ALTITUDE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM AND ALTITUDE MEASUREMENT METHOD

• US 20180283861A1
• Filed: 07/08/2016
• Published: 10/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2015
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Government of Japan)
• Original Assignee: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Government of Japan)
• Inventors: Kourogi, Masakatsu, Ichikari, Ryosuke, Kurata, Takeshi
• Application Number:
  US15/742,583
• Publication Number:
  US 20180283861A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 5/06 by using barometric means
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide an altitude measurement system and an altitude measurement method capable of measuring an altitude of a moving body in a stand-alone mode. In order to achieve the present object, the invention provides an altitude measurement system having altitude measurement terminals M1 to Mn connected to the Internet connection and atmospheric-pressure trend management unit TM1 connected to the Internet connection, each of the altitude measurement terminals M1 to Mn including: an atmospheric-pressure measurement unit 201 that measures an atmospheric pressure; a same-floor-stay detection unit 202 and an in-area-stay detection unit 203 for detecting existence of the moving body at a predetermined altitude; and an atmospheric-pressure trend candidate value output unit 204 that outputs, to the atmospheric-pressure trend management unit TM1, atmospheric pressure data measured during a predetermined period by the atmospheric-pressure measurement unit 201 when the existence of the moving body exists at a predetermined altitude, and an atmospheric-pressure trend integration/generation unit 205 generating the reference atmospheric pressure data corresponding to the altitude by, as needed, calculating an average value among a plurality of pieces of the atmospheric pressure data supplied from the atmospheric-pressure trend candidate value output unit 204.

Claims

1. An altitude measurement system comprising:

an altitude measurement terminal connected to the Internet connection; and

data management means connected to the Internet connection,

wherein the altitude measurement terminal includes;

atmospheric-pressure measurement means measuring an atmospheric pressure;

detection means detecting that a moving body exists at a predetermined altitude; and

atmospheric-pressure data output means outputting, when it is detected that the moving body exists at the altitude by the detection means, atmospheric pressure data to the data management means, the atmospheric pressure data being measured during a predetermined period by the atmospheric-pressure measurement means, and

the data management means generates reference atmospheric pressure data corresponding to the altitude by, as needed, calculating an average value among a plurality of pieces of the atmospheric pressure data supplied from the atmospheric-pressure data output means.

2. The altitude measurement system according to claim 1, further comprising

altitude-change detection means detecting altitude change of the moving body by comparing the atmospheric pressure data obtained by measurement by the atmospheric-pressure measurement means with the reference atmospheric pressure data supplied from the data management means.

3. The altitude measurement system according to claim 2,

wherein the altitude measurement terminal further includes:

floor detection means detecting a floor on which the moving body exists; and

current-floor detection means generating information indicating a floor on which the moving body is currently staying, in accordance with information identifying the floor supplied from the floor detection means and information indicating the altitude change supplied from the altitude-change detection means.

4. The altitude measurement system according to claim 2,

wherein the altitude measurement terminal further includes:

floor detection means detecting a floor on which the moving body exists; and

current-floor detection means identifying movement of the moving body from a floor to a floor by comparing previously-obtained inter-floor atmospheric-pressure-difference data serving as a reference with atmospheric pressure data obtained by measurement by the atmospheric-pressure measurement means that is caused by the altitude change detected by the altitude-change detection means, and generating information indicating a floor on which the moving body is currently staying, in accordance with information identifying the floor detected by the floor detection means.

5. The altitude measurement system according to claim 4,

wherein the altitude measurement terminal further includes

offset estimation means estimating an offset value in measurement of the atmospheric pressure by the atmospheric-pressure measurement means in accordance with the information indicating the floor on which the moving body is currently staying that is supplied from the current-floor detection means and the reference atmospheric pressure data in the floor on which the moving body is currently staying that is supplied from the data management means.

