Method for determining mobile communication terminal user's point of interest and apparatus for providing geographic information using the method

• US 7,660,589 B2
• Filed: 05/18/2006
• Issued: 02/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Seong-woon, Lea, Jong-ho, Ryu, Hee-seob
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; David Q
• Application Number:
  US11/435,794
• Publication Number:
  US 20060286987A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,363 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.1, 455/456.3, 455/414.2, 340/995, 340/998
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method for determining a mobile communication terminal user'"'"'s points of interest, in which geographic information of an area where the mobile communication terminal user stays longer than a threshold time, and an apparatus for providing the geographic information using the method. The method includes providing identification information received from a mobile communication repeaters, which use a limited number of the identification information and repeatedly reuse the identification information at different places.

Claims

1. A method of determining a mobile communication terminal user'"'"'s point of interest, the method comprising:

providing identification information received from a mobile communication repeater, the identification information being usable to identify a location of the user in relation to a plurality of mobile communication repeaters;

matching geographic information of a mobile communication terminal to the provided identification information when there is the same identification information as the provided identification information among previously recorded pieces of identification information within a first threshold time duration at the latest before receiving the provided identification information; and

providing the geographic information as point of interest when identification information that is the same as the identification information to which the geographic information is matched is provided for longer than a second threshold time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification information is pseudo noises or base station identifier outputs from mobile communication repeaters.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing identification information comprises:

detecting signals from the plurality of mobile communication repeaters;

filtering a threshold number of strong signals among the detected signals sorted in an decreasing order of signal strength; and

extracting the identification information from the filtered signals.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching comprises:

primarily searching for identification information that is the same as the provided identification information among a sequence of identification information received within a first threshold time at the latest before the receipt of the provided identification information; and

mapping the geographic information to the provided identification information when a difference between the receipt times of identification information received the earliest among a sequence of primarily searched identification information and the provided identification information is greater than a third threshold time.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the mapping comprises:

secondarily searching for identification information which is the same as the provided identification information and to which predetermined geographic information is matched among the sequence of identification information received at the latest before the receipt of the provided identification information; and

mapping geographic information to the provided identification information, when the geographic information is matched among the list of found identification information to one of the list of the most recently received identification information, when a time lag between the receipt time of the most recently received identification information among the list of the secondarily searched identification information and the receipt time of the provided identification information is less than a fourth threshold time.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising, when the identification information which is the same as the provided identification information and to which predetermined geographic information is matched is not found in a list of the secondarily searched identification information, or when the time lag between the receipt times of the most recently received identification information among the secondarily searched identification information and the provided identification information is greater than the fourth threshold time, measuring a current position of the mobile communication terminal;

providing geographic information corresponding to the measured position; and

mapping the provided geographic information to the provided identification information.

7. An apparatus for providing geographic information of a mobile communication terminal, the apparatus comprising:

a receiving module which provides identification information received from a mobile communication repeater being usable to identify the mobile communication repeater;

a geographic information setting module which matches geographic information of a mobile communication terminal to the provided identification information when there is identification information that is the same as the provided identification information among identification information received within a first threshold time at the latest before receipt of the provided identification information; and

a point-of-interest providing module which provides the geographic information as the mobile communication terminal user'"'"'s point of interest when identification information that is the same as the identification information to which the geographic information is matched is provided for longer than a second threshold time.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the identification information is a pseudo noise or a base station identifier output from the mobile communication repeaters.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the receiving module comprises:

a signal detecting module which periodically detects signals output from a plurality of the mobile communication repeaters;

a filtering module which filters a threshold number of signals having strong strengths among the sorted sequence of detected signals by the signal detecting module; and

an identification-information-extracting module which extracts the identification information from the filtered signals.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the geographic information setting module primarily searches for identification information that is the same as the provided identification information among a list of the identification information received within the first threshold time at the latest before the receipt of the provided identification information, and maps the geographic information to the provided identification information when a time lag between a receipt time of the matched identification information received at a longest time ago among the list of the primarily searched identification information and a receipt time of the provided identification information is greater than a the third threshold time.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the geographic information setting module secondarily searches for identification information which is the same as the provided identification information and to which predetermined geographic information is matched among the list of identification information received before the receipt of the provided identification information, and maps geographic information matched to most recently received identification information among the list of found identification information to the provided identification information when a time lag between a receipt times of the most recently received identification information along the sequence of the secondarily searched identification information and the receipt time of the provided identification information is less than a fourth threshold time.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising a geographic information providing module which measures the current position of the mobile communication terminal and provides geographic information corresponding to the measured position,

wherein when the identification information which is the same as the provided identification information and to which predetermined geographic information is matched is not found or a difference between the receipt times of the most recently received identification information among the secondarily searched identification information and the provided identification information is greater than the fourth threshold time, the geographic information setting module maps the geographic information provided form the geographic information providing module to the provided identification information.

13. A method of determining a point of interest, the method comprising:

receiving, from at least one mobile communication repeater, identification information usable to identify a location of a user in relation to the at least one mobile communication repeater;

determining whether there is present stored identification information received within a first threshold time before receipt of the received identification information and, when there is present such stored identification information, comparing the stored identification information with the received identification information to identify identical identification information;

matching geographic information of a mobile communication terminal to the received identification information when there is stored identification information that is identical to the received identification information;

determining whether the stored identification information that is identical to the received identification information to which the geographic information is matched is received for longer than a second threshold time; and

providing the geographic information as point of interest when identification information that is the same as the identification information to which the geographic information is matched is provided for longer than a second threshold time.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the receiving comprises filtering a threshold number of received information signals in an increasing order of signal strength.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the receiving comprises:

primarily filtering received information signals whose strengths are greater than a threshold strength; and

secondarily filtering a threshold number of signals among the primarily filtered signals in an increasing order of signal strength.