Method and Apparatus for Building Wi-Fi Radio Map

• US 20140341198A1
• Filed: 12/03/2012
• Published: 11/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ViSoft Ltd
• Original Assignee: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
• Inventors: Han, Dong-soo
• Granted Patent: US 9,445,387 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0242 Determining the position of transmitters to be subsequently used in positioning G01S5/0289 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02526 using non-dedicated equipment, e.g. user equipment or crowd-sourcing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/18 Network planning tools
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

The present invention is related to method and device for building Wi-Fi radio map. Especially, it is related to device and method for building Wi-Fi radio map that is used to position locating service that utilizes Wi-Fi fingerprints that many, unspecified mobile terminals collect and provide.

Specifically, the present invention provides, as methods for estimating position data for AP (200) using Wi-Fi fingerprints collected by mobile terminals (100), 1) method for estimating position data for AP (200) by linking Wi-Fi fingerprints and time data for collecting Wi-Fi signal, or 2) method for estimating position data for AP (200) through user address data comparison between Wi-Fi fingerprints without linking signal collection time data to Wi-Fi fingerprints. Accordingly, it has effects of epoch-making economic feasibility compared to prior art that requires huge cost in collecting Wi-Fi fingerprint like war driving.

Claims

1. An Wi-Fi radio map building apparatus comprising:

a user address DB that stores address data for a plurality of users who carry mobile terminals; and

a control part that receives Wi-Fi fingerprints collected and transmitted by the mobile terminals that said plurality of users carry;

refers to said user address DB for each received Wi-Fi fingerprint;

selects one among addresses of the user who carries the mobile terminal that collected the Wi-Fi fingerprint;

converts the selected user address to coordinates; and

then generates Wi-Fi radio map data.

2. The Wi-Fi radio map building apparatus of claim 1, wherein said control part comprises,

a Wi-Fi fingerprint receiving part that decides whether time data for collection time is combined for each of the Wi-Fi fingerprints that the mobile terminals carried by said plurality of users collected and transmitted;

and when no time data is combined, combines time data of the time that the corresponding Wi-Fi fingerprint was received;

a Wi-Fi fingerprint classifying part that is notified of received contents from said Wi-Fi fingerprint receiving part;

refers to said time data; and

classifies type of the location at which the corresponding Wi-Fi fingerprint was collected;

an address combining part that is notified of the location type classification contents from said Wi-Fi fingerprint classifying part;

retrieves data for user who carried the mobile terminal that transmitted the Wi-Fi fingerprint and the user'"'"'s address through referring to said user address DB;

among the user'"'"'s addresses retrieved, selects an address that corresponds to said classified location type; and

combines it with said Wi-Fi fingerprint; and

an address-coordinates converting part that converts the address selected by said address combining part into coordinates; and

generates Wi-Fi radio map data combined with the converted coordinates.

3. The Wi-Fi radio map building apparatus of claim 1, wherein said address-coordinates converting part generates the Wi-Fi radio map data in a state in which said converted coordinates and the Wi-Fi fingerprints are combined.

4. The Wi-Fi radio map building apparatus of claim 1, wherein said address-coordinates converting part generates the Wi-Fi radio map data in a state in which AP unique data included in said Wi-Fi fingerprint and the coordinates are combined.

5. The Wi-Fi radio map building apparatus of claim 2, wherein said Wi-Fi fingerprint classifying part classifies type of location, at which the Wi-Fi fingerprint was collected, as residence or workplace.

6. The Wi-Fi radio map building apparatus of claim 2, further comprising a noise removing part that, for Wi-Fi fingerprints combined with addresses at said address combining part, removes Wi-Fi fingerprints that were decided unreliable through comparison with other Wi-Fi fingerprints combined with the same or similar addresses.

7. The Wi-Fi radio map building apparatus of claim 1, wherein said control part comprises,

a Wi-Fi fingerprint receiving part that receives Wi-Fi fingerprints that the mobile terminals carried by said plurality of users collected and transmitted;

an address combining part that is notified of received contents from said Wi-Fi fingerprint receiving part;

retrieves the user that carries the mobile terminal that transmitted said received Wi-Fi fingerprint and address data of said user from the user address DB; and

combines them to said received Wi-Fi fingerprint;

an address decision part that searches existing received Wi-Fi fingerprint that includes the same AP unique data as that of said received Wi-Fi fingerprint; and

decides an address that is estimated as the position at which said received Wi-Fi fingerprint was collected, through checking adjacent relationship between user addresses combined to said received Wi-Fi fingerprint by said address combining part and user addresses combined to the searched existing Wi-Fi fingerprint; and

an address-coordinates converting part that converts the address decided by said address decision part into coordinates; and

generates Wi-Fi radio map data combined with said converted coordinates.

8. An Wi-Fi radio map building method comprising:

a first step in which when Wi-Fi fingerprint transmitted by an arbitrary mobile terminal is received, whether time data that said mobile terminal collected the Wi-Fi fingerprint is combined is checked;

if said time data is not combined, time at which said Wi-Fi fingerprint is received is combined as time data for collecting said Wi-Fi fingerprint;

a second step in which type of location of collecting the Wi-Fi fingerprint is classified and indexed referring to combined said time data;

a third step in which the user who carries the mobile terminal that transmitted said received Wi-Fi fingerprint and the user'"'"'s address data are found; and

among the user addresses found, an address corresponding to the indexed location type is decided as the address at which said received Wi-Fi fingerprint was collected; and

a fourth step in which said decided address is converted into coordinates;

said coordinates are combined and Wi-Fi radio map data is generated.

9. The Wi-Fi radio map building method of claim 8, wherein the location type classification in said second step is classified into residence or workplace.

10. The Wi-Fi radio map building method of claim 8, further comprising, after performing said third step, a step of removing Wi-Fi fingerprint which is judged unreliable through comparison with other Wi-Fi fingerprints to which the same or similar addresses are combined, for the Wi-Fi fingerprints for which addresses are decided.

11. The Wi-Fi radio map building method of claim 8, wherein in the generation of Wi-Fi radio map data in said fourth step, the Wi-Fi radio map data is generated either in a form in which said Wi-Fi fingerprint and said coordinates are combined, or in a form in which AP unique data included in the Wi-Fi fingerprint and coordinates are combined.

12. An Wi-Fi radio map building method comprising:

a first step in which when Wi-Fi fingerprint transmitted by an arbitrary mobile terminal transmitted is received;

the user who carries the mobile terminal that collected the received Wi-Fi fingerprint and all addresses of the user are searched and combined to said received Wi-Fi fingerprint;

a second step in which existing received Wi-Fi fingerprint including the same AP unique data as that of said received Wi-Fi fingerprint is searched; and

an address that is estimated as the position at which said received Wi-Fi fingerprint was collected is specified through checking adjacency relationship between user addresses combined to said received Wi-Fi fingerprint and user addresses combined to the searched existing Wi-Fi fingerprint; and

a third step in which said specified address is converted into coordinates; and

Wi-Fi radio map data combined with the converted coordinates is generated.

13. The Wi-Fi radio map building method of claim 12, wherein in the Wi-Fi radio map data generation in said third step, Wi-Fi radio map data is generated either in a form in which said received Wi-Fi fingerprint and said coordinates are combined, or in a form in which AP unique data included in Wi-Fi fingerprint and said coordinates are combined.