogino, Hiroyasu, Shamoto, Michio, Hayashida, Atsushi, Shintai, Tatsuya, Oda, Kyoji
• Granted Patent: US 6,690,322 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/357.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/047 Displays or indicators G01S1/06 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/12 wherein the cooperating elements are telecommunication base stations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/47 the supplementary measurement being an inertial measurement, e.g. tightly coupled inertial
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/008 using a mobile telephone network
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0036 of measured values, i.e. measurement on mobile and position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0054 of actual mobile position, i.e. position calculation on base station

Abstract

A cellular phone receives a position measurement result, which indicates a position of the cellular phone determined based on both GPS satellite information and CDMA base station information, from a location information server. Then, when a value indicated by uncertainty information of the position measurement result is greater than a first threshold value, the cellular phone receives another position measurement result, which indicates the position of the cellular phone determined based only on the CDMA base station information, from the location information server and displays it on a display device.

Claims

1. A wireless communications terminal comprising:

a plurality of searching means, each for searching at least one corresponding external signal source, which outputs a signal usable in determining a position of the wireless communications terminal, and for outputting search information about the at least one corresponding external signal source, which is obtained through the searching of the at least one corresponding external signal source, wherein the plurality of searching means includes;

a first searching means for searching at least one GPS satellite as the at least one corresponding external signal source; and

a second searching means for searching at least one base station as the at least one corresponding external signal source;

a wireless telephone transceiver means for performing wireless telephone communication with a corresponding one of the at least one base station;

an outputting means for outputting positional information of the wireless communications system; and

a control means for controlling the plurality of searching means, the wireless telephone transceiver means and the outputting means, wherein;

the control means receives each search information from each searching means and transmits each search information to an external location information server through the wireless telephone transceiver means, wherein the external location information server is capable of generating a plurality of position measurement results, each of which indicates the position of the wireless communications terminal, based on the search information of at least one of the plurality of searching means and is also capable of transmitting each of the position measurement results;

the control means receives a first one of the position measurement results, which is transmitted from the external location information server, through the wireless telephone transceiver means and determines whether a predetermined condition is satisfied; and

when the control means determines that the predetermined condition is satisfied, the control means receives a second one of the position measurement results, which is transmitted from the external location information server, through the wireless telephone transceiver means and outputs the second one of the position measurement results to the outputting means, so that the outputting means outputs the second one of the position measurement results as the positional information of the wireless communications terminal.

2. A wireless communications terminal according to claim 1, wherein the control means receives the second one of the position measurement results, which is transmitted from the external location information server, through the wireless telephone transceiver means without actuating the plurality of searching means when the control means determines that the predetermined condition is satisfied.

3. A wireless communications terminal according to claim 1, wherein:

the external location information server is further capable of generating and transmitting uncertainty information of each of the position measurement results, wherein the uncertainty information of each of the position measurement results indicates an uncertainty level of each of the position measurement results;

the control means receives the uncertainty information of the first one of the position measurement results through the wireless telephone transceiver means and determines whether the uncertainty level indicated by the uncertainty information of the first one of the position measurement results is greater than a predetermined first threshold value; and

when the control means determines that the uncertainty level indicated by the uncertainty information of the first one of the position measurement results is greater than the predetermined first threshold value, the control means determines that the predetermined condition is satisfied.

4. A wireless communications terminal according to claim 3, further comprising an operating means for allowing a user to operate the wireless communications terminal, wherein the control means sets the predetermined first threshold value when the user performs a predetermined first operation through the operating means.

5. A wireless communications terminal according to claim 1, further comprising an operating means for allowing an user to operate the wireless communications terminal, wherein the control means determines that the predetermined condition is satisfied when the user performs a predetermined second operation through the operating means.

6. A wireless communications terminal according to claim 1, wherein the control means simultaneously outputs both the first one and second one of the position measurement results to the outputting means, so that the outputting means outputs both the first one and second one of the position measurement results as the positional information of the wireless communications terminal.