6. An altitude measurement system comprising:

an altitude measurement terminal connected to the Internet connection; and

data management means connected to the Internet connection,

wherein the altitude measurement terminal includes;

atmospheric-pressure measurement means measuring an atmospheric pressure;

floor-movement detection means detecting movement of a moving body from a floor to a floor; and

atmospheric-pressure-difference data output means, when the movement of the moving body from the floor to the floor is detected by the floor-movement detection means, outputting data to the data management means, the data indicating atmospheric pressure difference between the floors obtained before and after the movement, and the data being measured by the atmospheric-pressure measurement means, and

the data management means generates reference atmospheric-pressure-difference data corresponding to the movement from the floor to the floor by, as needed, calculating an average value among pieces of data indicating a plurality of the atmospheric-pressure differences supplied from the atmospheric-pressure-difference data output means.

7. The altitude measurement system according to claim 6,

wherein the altitude measurement terminal further includes:

floor detection means detecting a floor on which the moving body exists; and

current-floor detection means identifying the movement of the moving body from

the floor to the floor by comparing the reference atmospheric pressure data supplied from the data management means with the data indicating the atmospheric pressure difference between the floors, the data being obtained by measurement by the atmospheric-pressure measurement means, and generating information indicating a floor on which the moving body is currently staying, in accordance with information identifying the floor detected by the floor detection means.

8. An altitude measurement method measuring an altitude of a moving body by using an altitude measurement terminal connected to the Internet connection and data management means connected to the Internet connection, the method comprising:

a first step of outputting, to the data management means, atmospheric pressure data being measured during a predetermined period by the altitude measurement terminal when it is detected that the moving body exists at a predetermined altitude by the altitude measurement terminal; and

a second step of generating reference atmospheric pressure data corresponding to the altitude by, as needed, calculating an average value among a plurality of pieces of the atmospheric pressure data supplied to the data management means.

9. The altitude measurement method according to claim 8 further comprising

a third step of detecting altitude change of the moving body by comparing the atmospheric pressure data obtained by measurement by the altitude measurement terminal with the reference atmospheric pressure data.

10. The altitude measurement method according to claim 9 further comprising

a fourth step of detecting a floor on which the moving body exists, by the altitude measurement terminal;

and

a fifth step of generating information indicating a floor on which the moving body is currently staying, in accordance with information identifying the floor detected in the fourth step and information indicating the altitude change detected in the third step.

11. The altitude measurement method according to claim 9 further comprising

a fourth step of detecting a floor on which the moving body exists, by the altitude measurement terminal;

a fifth step of identifying movement of the moving body from a floor to a floor by comparing previously-obtained inter-floor atmospheric-pressure-difference data serving as a reference with data indicating atmospheric-pressure difference measured in accordance with the altitude change; and

a sixth step of generating information indicating a floor on which the moving body is currently staying, in accordance with information identifying the floor detected in the fourth step and information indicating the movement from the floor to the floor identified in the fifth step.

12. The altitude measurement method according to claim 11 further comprising

a seventh step of estimating an offset value in measurement of the atmospheric pressure in accordance with the information indicating the floor on which the moving body is currently staying, the information being generated in the sixth step, and the reference atmospheric pressure data in the floor on which the moving body is currently staying.

13. An altitude measurement method of measuring an altitude of a moving body by using an altitude measurement terminal connected to the Internet connection and data management means connected to the Internet connection, the method comprising:

a first step of measuring an atmospheric pressure by the altitude measurement terminal;

a second step of detecting movement of a moving body from a floor to a floor;

a third step of, when the movement is detected in the second step, outputting data to the data management means, the data indicating atmospheric pressure difference between the floors before and after the movement, and the data being measured in the first step; and

a fourth step of generating reference atmospheric-pressure-difference data corresponding to the movement from the floor to the floor by, as needed, calculating an average value among pieces of data indicating a plurality of the atmospheric-pressure differences supplied to the data management means.

14. The altitude measurement method according to claim 13 further comprising:

a fifth step of identifying the movement of the moving body from the floor to the floor by comparing the reference atmospheric-pressure-difference data with the data indicating the atmospheric pressure difference between the floors measured by the altitude measurement terminal;

a sixth step of detecting a floor on which the moving body exists by the altitude measurement terminal; and

a seventh step of generating information indicating a floor on which the moving body is currently staying, in accordance with information indicating the movement from the floor to the floor identified in the fifth step and information identifying the floor detected in the sixth step.