MOBILE TERMINAL DEVICE, LOCATION SEARCH METHOD, AND COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM

• US 20170111766A1
• Filed: 09/20/2016
• Published: 04/20/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Muramatsu, Atsushi, NAKAJIMA, TOMOHIRO, MATSUYUKI, Satoshi, KUBOTA, KOHEI, YAMAOKA, HISATOSHI
• Granted Patent: US 9,949,082 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering
• 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 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• 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 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination

Abstract

A mobile terminal device includes: a receiving antenna that repeatedly receives a radio signal including predetermined identification information; a sensor that detects an orientation of the mobile terminal device every time the radio signal is received by the receiving antenna; and a controller that estimates an arrival direction of the radio signal based on radio field intensity of the radio signal which is received by the receiving antenna for each orientation when a plurality of different orientations are detected by the sensor.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal device comprising:

a receiving antenna that repeatedly receives a radio signal including predetermined identification information;

a sensor that detects an orientation of the mobile terminal device every time the radio signal is received by the receiving antenna; and

a controller that estimates an arrival direction of the radio signal based on radio field intensity of the radio signal which is received by the receiving antenna for each orientation when a plurality of different orientations are detected by the sensor.

2. The mobile terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the controller estimates an orientation in which the radio field intensity of the radio signal is a maximum among the plurality of orientations detected by the sensor as the arrival direction of the radio signal.

3. The mobile terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the controller divides the plurality of orientations detected by the sensor into ranges with a predetermined angle width, calculates an average value of the radio field intensity of the radio signal in each range, and estimates an orientation corresponding to a range in which the average value of the radio field intensity is a maximum as the arrival direction of the radio signal.

4. The mobile terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the controller estimates the arrival direction of the radio signal when a plurality of orientations adjacent to each other within a predetermined interval over one round are detected by the sensor.

5. The mobile terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the controller estimates a distance between the mobile terminal device and a transmission source of the radio signal based on the radio field intensity of the radio signal in the arrival direction of the radio signal and outputs a positional relationship between the mobile terminal device and the transmission source of the radio signal.

6. The mobile terminal device according to claim 5, wherein the controller causes a display to display the positional relationship indicating a location of the transmission source of the radio signal using a symbol corresponding to the identification information included in the radio signal.

7. The mobile terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising a storage that stores the identification information included in the radio signal and another identification information corresponding to the identification information in correlation with each other,

wherein the controller estimates the arrival direction of the radio signal and estimates an arrival direction of another radio signal including the another identification information stored in the storage based on an orientation detected by the sensor and radio field intensity of the another radio signal when the another radio signal is received by the receiving antenna.

8. A location search method in a mobile terminal device, the location search method comprising:

repeatedly receiving a radio signal including predetermined identification information;

detecting an orientation of the mobile terminal device every time the radio signal is received; and

estimating, using a processor, an arrival direction of the radio signal based on radio field intensity of the radio signal which is received for each orientation when a plurality of different orientations are detected for the mobile terminal device.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having stored therein a program that causes a computer to execute a process comprising:

repeatedly receiving a radio signal including predetermined identification information;

detecting an orientation of the computer every time the radio signal is received; and

estimating an arrival direction of the radio signal based on radio field intensity of the radio signal which is received for each orientation when a plurality of different orientations are detected for the computer.