Positioning System and Positioning Method

• US 20110156951A1
• Filed: 12/31/2009
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation), Polaris Wireless Incorporated
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation), Polaris Wireless Incorporated
• Inventors: Gordon, Scot Douglas, Shen, Jiyun, Oda, Yasuhiro, Bhattacharya, Tarun Kumar, El-Sallabi, Hassan M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,106,817 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/357.31
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/015 between indoor and outdoor environments
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02523 Details of interaction of receiver with radio-map

Abstract

It is an object of the present invention to obtain a positioning result corresponding to the state of a receiver in less time. A positioning server 10 comprises a reception state information acquisition component 12 that acquires reception state information indicating the reception state of a radio wave at a cellular terminal 20, a base station positioning calculator 13 that estimates the approximate position of the cellular terminal 20 on the basis of reception state information and computes the precision of the approximate position, an end decision component 14 that decides whether or not to end the estimation of position on the basis of the precision of the approximate position, and, if it is decided to end the estimation, estimates the position of the cellular terminal 20 as the approximate position and ends the estimation of the position, an indoor/outdoor determination component 15 that determines whether the cellular terminal 20 is indoors or outdoors on the basis of the reception state information, and a positioning controller 16 that controls the execution of the GPS positioning of the cellular terminal 20 on the basis of the result of decision by the end decision component 14 and the result of determination by the indoor/outdoor determination component 15.

Claims

1. A positioning system for estimating the position of a receiver that has a wireless communication function and a receiving function for signals used in GPS positioning, the system comprising:

reception state information acquisition means for acquiring reception state information indicating the reception state of a radio wave produced by the wireless communication function of the receiver;

approximate position estimation means for estimating the approximate position of the receiver and computing the precision of the approximate position on the basis of the reception state information acquired by the reception state information acquisition means;

end decision means for deciding whether or not to end the estimation of the position of the receiver on the basis of the precision computed by the approximate position estimation means, and, if it is decided to end the estimation, estimating the position of the receiver as the approximate position estimated by the approximate position estimation means and ending the estimation of the position;

indoor/outdoor determination means for determining whether the receiver is indoors or outdoors on the basis of the reception state information acquired by the reception state information acquisition means; and

positioning control means for controlling the execution of GPS positioning of the receiver on the basis of a result of decision by the end decision means and a result of determination by the indoor/outdoor determination means.

2. The positioning system according to claim 1, wherein the positioning control means controls the execution of positioning that estimates the position of the receiver on the basis of the result of decision by the end decision means and the result of determination by the indoor/outdoor determination means and also on the basis of new reception state information acquired by the reception state information acquisition means, at a timing that differs from that of the reception state information used to estimate the approximate position by the approximate position estimation means.

3. The positioning system according to claim 2,

wherein the reception state information acquisition means acquires strength information indicating the reception strength corresponding to an emission source of the radio wave as the reception state information, and

the estimation of the approximate position by the approximate position estimation means and the estimation of the position of the receiver which uses the reception state information and the execution of which is controlled by the positioning control means, are carried out by a method in which the position of the receiver is estimated by storing in advance information indicating the relation between the position and reception strength of the radio wave corresponding to the emission source of the radio wave, and by comparing the strength information acquired by the reception state information acquisition means with the information stored in advance.

4. The positioning system according to claim 1,

wherein the reception state information acquisition means acquires information indicating the emission source of the radio wave received by the receiver as the reception state information,

the approximate position estimation means acquires information indicating the size of a communication area of the emission source indicated by the information acquired by the reception state information acquisition means, and estimates the position of the receiver on the basis of the size of the communication area, and

the end decision means decides whether or not to end the position estimation by the position estimation means on the basis of the information indicating the size of the communication area of the emission source acquired by the approximate position estimation means.

