Apparatus and method for determining a coincidence of a position with a reference position

• US 8,320,280 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2008
• Issued: 11/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forsching E.V.
• Original Assignee: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forsching E.V.
• Inventors: Meyer, Steffen, Hupp, Juergen, Vaupel, Thorsten, Haimerl, Stephan, Loidl, Karin, Zahonyi, Renata Kitti, Mueller, Frank
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Man
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mansoury, Nourali
• Application Number:
  US12/741,395
• Publication Number:
  US 20100278079A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,436 Days
• Field of Search: 370/255, 370/335, 370/337, 370/338, 370/342, 370/401
• US Class Current: 370/255
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02527 Detecting or resolving anomalies in the radio frequency fingerprints of the radio-map

Abstract

An apparatus for determining a coincidence of a position with a reference position, wherein radio signals from fixedly positioned radio transmitters can be received at the position, having a provider for providing properties of the radio signals of the fixedly positioned radio transmitters at the position, wherein the provided properties of the radio signals include transmitter identifications identifying the radio transmitters, a separator for separating the radio transmitters into a first number of radio transmitters previously recorded transmitter identifications of which at the reference position are identical with transmitter identifications provided at the position, and into a second number of radio transmitters previously recorded transmitter identifications of which at the reference position and transmitter identifications provided at the position are different, and a determiner for determining a measure of matching for the position on the basis of the provided properties of the radio signals, wherein both properties of the first number of radio transmitters and properties of the second number of radio transmitters are taken into account in the determination of a measure of matching, and wherein the properties of the first number of radio transmitters and the properties of the second number of radio transmitters enter the measure of matching differently.

Claims

1. An apparatus for determining a coincidence of a position with a reference position, wherein radio signals from fixedly positioned radio transmitters can be received at the position, comprising:

a provider for providing properties of the radio signals of the fixedly positioned radio transmitters at the position, wherein the provided properties of the radio signals comprise transmitter identifications identifying the radio transmitters;

a separator for separating the radio transmitters into a first number of radio transmitters previously recorded transmitter identifications of which at the reference position are identical with transmitter identifications provided at the position, and into a second number of radio transmitters previously recorded transmitter identifications of which at the reference position and transmitter identifications provided at the position are different, wherein the separator for separating is formed to select, from the second number of radio transmitters, a number of radio transmitters received too few at the position, of which there are previously recorded properties at the reference position, but of which there are no properties provided at the position, or a number of radio transmitters received in addition at the position, of which there are no previously recorded electromagnetic properties at the reference position, but of which there are electromagnetic properties provided at the position; and

a determiner for determining a measure of matching for the position on the basis of the provided properties of the radio signals, wherein both properties of the first number of radio transmitters and properties of the second number of radio transmitters are taken into account in the determination of a measure of matching, and wherein the properties of the first number of radio transmitters and the properties of the second number of radio transmitters enter the measure of matching differently, wherein the determiner for determining is formed to associate a malus value with one of the radio transmitters not received at the position or a malus value with a radio transmitter received in addition at the position.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second number of radio transmitters comprises transmitter identifications either provided only at the position and not having been recorded previously at the reference position;

or having been recorded previously only at the reference position and not provided at the position.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the properties of the first number of radio transmitters are weighted more strongly than the properties of the second number of radio transmitters.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the properties of the radio signals comprise electromagnetic properties of the radio signals.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the determiner for determining is formed to determine the measure of matching for the position on the basis of differences between previously recorded electromagnetic properties at the reference position and the electromagnetic properties provided at the position of the first number of radio transmitters.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the determiner for determining is formed to associate a higher measure of matching with the position, the smaller the sum of the differences is.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the provider for providing the properties of the radio signals is formed to provide reception-field-strength-related properties of the radio signals at the position.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the provider for providing the properties of the radio signals is formed to provide an RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) value, a reception power spectrum, or a signal-to-noise power ratio of the radio signals at the position.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determiner for determining is formed to associate the malus value with a radio transmitter received too few at the position, depending on how reliably the radio transmitter could be received at the reference position in the past.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determiner for determining is formed to associate the malus value with a radio transmitter not received at the position, depending on a property related to a reception field strength.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determiner for determining is formed to associate a higher measure of matching with the position, the smaller the sum of the malus values of the radio transmitters not received at the position is.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determiner for determining is formed to associate the malus value with a radio transmitter received in addition at the position, depending on a property related to the reception field strength of its radio signal.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determiner for determining is formed to associate a higher measure of matching with the position, the smaller a sum of respective malus values of the radio transmitters received in addition at the position is.

14. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determiner for determining properties of the radio signals is formed to determine properties of WLAN (wireless local area network) radio signals.

