Device and method for estimating an orientation of a mobile terminal device

• US 8,436,772 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2011
• Issued: 05/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2008
• 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, Haimerl, Stephan
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Dao
• Application Number:
  US13/092,478
• Publication Number:
  US 20110316748A1
• Time in Patent Office: 746 Days
• Field of Search: 342/450, 342/451, 342463-465, 455/456.1, 455/456.6
• US Class Current: 342/451
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0247 Determining attitude
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02521 using a radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02524 Creating or updating the radio-map

Abstract

A device for estimating a current orientation of a mobile terminal device at a current geographical position, wherein, at the current geographical position, a current measurement package may be determined which has a transmitter identification and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a radio transmitter which may be received at the current geographical position with the current orientation of the mobile terminal device at a current measurement time, with a determiner for determining an accordance measure between the current measurement package and a reference measurement package, which has a transmitter identification, a reference orientation and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a reference radio transmitter which was receivable at a geographical reference position allocated to the reference measurement package with the reference orientation at a reference time lying before the current measurement time, a selector for selecting at least one reference measurement package which has an accordance measure, and a determiner for determining an estimate for the current orientation of the mobile terminal device based on the reference orientation of the at least one selected reference measurement package.

Claims

1. A device for estimating a current orientation of a mobile terminal device at a current geographical position, wherein, at the current geographical position, a current measurement package may be determined which comprises a transmitter identification and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a radio transmitter which may be received at the current geographical position with the current orientation of the mobile terminal device at a current measurement time, comprising:

a determiner for determining an accordance measure between the current measurement package and a reference measurement package comprising a transmitter identification, a reference orientation and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a reference radio transmitter which was receivable at a geographical reference position associated with the reference measurement package with the reference orientation at a reference time lying before the current measurement time;

a selector for selecting at least one reference measurement package comprising an accordance measure; and

a determiner for determining an estimate for the current orientation of the mobile terminal device based on the reference orientation of the at least one selected reference measurement package.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the selector for selecting is adapted to select the at least one reference measurement package such that its accordance measure does not deviate by more than a predetermined value from a first reference accordance measure of a reference measurement package which comprises a highest accordance with the current measurement package.

3. The device according to claim 2, wherein the selector for selecting is implemented to select a reference measurement package comprising a determined accordance measure additionally lying below a second reference accordance measure representing a needed minimum accordance of a reference measurement package with the current measurement package.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein the determiner for determining the estimate is adapted to determine the estimate based on a weighted sum of selected reference measurement packages corresponding to reference orientations, wherein a weight of a reference orientation depends on the accordance measure determined with respect to the corresponding reference measurement package.

5. The device according to claim 4, wherein the determiner for determining the estimate is adapted to select the weight of a corresponding reference orientation inversely proportional to the accordance measure associated with the reference orientation.

6. The device according to claim 4, wherein the determiner for determining the estimate is adapted to select the weight of a corresponding reference orientation inversely proportional to a difference between the accordance measure associated with the corresponding reference orientation and the first reference accordance measure.

7. The device according to claim 1, wherein the determiner for determining the accordance measure is implemented to determine the accordance measure based on differences between the electromagnetic signal characteristics of the reference measurement package and the electromagnetic signal characteristics of the current measurement package.

8. The device according to claim 7, wherein the differences between electromagnetic signal characteristics are formed by radio transmitters comprised both in the current measurement package and also in the reference measurement package.

9. The device according to claim 7, wherein the determiner for determining the accordance measure is implemented to allocate a smaller accordance measure to the reference measurement package, the smaller a sum of the differences is.

10. The device according to claim 1, comprising, for determining the current measurement package, an antenna unit with an antenna directional characteristic, and wherein the orientation of the mobile terminal device is defined by a spatial orientation of the main lobe of the antenna directional characteristic.

11. The device according to claim 1, wherein the electromagnetic signal characteristics are signal characteristics of radio signals related to a receive field strength.

12. The device according to claim 11, wherein an electromagnetic signal characteristic is an RSSI value, a receive power spectrum or a signal-to-noise power ratio.

