Position estimation of a wireless terminal in a structure using base station signal information

• US 8,229,465 B2
• Filed: 04/07/2009
• Issued: 07/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Rekimoto, Junichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Magloire, Vladimir
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chambers, Tangela T.
• Application Number:
  US12/936,135
• Publication Number:
  US 20110045846A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,204 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-4562, 455/456.5, 455/404.2
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0018 Transmission from mobile station to base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02521 using a radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

An information processing device is provided that includes: a storage portion associating and storing section information indicating one section of a building structure, first measurement information acquired by signal intensity measurement of a wireless signal transmitted from a surrounding base station in a wireless terminal existing in the one section, and base station identification information; a receiving portion that receives at least one piece of second measurement information acquired by signal intensity measurement, and at least one piece of base station identification information that indicates a base station of a transmission source of the wireless signal; and a selection portion that selects, based on at least one piece of first measurement information associated with the at least one piece of base station identification information and the at least one piece of second measurement information, section information associated with one of the at least one piece of first measurement information.

Claims

1. An information processing device comprising:

a storage portion that associates and stores section information indicating one section of a building structure, first measurement information acquired by a signal intensity measurement of a wireless signal, the wireless signal being transmitted from a surrounding base station in a wireless terminal of the one section, and base station identification information that identifies the surrounding base station;

a receiving portion that receives, from a given wireless terminal, at least one piece of second measurement information acquired by a signal intensity measurement of a wireless signal in the given wireless terminal, and at least one piece of base station identification information indicating a base station of a transmission source of the wireless signal received by the given wireless terminal, the at least one piece of base station identification information being associated with each of the at least one piece of second measurement information;

a retrieval portion that retrieves, from the storage portion, at least one piece of first measurement information that is associated with the at least one piece of base station identification information received by the receiving portion;

a selection portion that selects section information associated with one of the at least one piece of first measurement information, the selection being based on the at least one piece of second measurement information received by the receiving portion and the at least one piece of first measurement information retrieved by the retrieval portion;

a transmitting portion that transmits, to the given wireless terminal, the section information selected by the selection portion; and

an evaluation portion that evaluates an acquisition position relationship between the at least one piece of first measurement information and the at least one piece of second measurement information, the evaluation being based on the at least one piece of first measurement information retrieved by the retrieval portion, and on second measurement information associated with the same base station identification information as the at least one piece of first measurement information, the second measurement information being from among the at least one piece of second measurement information received by the receiving portion,

wherein the selection portion selects, based on an evaluation result by the evaluation portion, section information associated with first measurement information, the first measurement information forming a pair with second measurement information,

wherein, for each of the at least one piece of first measurement information retrieved by the retrieval portion, the evaluation portion calculates, based on the first measurement information, a first distance between an acquisition position of the first measurement information and a base station corresponding to the first measurement information,

wherein, for each of the at least one piece of second measurement information received by the receiving portion, the evaluation portion calculates, based on the second measurement information, a second distance between an acquisition position of the second measurement information and a base station corresponding to the second measurement information,

wherein the evaluation portion adds the first distance and the second distance, where the first distance and the second distance are associated with the same base station identification information, and

wherein the selection portion selects section information that corresponds to the first distance that has a minimum sum value when the second distance obtained by the evaluation portion is added to the first distance.

2. The information processing device according to claim 1,

wherein, when the retrieval portion retrieves a plurality of pieces of first measurement information associated with the same base station identification information and the same section information, the evaluation portion computes an average value of sum values of the first distances and the second distance, calculated based on the plurality of pieces of first measurement information associated with the same base station identification information and the same section information, and on the second measurement information, and

wherein the selection portion selects section information that corresponds to a piece of the first measurement information that is computed by the evaluation portion, and that has a smallest average value or a smallest sum value.

3. The information processing device according to claims 1 or 2, further comprising:

a priority processing portion that performs processing such that, as the number of pieces of section information associated with the same base station identification information becomes larger, the section information is selected with priority by the selection portion.

4. The information processing device according to claim 1, wherein the section information comprises information indicative of a floor.

5. The information processing device according to claim 1, wherein the section information comprises information indicative of a store name.