POSITION ESTIMATING DEVICE, POSITION ESTIMATING METHOD, AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20140320348A1
• Filed: 03/05/2014
• Published: 10/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Sakata, Ren, Hirano, Tatsuma, Nakanishi, Toshiyuki, LY NGUYEN, Cam
• Application Number:
  US14/197,906
• Publication Number:
  US 20140320348A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/458
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/06 using intensity measurements
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location

Abstract

According to this embodiment, a position estimating device, that estimates a position of a target wireless device, includes a storage that stores positions of a plurality of reference wireless devices, a receiver which is notified of a received signal strength indicator value in signal transmission and reception between the target wireless device and each reference wireless device, a calculator that calculates a standard deviation for a probability distribution of a distance between the target wireless device and each reference wireless device, using the received signal strength indicator value, a first estimator that calculates an estimated distance between the target wireless device and each reference wireless device, using the received signal strength indicator value, and a second estimator that calculates the position of the target wireless device, using the standard deviation, the estimated distance, and the positions of the plurality of reference wireless devices.

Claims

1. A position estimating device that estimates a position of a target wireless device, comprising:

a storage that stores positions of a plurality of reference wireless devices;

a receiver which receives a received signal strength indicator value in signal transmission and reception between the target wireless device and each reference wireless device;

a calculator that calculates a standard deviation for a probability distribution of distances between the target wireless device and each reference wireless device, using the received signal strength indicator value;

a first estimator that calculates an estimated distance between the target wireless device and each reference wireless device, using the received signal strength indicator value; and

a second estimator that calculates the position of the target wireless device, using the standard deviation, the estimated distance, and the positions of the plurality of reference wireless devices.

2. The position estimating device according to claim 1,

wherein the storage stores a relationship between the received signal strength indicator value and the standard deviation, and

the calculator calculates the standard deviation corresponding to each reference wireless device from the notified received signal strength indicator value, and the relationship between the received signal strength indicator value and the standard deviation.

3. The position estimating device according to claim 2, wherein the relationship between the received signal strength indicator value and the standard deviation is an exponential function with an exponent of the received signal strength indicator value.

4. The position estimating device according to claim 1, wherein the receiver is notified of the received signal strength indicator value from the reference wireless device.

5. The position estimating device according to claim 1, wherein the receiver is notified of the received signal strength indicator value from the target wireless device.

6. The position estimating device according to claim 1, wherein, provided that the estimated distance between the target wireless device and the reference wireless device is “

d_estimate”

, the received signal strength indicator value in signal transmission and reception between the target wireless device and the reference wireless device is RSSI value, an attenuation factor is “

α

”

, and the received signal strength indicator value for a distance between wireless devices of one meter is “

β

”

, the first estimator calculates the estimated distance “

d_estimate”

using a following expression,

RSSI=−

10α

log₁₀ d_estimate+β

.

7. The position estimating device according to claim 6, wherein, provided that the standard deviation calculated by the calculator is “

σ

(RSSI)”

, a probability distribution “

P(d|RSSI)”

of a distance “

d”

between the target wireless device and the reference wireless device is represented by a following expression,

8. The position estimating device according to claim 7, wherein the second estimator regards a distance between the target wireless device and the i-th reference wireless device as “

d_i”

(“

i”

is an integer), provides, as “

σ

_i”

of a following expression, a standard deviation corresponding to the i-th reference wireless device calculated by the calculator, provides, as “

d<sub>estimate—

i</sub>”

, the estimated distance “

d_estimate”

corresponding to the i-th reference wireless device calculated by the first estimator, and calculates a position (x, y) of the target wireless device,

9. A position estimating method that estimates a position of a target wireless device communicating with a plurality of reference wireless devices at known positions, comprising:

obtaining a received signal strength indicator value in signal transmission and reception between the target wireless device and each reference wireless device;

calculating a standard deviation for a probability distribution of a distance between the target wireless device and each reference wireless device using the received signal strength indicator value;

calculating an estimated distance between the target wireless device and each reference wireless device using the received signal strength indicator value; and

calculating the position of the target wireless device using the standard deviation, the estimated distance, and the positions of the plurality of reference wireless devices.

10. A wireless communication system, comprising:

a plurality of reference wireless devices;

a target wireless device that communicates with the plurality of reference wireless devices; and

a position estimating device that comprises;

a storage that stores positions of the plurality of reference wireless devices;

a receiver which receives a received signal strength indicator value in signal transmission and reception between the target wireless device and each reference wireless device;

a calculator that calculates a standard deviation for a probability distribution of distances between the target wireless device and each reference wireless device using the received signal strength indicator value;

a first estimator that calculates an estimated distance between the target wireless device and each reference wireless device using the received signal strength indicator value; and

a second estimator that calculates the position of the target wireless device using the standard deviation, the estimated distance, and the positions of the plurality of reference wireless devices.

11. The wireless communication system according to claim 10,

wherein the storage stores a relationship between the received signal strength indicator value and the standard deviation, and

the calculator calculates the standard deviation corresponding to each reference wireless device from the notified received signal strength indicator value, and the relationship between the received signal strength indicator value and the standard deviation.

12. The wireless communication system according to claim 11, wherein the relationship between the received signal strength indicator value and the standard deviation is an exponential function with an exponent of the received signal strength indicator value.

13. The wireless communication system according to claim 10, wherein the receiver is notified of the received signal strength indicator value from the reference wireless device.

14. The wireless communication system according to claim 10, wherein the receiver is notified of the received signal strength indicator value from the target wireless device.

15. The wireless communication system according to claim 10, wherein, provided that the estimated distance between the target wireless device and the reference wireless device is “

d_estimate”

, the received signal strength indicator value in signal transmission and reception between the target wireless device and the reference wireless device is RSSI value, an attenuation factor is “

α

”

, and the received signal strength indicator value for a distance between wireless devices of one meter is “

β

”

, the first estimator calculates the estimated distance “

d_estimate”

using a following expression,

RSSI=−

10α

log₁₀ d_estimate+β

.

16. The wireless communication system according to claim 15, wherein, provided that the standard deviation calculated by the calculator is “

σ

(RSSI)”

, a probability distribution “

P(d|RSSI)”

of a distance “

d”

between the target wireless device and the reference wireless device is represented by a following expression,

17. The wireless communication system according to claim 16, wherein the second estimator regards a distance between the target wireless device and the i-th reference wireless device as “

d_i”

(“

i”

is an integer), provides, as “

σ

_i”

of a following expression, a standard deviation corresponding to the i-th reference wireless device calculated by the calculator, provides, as “

d<sub>estimate—

i</sub>”

, the estimated distance “

d_estimate”

corresponding to the i-th reference wireless device calculated by the first estimator, and calculates a position (x, y) of the target wireless device,