METHODS, APPARATUSES, SYSTEMS, AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIA FOR PROVIDING WIRELESS LOCATION SERVICE USING AT LEAST ONE BEACON

• US 20160192140A1
• Filed: 11/12/2015
• Published: 06/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Naver Cloud Corporation (Naver Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Naver Business Platform Corporation (Naver Corporation)
• Inventors: LIM, Hyang Sub, KIM, Daewoong, PARK, Weongi, LEE, Ho Jin
• Granted Patent: US 10,064,008 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/244 using a network of reference devices, e.g. beaconing

Abstract

Provided is a method and/or apparatus for providing a wireless location service using a beacon signal. A wireless location service method may include collecting a plurality of beacon signals from each of a plurality of beacon transceivers positioned around a user, and determining a current location of the user based on at least one of a virtual point and the plurality of beacon signals, the virtual point positioned in a space in which the beacon transceivers are provided.

Claims

1. A wireless location service method executed on a wireless location service apparatus including at least one processor, the method comprising:

collecting a plurality of beacon signals from each of a plurality of beacon transceivers positioned around a user; and

determining a current location of the user based on at least one of a virtual point and the plurality of beacon signals, the virtual point positioned in a space in which the plurality of beacon transceivers are provided.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual point is virtually provided to at least one of a corner of a passage and an intersection formed inside a building in which the user is positioned, and is positioned between the plurality of beacon transceivers provided at desired intervals inside the building.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the current location of the user comprises:

determining a plurality of candidate beacon signals based on strengths of the collected plurality of beacon signals;

determining whether the current location of the user corresponds to the virtual point based on the strength of the plurality of candidate beacon signals; and

associating location coordinates corresponding to the virtual point as the current location of the user in response to the current location of the user corresponding to the virtual point.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining whether the current location of the user corresponds to the virtual point comprises determining whether the current location of the user corresponds to the virtual point based on a difference value between the strengths of at least two of the plurality of candidate beacon signals and a desired difference value.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a location based service based on the current location of the user.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a travel route according to a direction change of the user, in response to sensing the direction change of the user using a gyro sensor provided in a mobile terminal of the user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the displaying of the travel route comprises rotating and displaying an indoor map in response to the changed direction.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the collecting of the plurality of beacon signals comprises collecting the plurality of beacon signals using the plurality of beacon transceivers that are constructed in advance.

9. A wireless location service apparatus comprising:

a memory having computer readable instructions stored thereon; and

at least one processor configured to execute the computer readable instructions to,

collect a plurality of beacon signals from each of a plurality of beacon transceivers positioned around a user, and

determine a current location of the user based on at least one of a virtual point and the plurality of beacon signals, the virtual point positioned in a space in which the beacon transceivers are provided.

10. The wireless location service apparatus of claim 9, wherein the virtual point is virtually provided to at least one of a corner of a passage and an intersection formed inside a building in which the user is positioned, and is positioned between the plurality of beacon transceivers provided at desired intervals inside the building.

11. The wireless location service apparatus of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

determine a plurality of candidate beacon signals based on strengths of the collected plurality of beacon signals;

determine whether the current location of the user corresponds to the virtual point based on the strengths of the plurality of candidate beacon signals; and

associate location coordinates corresponding to the virtual point as the current location of the user in response to the current location of the user corresponding to the virtual point.

12. The wireless location service apparatus of claim 11, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

determine whether the current location of the user corresponds to the virtual point based on a difference value between the strengths of at least two of the plurality of candidate beacon signals and a desired difference value.

13. The wireless location service apparatus of claim 9, wherein the wireless location service apparatus is configured to display a travel route according to a direction change of the user, in response to sensing the direction change of the user based on a gyro sensor provided in a mobile terminal of the user.

14. The wireless location service apparatus of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to collect the plurality of beacon signals using the plurality of beacon transceivers that are constructed in advance.

15. A wireless location service apparatus comprising:

a memory having computer readable instructions stored thereon; and

at least one processor configured to execute the computer readable instructions to,

receive a plurality of beacon signals collected from each of a plurality of beacon transceivers positioned around a user, through an application installed on a mobile terminal of the user,

determine a current location of the user based on at least one of a virtual point and the plurality of beacon signals, the virtual point positioned in a space in which the beacon transceivers are provided, and

provide, to the mobile terminal, a location based service based on the determined current location of the user.

16. A system for providing wireless location services comprising:

at least one mobile terminal including at least one processor and configured to collect a plurality of wireless beacon signals and transmit the collected plurality of wireless beacon signals to at least one server;

at least two wireless beacons each include a transceiver and are configured to each transmit a wireless beacon signal, each of the wireless beacon signals including a unique beacon identifier and location information associated with the wireless beacons; and

the at least one server configured to,

store at least one virtual point of an environment in a storage device, each of the at least one virtual point virtually and including location information associated with the respective virtual point,

and determine a current location of the at least one mobile terminal based on the location information of the at least one of the collected wireless beacon signals and the at least one virtual point.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein:

the at least one server is further configured to provide to the at least one mobile terminals at least one location based service associated with the determined current location of the at least one mobile terminal, the at least one location based service including at least one of a mobile payment service, a map service, a path guide, a routing service, a messaging service.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one server is one of the at least one mobile terminals.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least two wireless beacons and the at least one virtual point are located inside of a building.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the determination of the current location of the at least one mobile terminal further comprises:

determining at least one candidate beacon signal based on strengths of the collected wireless beacon signals based on a comparison of the strengths of the collected wireless beacon signals with a threshold value; and

associating the current location of the at least one mobile terminal with the location information of the respective wireless beacon of the at least one candidate beacon signal or a virtual point of the at least one virtual point arranged proximately to the at least one wireless beacon associated with the candidate beacon signals based on results of a comparison of the at least one candidate beacon signal with a reference value.