POSITIONING CONTROL DEVICE AND POSITIONING CONTROL METHOD

• US 20100103034A1
• Filed: 10/13/2009
• Published: 04/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: TSUDA, Masayuki, TSUCHIYA, Nirou, TOBE, Akiko
• Granted Patent: US 8,059,032 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/357.400
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/34 Power consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/42 Determining position

Abstract

A positioning control device includes a GPS hardware control unit that makes GPS determine a current location at different positioning accuracies, and a positioning request management unit that makes the GPS hardware control unit carry out positioning in response to a positioning request from an application according to a positioning accuracy specified in the positioning request, acquires the positioning result, and returns the acquired positioning result to the application of the request origin. In a case where a positioning accuracy of a new positioning request is equal to or less than a positioning accuracy of a latest positioning result, the positioning request management unit reuses the latest positioning result and returns the latest positioning result in response to the new positioning request.

Claims

1. A positioning control device that determines a current location based on positioning requests from a plurality of applications, comprising:

a positioning unit configured to determine a current location at a positioning accuracy specified by an application; and

a positioning request management unit configured to return a positioning result obtained by the positioning unit in response to the positioning request from the application,

wherein when there is a new positioning request from the application, in a case where a positioning accuracy specified in the new positioning request is equal to or less than a positioning accuracy specified in a prior positioning request, the positioning request management unit is configured to return a positioning result for responding the prior positioning request, in response to the new positioning request.

2. The positioning control device according to claim 1, wherein in a case where a new positioning request is received before returning a positioning result in response to a prior positioning request, the positioning request management unit is configured to return the positioning result for responding the prior positioning request, in response to the new positioning request.

3. The positioning control device according to claim 1, wherein in a case where a new positioning request is received within a prescribed amount of time after returning a positioning result in response to a prior positioning request, the positioning request management unit is configured to return the positioning result for responding the prior positioning request, in response to the new positioning request.

4. A positioning control method for determining a current location based on positioning requests from a plurality of applications, comprising:

a positioning step of determining a current location at a positioning accuracy specified by an application; and

a positioning request management step of returning a positioning result obtained in the positioning step in response to the positioning request from the application,

wherein when there is a new positioning request from the application, in a case where a positioning accuracy specified in the new positioning request is equal to or less than a positioning accuracy of a latest positioning result determined for a prior positioning request, the latest positioning result for responding the prior positioning request is returned in response to the new positioning request in the positioning request management step.