Positional information management system, positional information management method, recording medium, and mobile terminal

• US 7,640,268 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2003
• Issued: 12/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Masuya, Takashi, Gotoh, Hideo, Iwata, Shigeo
• Primary Examiner(s): Cottingham; John R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pham; Michael
• Application Number:
  US10/411,210
• Publication Number:
  US 20030217070A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,454 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/16 by integrating acceleration or speed, i.e. inertial navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/09 providing processing capability normally carried out by the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/49 whereby the further system is an inertial position system, e.g. loosely-coupled
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0018 Transmission from mobile station to base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0284 Relative positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions

Abstract

A worker transfers GPS signals to a communication system at each node of traveling using a cellular phone terminal, and the communication system specifies the position of the cellular phone terminal and notifies positional information to a management system. When the cellular phone terminal cannot receive GPS signals or is outside a range accessible to the communication system, it starts recording acceleration data using an accelerometer. When a communicable state is recovered, the cellular phone terminal sends GPS signals and the recorded acceleration data to the communication system. A management computer determines whether the position notified by the communication system is an intended node. If the notified position is not an intended node, the management computer derives the position of the intended node using the acceleration data, and predicts the travel route based on the node position.

Claims

1. A positional information management system comprising:

a mobile terminal which receives gps (global positioning system) signals, measures acceleration, acquires acceleration data at a predetermined position and stores the acceleration data according to a communication state which is determined by the mobile terminal, and which derives a variable time cycle for notification as a function of the acceleration measured, the variable time cycle for notification becoming shorter as average velocity increases, and sends the notification in accordance with the variable time cycle when the variable time cycle is less than an elapsed time from a previous notification;

a management server which is connected to said mobile terminal through a network and predicts a travel route of said mobile terminal based on information associated with traveling of the mobile terminal; and

a communication system which specifies a current position of said mobile terminal and sends positional data representing the specified current position of the mobile terminal to said management server,

wherein said management server;

comprises a computer processing unit and memory, and

is connected to a positional data storage unit which stores positional data representing that said mobile terminal is at a predetermined position, which is sent from said communication system in association with a reception time at which the positional data is received, and to an acceleration data storage unit which stores an acceleration log representing acceleration data in time series, which is stored by the mobile terminal and sent from said mobile terminal in association with a reception time at which the acceleration log is received,

the management server being configured to;

select positional data for two positions which are recorded adjacently time-wise in said positional data storage unit, and which are included in a travel route of the mobile terminal which is a target of prediction and which corresponds to identification information of the mobile terminal stored in connection with the positional data;

determine whether or not positions represented by the selected positional data are positions of a notification point where a current position of said mobile terminal is to be notified; and

extract an acceleration log whose reception time corresponds to a reception time of any of the selected positional data and predicts a travel route of said mobile terminal by specifying an intermediate position between notification points by the positional data which is notified to the management server based on a distance traveled from a start time at which the mobile terminal started to store the acceleration data represented by the acceleration log, which is derived from the extracted acceleration log and the selected positional data in a case where the positions represented by the selected positional data are determined not to be the position of the notification point,

said mobile terminal being configured to;

acquire the acceleration log, and store the acceleration log, in a case where the gps signals cannot be acquired at said mobile terminal; and

send data regarding the position data of said mobile terminal and the acceleration log to said management server, in a case where gps signals are receivable and communication to said management server through the network becomes possible.

2. The positional information management system according to claim 1,

wherein said management server:

is further connected to a motion pattern data storage unit which stores a velocity pattern and an acceleration pattern for each means of transportation and configured to specify means of transportation used for traveling between the two positions, by deriving an average travel velocity between the two positions based on the selected positional data and their reception times and then comparing the average travel velocity with the velocity pattern stored in said motion pattern data storage unit, or by comparing the extracted acceleration log with the acceleration pattern stored in said motion pattern data storage unit.

3. A positional information management method for predicting a travel route of a mobile terminal, based on information associated with traveling of the mobile terminal, from a notification point at which a mobile terminal should notify that it is at the point, the notification point based on positional data representing a current position of said mobile terminal which acquires acceleration data at a predetermined position, and an acceleration log representing acceleration data in time series acquired and stored by said mobile terminal, the positional data and the acceleration log being notified through a predetermined network, said method comprising:

measuring acceleration and receiving gps (global positioning system) signals with the mobile terminal;

deriving a variable time cycle for notification as a function of acceleration measured, the variable time cycle for the notification becoming shorter as average velocity increases;

sending the notification in accordance with the variable time cycle when the variable time cycle is less than an elapsed time from a previous notification;

storing acceleration data according to a communication state determined by the mobile terminal;

storing, at a management server in the predetermined network, positional data and the acceleration log in association with times at which they are notified;

selecting, at the management server, positional data for two positions which are recorded adjacently time-wise, and which are included in a travel route of the mobile terminal which is a target of prediction and which corresponds to identification information of the mobile terminal stored in connection with the positional data;

determining, at the management server, whether or not positions represented by the selected positional data are positions of the notification point;

extracting, at the management server, an acceleration log corresponding to any of the selected positional data and predicting a travel route by specifying an intermediate position between notification points by the positional data based on a distance traveled from a start time at which the mobile terminal started to store the acceleration data represented by the acceleration log, which is derived from the extracted acceleration log and the selected positional data in a case where the positions represented by the selected positional data are determined not to be the position of the notification point;

measuring and storing, at the mobile terminal, the acceleration log in a case where the gps signals cannot be acquired at said mobile terminal; and

sending, from the mobile terminal, data regarding the position of said mobile terminal and the acceleration log to the management server in a case where gps signals are receivable by the mobile terminal and communication through the network becomes possible.

