APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR COMPENSATING POSITION INFORMATION IN PORTABLE TERMINAL

• US 20120296566A1
• Filed: 05/21/2012
• Published: 11/22/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: SHIN, Gye-Joong, BAN, Ji-Hye
• Granted Patent: US 8,589,070 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/445
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/30 Map- or contour-matching
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/49 whereby the further system is an inertial position system, e.g. loosely-coupled

Abstract

An apparatus and a method for estimating position information in a portable terminal are provided. A position estimation method includes estimating position information of the portable terminal; firstly compensating for an estimation error of the position information of the portable terminal according to motion information of the portable terminal; secondarily compensating for the firstly compensated position information according to a map matching scheme; and storing the position information of the compensated estimation error as the position information of the portable terminal.

Claims

1. A method for estimating position information in a portable terminal, comprising:

estimating position information of the portable terminal;

firstly compensating for an estimation error of the position information by considering motion information of the portable terminal;

secondarily compensating for the estimation error of the firstly compensated position information according to a map matching scheme; and

storing the position information of the compensated estimation error as the position information of the portable terminal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimating of the position comprises:

estimating a position of the portable terminal using at least one of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) scheme, a WiFi Positioning System (WPS), a Network Location Provider (NLP), a triangulation scheme, and a position recognition scheme using a beacon.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the motion information of the portable terminal comprises at least one of a travel speed, a heading direction, and an altitude of the portable terminal acquired through a sensing module comprising at least one of an acceleration sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, a gyroscope sensor, and an altitude sensor.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after estimating the position information, determining whether to compensate for the estimation error of the position information, wherein, when determining to compensate for the estimation error of the position information, the estimation error of the position information is firstly compensated.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining of whether to compensate for the estimation error of the position information comprises:

determining GNSS shadow zone information; and

determining whether to compensate for the estimation error of the position information of the portable terminal by considering the position information of the portable terminal and the GPS shadow zone information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the determining of the GPS shadow zone information comprises:

downloading the GPS shadow zone information from a server.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the GPS shadow zone covers a region such as downtown, where the portable terminal is not able to receive an accurate satellite signal because of at least one of multipath, signal attenuation, and signal interference.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

before the first compensation, determining whether to firstly compensate the estimation error of the position information by considering the motion information of the portable terminal,

wherein, when determining the first compensation, the estimation error of the position information is firstly compensated.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

when determining not to firstly compensate, secondarily compensating for the estimation error of the position information of the portable terminal according to the map matching scheme; and

storing the position information of the compensated estimation error as position information of the portable terminal.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after estimating the position information, determining whether map data of a travel region of the portable terminal is included; and

when the map data is not included, downloading the map data of the travel region of the portable terminal from a server,

wherein the secondarily compensating comprises secondarily compensating for the estimation error of the position information by matching the firstly compensated position information to the downloaded map data according to the map matching scheme.

11. An apparatus of a portable terminal, comprising:

a position estimator for estimating position information of the portable terminal;

a sensing module for detecting motion information of the portable terminal;

a position compensator for firstly compensating for an estimation error of the position information estimated by the position estimator by considering the motion information of the portable terminal detected by the sensing module and, and secondarily compensating for the estimation error of the compensated position information according to a map matching scheme; and

a storage unit for storing the position information compensated by the position compensator as the position information of the portable terminal.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the position estimator estimates the position of the portable terminal using at least one position estimation scheme of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) scheme, a WiFi Positioning System (WPS), a Network Location Provider (NLP), a triangulation scheme, and a position recognition scheme using a beacon.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the sensing module comprises at least one of an acceleration sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, a gyroscope sensor, and an altitude sensor, and detects the motion information of the portable terminal comprising at least one of a travel speed, a heading direction, and an altitude of the portable terminal.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

a controller for determining whether to compensate for the estimation error of the position information estimated by the position estimator,

wherein, when the controller determines to compensate for the estimation error of the position information estimated by the position estimator, the position compensator compensates for the estimation error of the position information.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the controller determines whether to compensate for the estimation error of the position information of the portable terminal by considering the position information estimated by the position estimator and GPS shadow zone information.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the controller downloads the GPS shadow zone information from a server.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the GPS shadow zone covers a region such as downtown, where the portable terminal is not able to receive an accurate satellite signal because of at least one of multipath, signal attenuation, and signal interference.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the position compensator determines whether to firstly compensate the estimation error of the position information estimated by the position estimator by considering the motion information of the portable terminal detected by the sensing module, and when determining the first compensation, the position compensator firstly compensates for the estimation error of the position information.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein, when not determining the first compensation, the position compensator secondarily compensates for the estimation error of the position information estimated by the position estimator according to a map matching scheme.

20. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

a controller for, when having no map data of a travel region of the portable terminal according to the position information estimated by the position estimator, downloading the map data of the travel region of the portable terminal from a server,

wherein the position compensator secondarily compensates for the estimation error of the position information by matching the firstly compensated position information to the map data downloaded to the controller according to the map matching scheme.