15. A navigation device, comprising

an apparatus for determining a coincidence of a position with a reference position to determine a measure of matching of a current position with a reference position, wherein radio signals from fixedly positioned radio transmitters can be received at the position, comprising:

a provider for providing properties of the radio signals of the fixedly positioned radio transmitters at the position, wherein the provided properties of the radio signals comprise transmitter identifications identifying the radio transmitters;

a separator for separating the radio transmitters into a first number of radio transmitters previously recorded transmitter identifications of which at the reference position are identical with transmitter identifications provided at the position, and into a second number of radio transmitters previously recorded transmitter identifications of which at the reference position and transmitter identifications provided at the position are different, wherein the separator for separating is formed to select, from the second number of radio transmitters, a number of radio transmitters received too few at the position, of which there are previously recorded properties at the reference position, but of which there are no properties provided at the position, or a number of radio transmitters received in addition at the position, of which there are no previously recorded electromagnetic properties at the reference position, but of which there are electromagnetic properties provided at the position; and

a determiner for determining a measure of matching for the position on the basis of the provided properties of the radio signals, wherein both properties of the first number of radio transmitters and properties of the second number of radio transmitters are taken into account in the determination of a measure of matching, and wherein the properties of the first number of radio transmitters and the properties of the second number of radio transmitters enter the measure of matching differently, wherein the determiner for determining is formed to associate a malus value with one of the radio transmitters not received at the position or a malus value with a radio transmitter received in addition at the position; and

an outputter for outputting an estimate for the current position on the basis of the determined measure of matching.

16. The navigation device according to claim 15, wherein the apparatus for determining the measure of matching is formed to form a measure of matching each between the current position and a limited number of reference positions, wherein the limited number of reference positions lies in a predetermined neighborhood of an estimate for a previous position to the current position.

17. The navigation device according to claim 15, wherein the outputter for outputting the estimate is formed to determine and output the estimate on the basis of a mean value of a plurality of reference positions with measures of matching above or below a limit.

18. A method of determining a coincidence of a position with a reference position, wherein radio signals from fixedly positioned radio transmitters can be received at the position, comprising:

providing properties of the radio signals of the fixedly positioned radio transmitters at the position, wherein the provided properties of the radio signals comprise transmitter identifications identifying the radio transmitters;

separating the radio transmitters into a first number of radio transmitters previously recorded transmitter identifications of which at the reference position are identical with transmitter identifications provided at the position, and into a second number of radio transmitters previously recorded transmitter identifications of which at the reference position and transmitter identifications provided at the position are different, wherein the separating comprises selecting, from the second number of radio transmitters, a number of radio transmitters received too few at the position, of which there are previously recorded properties at the reference position, but of which there are no properties provided at the position, or a number of radio transmitters received in addition at the position, of which there are no previously recorded electromagnetic properties at the reference position, but of which there are electromagnetic properties provided at the position; and

determining a measure of matching for the position on the basis of the provided properties of the radio signals, wherein both properties of the first number of radio transmitters and properties of the second number of radio transmitters are taken into account in the determination of a measure of matching, and wherein the properties of the first number of radio transmitters and the properties of the second number of radio transmitters enter the measure of matching differently, wherein the determining comprises associating a malus value with one of the radio transmitters not received at the position or a malus value with a radio transmitter received in addition at the position.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium including a computer program including computer code for carrying out, when the computer program is executed on a computer, a method of determining a coincidence of a position with a reference position, wherein radio signals from fixedly positioned radio transmitters can be received at the position, comprising:

providing properties of the radio signals of the fixedly positioned radio transmitters at the position, wherein the provided properties of the radio signals comprise transmitter identifications identifying the radio transmitters;

separating the radio transmitters into a first number of radio transmitters previously recorded transmitter identifications of which at the reference position are identical with transmitter identifications provided at the position, and into a second number of radio transmitters previously recorded transmitter identifications of which at the reference position and transmitter identifications provided at the position are different, wherein the separating comprises selecting, from the second number of radio transmitters, a number of radio transmitters received too few at the position, of which there are previously recorded properties at the reference position, but of which there are no properties provided at the position, or a number of radio transmitters received in addition at the position, of which there are no previously recorded electromagnetic properties at the reference position, but of which there are electromagnetic properties provided at the position; and

determining a measure of matching for the position on the basis of the provided properties of the radio signals, wherein both properties of the first number of radio transmitters and properties of the second number of radio transmitters are taken into account in the determination of a measure of matching, and wherein the properties of the first number of radio transmitters and the properties of the second number of radio transmitters enter the measure of matching differently, wherein the determining comprises associating a malus value with one of the radio transmitters not received at the position or a malus value with a radio transmitter received in addition at the position.

20. An apparatus for determining coincidence of a current position with a reference position based on radio signals received at the current position from fixedly positioned radio transmitters, said apparatus comprising:

a determiner for determining properties of the radio signals of the fixedly positioned radio transmitters at the current position, the determined properties of the radio signals including transmitter identifications identifying the radio transmitters;

a separator for separating the fixedly positioned radio transmitters into a first number of radio transmitters and a second number of radio transmitters, the first number of radio transmitters comprising the fixedly positioned radio transmitters having previously recorded transmitter identifications at the reference position which are identical with transmitter identifications determined at the current position, and the second number of radio transmitters comprising the fixedly positioned radio transmitters having previously recorded transmitter identifications at the reference position which are different from the transmitter identifications determined at the current position, the separator for separating being configured to select, from the second number of radio transmitters, a number of radio transmitters having;

(i) previously recorded properties at the reference position and no properties determined at the current position;

or (ii) no previously recorded properties at the reference position and having properties determined at the current position; and

a determiner for determining a measure of matching for the current position on the basis of the determined properties of the radio signals, the determination of the measure of matching being based on properties of the first number of radio transmitters and properties of the second number of radio transmitters, the properties of the first number of radio transmitters and the properties of the second number of radio transmitters being weighted differently, wherein the determiner for determining a measure of matching is configured to associate a malus value with (i) one of the fixedly positioned radio transmitters not received at the current position;

or (ii) a radio transmitter received at the current position having no previously recorded properties at the reference position and having properties determined at the current position.