5. A positioning method for estimating the position of a receiver that has a wireless communication function and a receiving function for signals used in GPS positioning, the method comprising:

a reception state information acquisition step of acquiring reception state information indicating the reception state of a radio wave produced by the wireless communication function of the receiver;

an approximate position estimation step of estimating the approximate position of the receiver and computing the precision of the approximate position on the basis of the reception state information acquired in the reception state information acquisition step;

an end decision step of deciding whether or not to end the estimation of the position of the receiver on the basis of the precision computed in the approximate position estimation step, and, if it is decided to end the estimation, estimating the position of the receiver as the approximate position approximate position estimated in the approximate position estimation step and ending the estimation of the position;

an indoor/outdoor determination step of determining whether the receiver is indoors or outdoors on the basis of the reception state information acquired in the reception state information acquisition step; and

a positioning control step of controlling the execution of GPS positioning of the receiver on the basis of a result of decision in the end decision step and a result of determination in the indoor/outdoor determination step.

6. A method comprising:

(a) estimating the location of a wireless terminal via a first technique that does not use the Global Positioning System;

(b) initiating estimation of the location of said wireless terminal via a second technique that uses the Global Positioning System when, and only when;

(i) the error associated with the estimate obtained by the first technique is above a threshold, and

(ii) said wireless terminal is estimated to be outdoors; and

(c) transmitting the location estimated by said second technique when said second technique is performed.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said wireless terminal refrains from receiving Global Positioning System signals while performing said first technique.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising estimating whether or not said wireless terminal is outdoors.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said wireless terminal refrains from receiving Global Positioning System signals while performing said first technique, and while estimating whether or not said wireless terminal is outdoors.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein said first technique is based on a Cell Identifier received by said wireless terminal.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the error associated with said first technique is based on the area of the cell that is associated with said Cell Identifier.

12. The method of claim 6 wherein said first technique is based on pattern matching one or more signal strengths as received at said wireless terminal.

13. The method of claim 6 wherein said first technique is not performed by said wireless terminal.

14. A method comprising:

(a) estimating the location of a wireless terminal via a first technique and via a second technique, wherein said first technique does not use the Global Positioning System, and wherein said second technique does not use the Global Positioning System;

(b) initiating estimation of the location of said wireless terminal via a third technique that uses the Global Positioning System when, and only when;

(i) the error associated with the estimate obtained by the first technique is above a threshold,

(ii) the error associated with the estimate obtained by the second technique is above said threshold, and

(iii) said wireless terminal is estimated to be outdoors; and

(c) transmitting the location estimated by said third technique when said third technique is performed.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said wireless terminal refrains from receiving Global Positioning System signals while performing said first technique and said second technique.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising estimating whether or not said wireless terminal is outdoors.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein said wireless terminal refrains from receiving Global Positioning System signals while performing said first technique and said second technique, and while estimating whether or not said wireless terminal is outdoors.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein said first technique is based on a Cell Identifier received by said wireless terminal.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the error associated with said first technique is based on the area of the cell that is associated with said Cell Identifier.

20. The method of claim 14 wherein said second technique is based on pattern matching one or more signal strengths as received at said wireless terminal.

21. The method of claim 14 wherein at least one of said first technique and said second technique is not performed by said wireless terminal.

22. A method comprising:

(a) estimating the location of a wireless terminal via a first technique that does not use the Global Positioning System;

(b) when the error associated with the estimate obtained by the first technique is above a threshold, estimating the location of said wireless terminal via a second technique that does not use the Global Positioning System; and

(c) when the errors associated with the estimates obtained by the first technique and the second technique are both above said threshold, estimating whether or not said wireless terminal is outdoors; and

(d) when the errors associated with the estimates obtained by the first technique and the second technique are both above said threshold, and said wireless terminal is estimated to be outdoors;

(i) estimating the location of said wireless terminal via a third technique that uses the Global Positioning System, and

(ii) transmitting the location estimated by said third technique.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein said wireless terminal refrains from receiving Global Positioning System signals while performing said first technique and said second technique, and while estimating whether or not said wireless terminal is outdoors.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein said first technique is based on a Cell Identifier received by said wireless terminal.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the error associated with said first technique is based on the area of the cell that is associated with said Cell Identifier.

26. The method of claim 22 wherein said second technique is based on pattern matching one or more signal strengths as received at said wireless terminal.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein at least one of said first technique and said second technique is not performed by said wireless terminal.