4. The positional information management method according to claim 3, further comprising storing map data representing predetermined means of transportation, and places to get on and off the means of transportation, wherein:

the notification point includes the places to get on and off the means of transportation; and

said predicting the travel route includes specifying means of transportation which includes the notification point in its running course, by using the map data.

5. The positional information management method according to claim 3, wherein said predicting the travel route includes:

specifying the notification point based on the extracted acceleration log corresponding to the selected positional data, in a case where any of the selected positional data is not positional data representing the notification point; and

predicting the travel route based on positional data representing the notification point or based on the extracted acceleration log.

6. The positional information management method according to claim 5,

wherein said specifying the notification point specifies the notification point by:

deriving a travel distance based on the extracted acceleration log; and

searching for the notification point that exists within a radius of the derived travel distance from a position represented by the selected positional data from the map data.

7. The positional information management method according to claim 3, further comprising storing a velocity pattern for each predetermined means of transportation,

wherein said predicting the travel route specifies means of transportation by calculating an average travel velocity between the two positions based on the selected positional data and the times at which the positional data are notified, and by comparing the average travel velocity with the velocity pattern.

8. The positional information management method according to claim 3, further comprising storing an acceleration pattern for each predetermined means of transportation,

wherein said predicting the travel route specifies means of transportation by comparing the extracted acceleration log with the acceleration pattern.

9. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions which, when executed by a computer causes the computer to implement a positional information management method for predicting a travel route of a mobile terminal, based on information associated with traveling of the mobile terminal, from a notification point at which a mobile terminal should notify that it is at the point, the notification point based on positional data representing a current position of said mobile terminal which acquires acceleration data at a predetermined position, and an acceleration log representing acceleration data in time series acquired and stored by said mobile terminal, the positional data and the acceleration log being notified through a predetermined network, said method comprising:

measuring acceleration and receiving gps (global positioning system) signals with the mobile terminal;

deriving a variable time cycle for notification as function of acceleration measured, the variable time cycle becoming shorter as average velocity increases;

sending the notification in accordance with the variable time cycle when the variable time cycle is less than an elapsed time from a previous notification;

storing acceleration data according to a communication state determined by the mobile terminal;

storing, at a management server in the predetermined network, positional data and the acceleration log in association with times at which they are notified;

selecting, at the management server, positional data for two positions which are recorded adjacently time-wise, and which are included in a travel route of the mobile terminal which is a target of prediction and which corresponds to identification information of the mobile terminal stored in connection with the positional data;

determining, at the management server, whether or not positions represented by the selected positional data are positions of the notification point;

extracting, at the management server, an acceleration log corresponding to any of the selected positional data and predicting a travel route by specifying an intermediate position between notification points by the positional data based on a distance traveled from a start time at which the mobile terminal started to store the acceleration data represented by the acceleration log, which is derived from the extracted acceleration log and the selected positional data in a case where the positions represented by the selected positional data are determined not to be the position of the notification point;

measuring and storing, at the mobile terminal, the acceleration log in a case where the gps signals cannot be acquired at said mobile terminal; and

sending, from the mobile terminal, data regarding the position of said mobile terminal and the acceleration log to the management server in a case where the gps signals are receivable by said mobile terminal and communication through the network becomes possible.

10. A mobile terminal connected with a management server through a network, the management server comprising a computer processing unit and memory, and configured to predict a travel route of the mobile terminal based on information associated with traveling of the mobile terminal and is connected to a storage unit which stores positional data representing that said mobile terminal is at a predetermined position, which is sent in association with a reception time at which the positional data is received, and an acceleration log representing acceleration data in time series, which is stored by the mobile terminal and sent from said mobile terminal in association with a reception time at which the acceleration log is received,

the management server is configured to

select positional data for two positions which are recorded adjacently time-wise in said storage unit, and which are included in a travel route of the mobile terminal which is a target of prediction and which corresponds to identification information of the mobile terminal stored in connection with the positional data;

determine whether or not positions represented by the selected positional data are positions of a notification point where a current position of said mobile terminal is to be notified; and

extract an acceleration log whose reception time corresponds to a reception time of any of the selected positional data and predicts a travel route of said mobile terminal by specifying an intermediate position between notification points by the positional data which is notified to the management server based on a distance traveled from a start time at which the mobile terminal started to store the acceleration data represented by the acceleration log, which is derived from the extracted acceleration log and the selected positional data in a case where the positions represented by the selected positional data are determined not to be the position of the notification point,

the mobile terminal comprising;

an acceleration measuring unit which contains an accelerometer to measure an acceleration and the acceleration measuring unit further storing the acceleration log;

a positional information acquiring unit which acquires gps (global positioning system) signals;

a control unit which controls said acceleration measuring unit and said positional information acquiring unit, said control unit derives a variable time cycle for a notification as a function of the acceleration measured, the variable time cycle for the notification becoming shorter as average velocity increases, and sends the notification in accordance with the variable time cycle when the variable time cycle is less than elapsed time from a previous notification; and

a storage unit which stores the acceleration log, and which sends the acceleration log to the management server for managing the acceleration log, wherein said control unit is configured to;

determine whether or not data for specifying a position of said mobile terminal can be acquired by said positional information acquiring unit;

measure the acceleration log by said acceleration measuring unit and store the acceleration log in said storage unit, in a case where the gps signals cannot be acquired at said mobile terminal by said positional information acquiring unit; and

send data regarding the position data of said mobile terminal acquired by said positional information acquiring unit and the acceleration log stored in said storage unit to said management server, in a case where the gps signals are receivable at said mobile terminal and communication to said management server through the network becomes possible.