APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR POSITION DETECTION AND COMMUNICATION OF A DEVICE

• US 20140066093A1
• Filed: 07/30/2013
• Published: 03/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Pantech Corporation (Ideahub, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Pantech Corporation (Ideahub, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kim, Won Tae, YOO, Ji Oh, Seo, Yoon Jung
• Application Number:
  US13/954,261
• Publication Number:
  US 20140066093A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0018 Transmission from mobile station to base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0072 Transmission between mobile stations, e.g. anti-collision systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0284 Relative positioning

Abstract

Terminals, apparatuses and methods for position detection and communication of a device performed at a device may include setting a starting position, measuring or determining a positional change amount from the starting position, and calculating or determining a current position of the host device based on the positional change amount, and sharing the calculated or determined current position through communication with an external device. Also, terminals, apparatuses and methods for position detection and communication may include setting a position sharing group including a the terminal and at least one corresponding device, setting a starting position of the terminal through communication with the at least one of a corresponding device or a server device associated with the position sharing group, and verifying a current position of the terminal and a current position of the at least one corresponding device based on the set starting position.

Claims

1. A terminal to perform position detection and communication, the terminal comprising:

a sensing unit to determine a positional change amount of the terminal from a starting position;

a position calculating unit to determine a current position of at least one of the terminal or a host device based on the determined positional change amount;

a control unit to set a starting position of the terminal and to update the current position of the terminal, and to control performing position detection and communication of the terminal; and

a communication unit to share the determined current position through communication with at least one external device.

2. The terminal of claim 1, wherein

the communication unit receives from the at least one external device information associated with the current position of the at least one external device based on the starting position.

3. The terminal of claim 1, wherein

the communication unit receives a broadcast message from at least one external device comprising a position sharing group with the terminal.

4. The terminal of claim 1, wherein

the control unit sets the starting position of the terminal by accessing position information through the communication unit from the at least one external device comprising a position sharing group with the terminal.

5. The terminal of claim 1, wherein

the communication unit comprises a near field communication (NFC) module to access information from or transmit information to the at least one external device to communicate with the at least one external device.

6. The terminal of claim 1, further comprising:

a gesture recognizing unit to recognize a gesture input to the terminal to transmit content to or receive content from a selected at least one device of a position sharing group based on at least one of a type or a direction of the received gesture.

7. A terminal to perform position detection and communication in a position sharing group, the terminal comprising:

a position sharing group setting unit to set the position sharing group comprising the terminal and at least one corresponding device;

a current position verifying unit to verify a current position of the terminal and the current position of the at least one corresponding device based on a starting position of the terminal; and

a control unit to control updating the current position of the terminal and to control performing position detection and communication of the terminal.

8. The terminal of claim 7, further comprising:

a sensing unit to determine a positional change amount of the terminal from the starting position to determine a current position of the terminal in the position sharing group.

9. The terminal of claim 7, further comprising:

a gesture recognizing unit to recognize a gesture input to the terminal to transmit content to or receive content from a selected at least one device of the position sharing group based on at least one of a type or a direction of the received gesture.

10. The terminal of claim 7, further comprising:

a starting position setting unit to set an origin of a coordinate system as the starting position,

wherein the current position verifying unit verifies the current position of the terminal and the at least one corresponding device comprising the position sharing group based on the starting position.

11. The terminal of claim 7, wherein

the current position verifying unit determines a positional change amount from the starting position of the terminal and determines the current position of the terminal based on the determined positional change amount.

12. The terminal of claim 7, wherein

the current position verifying unit updates information associated with the current position of the at least one corresponding device.

13. The terminal of claim 7, further comprising:

a display unit to display a current position of one or more of the at least one corresponding device and the terminal comprising the position sharing group.

14. A method for performing position detection and communication of a terminal, the method comprising:

determining a positional change amount of the terminal with respect to a starting position;

determining a current position of at least one of the terminal and a host device based on the determined positional change amount;

updating the current position of the terminal based on the determined current position; and

sharing the determined current position through communication with at least one external device.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

changing the starting position and correcting current position information of the terminal based on occurrence of a starting position update event.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving, by the terminal, a broadcast message from at least one external device comprising a position sharing group with the terminal; and

based on the received broadcast message, updating information associated with a position sharing group.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

selecting a corresponding terminal of a position sharing group according to a selected direction, the selected corresponding terminal being disposed along the selected direction.

18. A method for performing position detection and communication of a terminal in a position sharing group, the method comprising:

setting a position sharing group comprising a terminal and at least one corresponding device;

setting a starting position of the terminal through communication with the at least one of a corresponding device or a server device associated with the position sharing group; and

verifying a current position of the terminal and a current position of the at least one corresponding device based on the set starting position.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein

the verifying is based on a coordinate system using the starting position as an origin of the coordinate system.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

updating the starting position when the current position of the terminal and the current position of the at least one external device comprising the position sharing group are separate from the origin by at least a reference distance.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

transmitting to or receiving from a selected at least one corresponding device of the position sharing group selected content based on at least one of a type or a direction of a received gesture.

22. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

forming a new position sharing group including the terminal and at least one corresponding device based on current position information; and

sharing information associated with the new position sharing group with the at least one corresponding device of the new position sharing group.

23. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

displaying content the terminal and the at least one corresponding device according to positions of the terminal and the at least one corresponding device, the content being split among the terminal and the at least one corresponding device.

24. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

exchanging, by the terminal, content displayed on a screen of a display unit of the terminal with content displayed on a corresponding device of the position sharing group based on a changed position of the terminal.

25. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

selecting a corresponding terminal of the position sharing group according to a selected direction, the selected corresponding terminal being disposed along the selected direction.