7. A wireless communications terminal according to claim 1, wherein:

the external location information server is further capable of generating and transmitting uncertainty information of each of the position measurement results, wherein the uncertainty information of each of the position measurement results indicates an uncertainty level of each of the position measurement results;

the first one of the position measurement results is generated based on both the search information of the first searching means for searching the at least one GPS satellite and the search information of the second searching means for searching the at least one base station;

the second one of the position measurement results is generated based only on the search information of the second searching means for searching the at least one base station;

when the control means determines that the uncertainty level indicated by the uncertainty information of the second one of the position measurement results is greater than a predetermined second threshold value, the control means outputs a position of the corresponding one of the at least one base station, which currently communicates with the wireless communications terminal, to the outputting means, so that the outputting means outputs the position of the corresponding one of the at least one base station, which currently communicates with the wireless communications terminal, as the position information of the wireless communications terminal.

8. A wireless communications terminal according to claim 1, wherein:

the outputting means includes a display device;

the first one of the position measurement results is generated based on both the search information of the first searching means for searching the at least one GPS satellite and the search information of the second searching means for searching the at least one base station;

the second one of the position measurement results is generated based only on one of;

the search information of the first searching means for searching the at least one GPS satellite; and

the search information of the second searching means for searching the at least one base station;

when the control means determines that the predetermined condition is not satisfied, the control means commands the display device to display the first one of the position measurement results together with a first source indication, which indicates that the first one of the position measurement results is generated based on both the search information of the first searching means for searching the at least one GPS satellite and the search information of the second searching means for searching the at least one base station; and

when the control means determines that the predetermined condition is satisfied, the control means commands the display device to display the second one of the position measurement results together with a second source indication, which indicates that the second one of the position measurement results is generated based only on the corresponding one of the search information of the first searching means for searching the at least one GPS satellite and the search information of the second searching means for searching the at least one base station.

9. A wireless communications terminal according to claim 8, wherein:

the external location information server is further capable of generating and transmitting uncertainty information of each of the position measurement results, wherein the uncertainty information of each of the position measurement results indicates an uncertainty level of each of the position measurement results;

the control means receives the uncertainty information of the first one of the position measurement results through the wireless telephone transceiver means and determines whether the uncertainty level indicated by the uncertainty information of the first one of the position measurement results is greater than a predetermined first threshold value;

when the control means determines that the uncertainty level indicated by the uncertainty information of the first one of the position measurement results is greater than the predetermined first threshold value, the control means determines that the predetermined condition is satisfied;

the control means receives the uncertainty information of the second one of the position measurement results through the wireless telephone transceiver means and determines whether the uncertainty level indicated by the uncertainty information of the second one of the position measurement results is greater than a predetermined second threshold value before the control means commands the display device to display the second one of the position measurement results together with the second source indication;

when the control means determines that the uncertainty level indicated by the uncertainty information of the second one of the position measurement results is not greater than the predetermined second threshold value, the control means commands the display device to display the second one of the position measurement results together with the second source indication;

when the control means determines that the uncertainty level indicated by the uncertainty information of the second one of the position measurement results is greater than the predetermined second threshold value, the control means commands the display device to display a position of the corresponding one of the at least one base station, which currently communicates with the wireless communications terminal, together with a third source indication, which indicates that the position of the corresponding one of the at least one base station, which currently communicates with the wireless communications terminal, is displayed on the display device.

10. A wireless communications terminal according to claim 9, wherein:

the second one of the position measurement results is generated based only on the search information of the second searching means for searching the at least one base station;

the second source indication indicates that the second one of the position measurement results is generated based only on the search information of the second searching means for searching the at least one base station;

when the control means determines that the uncertainty level indicated by the uncertainty information of the second one of the position measurement results is greater than the predetermined second threshold value, the control means commands the display device to display all of;

the first one of the position measurement results together with the first source indication;

the second one of the position measurement results together with the second source indication; and

the position of the corresponding one of the at least one base station, which currently communicates with the wireless communications terminal, together with the third source indication.

