Positioning system and positioning method

• US 8,013,785 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2009
• Issued: 09/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation), Polaris Wireless Incorporated
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation), Polaris Wireless Incorporated
• Inventors: Ei-Sallabi, Hassan Mohamed, Gordon, Scot Douglas, Shen, Jiyun, Oda, Yasuhiro, Bhattacharya, Tarun Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza; Thomas H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MCGUE, FRANK J
• Application Number:
  US12/651,013
• Publication Number:
  US 20110156950A1
• Time in Patent Office: 614 Days
• Field of Search: 342/357.31
• US Class Current: 342/357.31
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/48 by combining or switching between position solutions derived from the satellite radio beacon positioning system and position solutions derived from a further system
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0036 of measured values, i.e. measurement on mobile and position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/012 Identifying whether indoors or outdoors

Abstract

It is an object of the present invention to perform positioning at favorable positioning precision and in a favorable positioning time, according to whether a receiver is indoors or outdoors. A positioning server 10 comprises a reception state information acquisition component 12 that acquires reception state information indicating the reception state of a radio wave at a cellular terminal 20, a base station positioning calculator 13 that estimates the position of the cellular terminal 20 on the basis of the reception state information, an end decision component 14 that decides whether or not to end the position estimation on the basis of a specific end condition, and, if it is decided not to end, estimates the position of the cellular terminal 20 on the basis of new reception state information, an indoor/outdoor determination component 15 that determines whether the cellular terminal 20 is indoors or outdoors on the basis of the reception state information, and an end condition determination component 16 that determines the specific end condition on the basis of a result of determination by the indoor/outdoor determination component 15.

Claims

1. A positioning system for estimating the position of a receiver that has a GPS positioning function, a base station positioning function, and a wireless communication function, the system comprising:

GPS reception means for receiving signals from a GPS satellite;

position estimation means for estimating the position of a receiver from a received GPS signal;

reception state information acquisition means for acquiring reception state information indicating the reception state of a radio wave produced by the wireless communication function of the receiver;

position estimation means for estimating the position of the receiver on the basis of the reception state information acquired by the reception state information acquisition means;

end decision means for deciding whether or not to end the position estimation by the position estimation means on the basis of a specific end condition, and, if it is decided not to end, causing the position estimation means to estimate the position of the receiver on the basis of new reception state information acquired by the reception state information acquisition means at a different timing from that of the reception state information used by the position estimation means to estimate the position;

indoor/outdoor determination means for determining whether the receiver is indoors or outdoors on the basis of the reception state information acquired by the reception state information acquisition means; and

end condition determination means for determining the specific end condition on the basis of a result of determination by the indoor/outdoor determination means.

2. The positioning system according to claim 1,

wherein the reception state information acquisition means acquires strength information indicating the reception strength corresponding to an emission source of the radio wave as the reception state information, and

the position estimation means estimates the position of the receiver by storing in advance information indicating the relation between the position and reception strength of the radio wave corresponding to an emission source of the radio wave, and by comparing the strength information acquired by the reception state information acquisition means with the information stored in advance.

3. The positioning system according to claim 1,

wherein the end condition determination means determines a threshold of positioning result error and/or an elapsed time of positioning as the specific end condition.

4. The positioning system according to claim 1,

wherein the receiver further has a function of receiving signals used in GPS positioning,

the position estimation means performs GPS positioning of the receiver on the basis of the reception state of the signal used in GPS positioning and received by the receiver, and

the end decision means decides whether or not to end the position estimation by the position estimation means also on the basis of whether or not the GPS positioning by the position estimation means has been ended.

5. The positioning system according to claim 1,

wherein the reception state information acquisition means acquires information indicating an emission source of the radio wave received by the receiver as the reception state information,

the position estimation means acquires information indicating the size of a communication area of the emission source indicated by the information acquired by the reception state information acquisition means, and estimates the position of the receiver on the basis of the size of the communication area, and

the end decision means decides whether or not to end the position estimation by the position estimation means on the basis of the information indicating the size of the communication area of the emission source acquired by the position estimation means.

6. A positioning method for estimating the position of a receiver that has a GPS positioning function, a base station positioning function, and a wireless communication function, the method comprising:

a GPS reception step of receiving signals from a GPS satellite;

a position estimation step of estimating the position of a receiver from a received GPS signal;

a reception state information acquisition step of acquiring reception state information indicating the reception state of a radio wave produced by the wireless communication function of the receiver;

a position estimation step of estimating the position of the receiver on the basis of the reception state information acquired in the reception state information acquisition step;

an end decision step of deciding whether or not to end the position estimation in the position estimation step on the basis of a specific end condition, and, if it is decided not to end, estimating the position of the receiver in the position estimation step on the basis of new reception state information acquired in the reception state information acquisition step at a different timing from that of the reception state information used in the position estimation step to estimate the position;

an indoor/outdoor determination step of determining whether the receiver is indoors or outdoors on the basis of the reception state information acquired in the reception state information acquisition step; and

an end condition determination step of determining the specific end condition on the basis of a result of determination in the indoor/outdoor determination step.