MOVEMENT DETERMINATION DEVICE AND MOVEMENT DETERMINATION METHOD

• US 20120214513A1
• Filed: 06/15/2010
• Published: 08/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Hashimoto, Jun, Takahashi, Makoto
• Application Number:
  US13/392,215
• Publication Number:
  US 20120214513A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination

Abstract

A movement determination device and method that can perform movement determination of mobile communication terminals. A mobile communication terminal includes a visiting area information acquisition unit that acquires visiting area information indicating the communication area the mobile communication terminal is visiting, a storage unit that stores the visiting area information as a visiting area information history of the communication area the mobile communication terminal is visiting, a peripheral area count acquisition unit that acquires the number of communication areas located at the periphery of the mobile communication terminal, a reference range specifying unit that specifies a reference range of the visiting area information history stored by a storage in accordance with the number of the peripheral areas, and a determination unit that determines whether the mobile communication terminal is moving or not by comparing the reference range of the visiting area information history with the visiting area information.

Claims

1. A movement determination device that determines whether a mobile communication terminal that performs mobile communication by visiting any one of a plurality of communication areas and performing radio communication is moving or not, the movement determination device comprising:

visiting area information acquisition means for acquiring visiting area information indicating the communication area that the mobile communication terminal is visiting;

storage means for storing the visiting area information acquired by the visiting area information acquisition means as a visiting area information history being a history of the communication area that the mobile communication terminal is visiting;

peripheral area count acquisition means for acquiring the number of peripheral areas indicating the number of the communication areas located at the periphery of the mobile communication terminal;

reference range specifying means for specifying a reference range of the visiting area information history stored by the storage means in accordance with the number of the peripheral areas acquired by the peripheral area count acquisition means; and

determination means for determining whether the mobile communication terminal is moving or not by comparing the visiting area information history stored by the storage means in the reference range specified by the reference range specifying means with the visiting area information acquired by the visiting area information acquisition means.

2. The movement determination device according to claim 1, wherein the visiting area information acquisition means acquires the visiting area information at regular time intervals.

3. The movement determination device according to claim 1, wherein the peripheral area count acquisition means acquires the number of the peripheral areas of each of the communication areas that satisfy certain communication quality.

4. The movement determination device according to claim 1, further comprising specific process execution means for executing a predetermined process, after determining whether the mobile communication terminal is moving or not by the determination means, in accordance with the determination result.

5. The movement determination device according to claim 1, wherein

the storage means, when storing the visiting area information as the visiting area information history, sets acquisition time when the visiting area information is acquired by the visiting area information acquisition means as visiting area information acquisition time,

when the visiting area information is not included in the visiting area information history, further stores therein the visiting area information and the visiting area information acquisition time, and

when the visiting area information is included in the visiting area information history, updates acquisition time of the corresponding visiting area information included in the visiting area information history with the visiting area information acquisition time, and

the reference range specifying means, based also on an interval of acquisition time of the visiting area information included in the visiting area information history, specifies the reference range of the visiting area information history stored by the storage means.

6. The movement determination device according to claim 1, wherein

the storage means, when storing the visiting area information as the visiting area information history, further stores therein the number of storage times for each of the communication areas indicated by the visiting area information, and

the determination means extracts, out of the visiting area information included in the visiting area information history stored by the storage means in the reference range specified by the reference range specifying means, visiting area information in which the number of storage times that exceeds a predetermined ratio when compared with the number of storage times of whole of the visiting area information, and further determines that the mobile communication terminal is present at a location based on the visiting area information thus extracted.

7. The movement determination device according to claim 1, wherein

the storage means further stores therein the number of peripheral areas acquired by the peripheral area count acquisition means as a peripheral area count history that is a history of the number of the communication areas located at the periphery of the mobile communication terminal, and

the reference range specifying means, in accordance with the peripheral area count history, specifies the reference range of the visiting area information history stored by the storage means.

8. A movement determination method for determining whether a mobile communication terminal that performs mobile communication by visiting any one of a plurality of communication areas and performing radio communication is moving or not, the movement determination method comprising:

a visiting area information acquisition step of acquiring visiting area information indicating the communication area that the mobile communication terminal is visiting;

a storage step of storing the visiting area information acquired at the visiting area information acquisition step as a visiting area information history being a history of the communication area that the mobile communication terminal is visiting;

a peripheral area count acquisition step of acquiring the number of peripheral areas indicating the number of the communication areas located at the periphery of the mobile communication terminal;

a reference range specifying step of specifying a reference range of the visiting area information history stored at the storage step in accordance with the number of the peripheral areas acquired at the peripheral area count acquisition step; and

a determination step of determining whether the mobile communication terminal is moving or not by comparing the visiting area information history stored at the storage step in the reference range specified at the reference range specifying step with the visiting area information acquired at the visiting area information acquisition step.