11. A wireless communications terminal according to claim 10, wherein when the control means determines that the uncertainty level indicated by the uncertainty information of the second one of the position measurement results is greater than the predetermined second threshold value, the control means receives a third one of the position measurement results, which is generated by the external location information server based only on the search information of the first searching means for searching the at least one GPS satellite, and commands the display device to further display the third one of the position measurement results together with a fourth indication, which indicates that the third one of the position measurement results is generated based only on the search information of the first searching means for searching the at least one GPS satellite.

12. A wireless communications terminal according to claim 8, wherein when the control means determines that the predetermined condition is satisfied, the control means commands the display device to display the first one of the position measurement results together with the first source indication in addition to the second one of the position measurement results together with the second source indication.

13. A wireless communications terminal according to claim 8, wherein when the control means determines that the predetermined condition is satisfied, the control means commands the display device to display the second one of the position measurement results together with the second source indication without displaying the first one of the position measurement results and the first source indication.

14. A wireless communications terminal according to claim 8, wherein:

the display device is capable of displaying a mode selection screen, through which a user manually selects one of a plurality of display modes; and

selection of each of the display modes causes display of a corresponding one of the position measurement results on the display device.

15. A computer program executable by a wireless communications terminal, the computer program comprising instructions for:

receiving search information from each of a plurality of searching means, each for searching at least one corresponding external signal source, which outputs a signal usable in determining a position of the wireless communications terminal, and for outputting the search information about the at least one corresponding external signal source, which is obtained through the searching of the at least one corresponding external signal source, wherein the plurality of searching means includes a first searching means for searching at least one GPS satellite as the at least one corresponding external signal source and a second searching means for searching at least one base station as the at least one corresponding external signal source;

transmitting the search information of each of the plurality of searching means to an external location information server through a wireless telephone transceiver means for performing wireless telephone communication with a corresponding one of the at least one base station;

receiving a first one of a plurality of position measurement results, each of which indicates the position of the wireless communications terminal, from the external location information server through the wireless telephone transceiver means, wherein the position measurement results are generated by the external location information server based on the search information of at least one of the plurality of searching means;

determining whether a predetermined condition is satisfied;

receiving a second one of the position measurement results from the external location information server through the wireless telephone transceiver means when it is determined that the predetermined condition is satisfied; and

inputting the second one of the position measurement results to an outputting means for outputting positional information of the wireless communications system, so that the outputting means outputs the second one of the position measurement results as the positional information of the wireless communications terminal.

16. A method for outputting positional information from a wireless communications terminal, the method comprising:

receiving search information from each of a plurality of searching means, each for searching at least one corresponding external signal source, which outputs a signal usable in determining a position of the wireless communications terminal, and for outputting the search information about the at least one corresponding external signal source, which is obtained through the searching of the at least one corresponding external signal source, wherein the plurality of searching means includes a first searching means for searching at least one GPS satellite as the at least one corresponding external signal source and a second searching means for searching at least one base station as the at least one corresponding external signal source;

transmitting the search information of each of the plurality of searching means to an external location information server through a wireless telephone transceiver means for performing wireless telephone communication with a corresponding one of the at least one base station;

receiving a first one of a plurality of position measurement results, each of which indicates the position of the wireless communications terminal, from the external location information server through the wireless telephone transceiver means, wherein the position measurement results are generated by the external location information server based on the search information of at least one of the plurality of searching means;

determining whether a predetermined condition is satisfied;

receiving a second one of the position measurement results from the external location information server through the wireless telephone transceiver means when it is determined that the predetermined condition is satisfied; and

inputting the second one of the position measurement results to an outputting means for outputting positional information of the wireless communications system, so that the outputting means outputs the second one of the position measurement results as the positional information of the wireless communications terminal.