13. The device according to claim 1, wherein the device is implemented in a WLAN-capable terminal device.

14. A method for estimating a current orientation of a mobile terminal device at a current geographical position, wherein, at the current geographical position, a current measurement package may be determined which comprises a transmitter identification and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a radio transmitter which may be received at the current geographical position with the current orientation of the mobile terminal device at a current measurement time, comprising:

determining, by an accordance measure determiner, an accordance measure between the current measurement package and a reference measurement package comprising a transmitter identification, a reference orientation and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a reference radio transmitter which was receivable at a geographical reference position associated with the reference measurement package with the reference orientation at a reference time lying before the current measurement time;

selecting, by a selector, at least one reference measurement package comprising an accordance measure; and

determining, by an estimate determiner, an estimate for the current orientation of the mobile terminal device based on the reference orientation of the at least one selected reference measurement package,

wherein at least one of the accordance measure determiner, the selector, and the estimate determiner comprises a hardware implementation.

15. A non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon a computer program for executing the method for estimating a current orientation of a mobile terminal device at a current geographical position, wherein, at the current geographical position, a current measurement package may be determined which comprises a transmitter identification and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a radio transmitter which may be received at the current geographical position with the current orientation of the mobile terminal device at a current measurement time, comprising:

determining an accordance measure between the current measurement package and a reference measurement package comprising a transmitter identification, a reference orientation and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a reference radio transmitter which was receivable at a geographical reference position associated with the reference measurement package with the reference orientation at a reference time lying before the current measurement time;

selecting at least one reference measurement package comprising an accordance measure; and

determining an estimate for the current orientation of the mobile terminal device based on the reference orientation of the at least one selected reference measurement package,

when the computer program is executed on a computer or microcontroller.

16. A device for storing a current orientation of a mobile terminal device at a current geographical position, wherein, at the current geographical position, a current measurement package may be determined which comprises a transmitter identification and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a radio transmitter which may be received at the current geographical position with the current orientation of the mobile terminal device at a current measurement time, comprising:

a detector for detecting the current orientation, wherein the detector for detecting the current orientation is formed according to the device for estimating a current orientation of a mobile terminal device at a current geographical position, wherein, at the current geographical position, a current measurement package may be determined which comprises a transmitter identification and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a radio transmitter which may be received at the current geographical position with the current orientation of the mobile terminal device at a current measurement time, the device for estimating comprising;

a determiner for determining an accordance measure between the current measurement package and a reference measurement package comprising a transmitter identification, a reference orientation and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a reference radio transmitter which was receivable at a geographical reference position associated with the reference measurement package with the reference orientation at a reference time lying before the current measurement time;

a selector for selecting at least one reference measurement package comprising an accordance measure; and

a determiner for determining an estimate for the current orientation of the mobile terminal device based on the reference orientation of the at least one selected reference measurement package; and

a storage for storing the detected current orientation together with the determined measurement package in a reference database.

17. The device according to claim 16, further comprising a determiner for determining the current geographical position and wherein the storage for storing is adapted to store the detected current orientation together with the determined measurement package and the determined current position as a reference package in the reference database.

18. The device according to claim 16, wherein the detector for detecting is adapted to detect the current orientation in a reference coordinate system, wherein the reference coordinate system comprises a reference point of a building as a coordinate origin.

19. The device according to claim 16, which comprises, for determining the current measurement package, an antenna unit with an antenna directional characteristic and wherein the orientation of the mobile terminal device is defined by a spatial alignment of the main lobe of the antenna directional characteristic.

20. The device according to claim 16, wherein the storage for storing is adapted to store the detected current orientation in a quantized, digital format.

21. A method for storing a current orientation of a mobile terminal device at a current geographical position, wherein, at the current geographical position, a current measurement package may be determined which comprises a transmitter identification and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a radio transmitter which may be received at the current geographical position with the current orientation of the mobile terminal device at a current measurement time, comprising:

detecting, by a detector, the current orientation using a method for estimating a current orientation of a mobile terminal device at a current geographical position, wherein, at the current geographical position, a current measurement package may be determined which comprises a transmitter identification and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a radio transmitter which may be received at the current geographical position with the current orientation of the mobile terminal device at a current measurement time, the method comprising;

determining, by an accordance measure determiner, an accordance measure between the current measurement package and a reference measurement package comprising a transmitter identification, a reference orientation and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a reference radio transmitter which was receivable at a geographical reference position associated with the reference measurement package with the reference orientation at a reference time lying before the current measurement time;

selecting, by a selector, at least one reference measurement package comprising an accordance measure; and

determining, by an estimate determiner, an estimate for the current orientation of the mobile terminal device based on the reference orientation of the at least one selected reference measurement package; and

storing, by a storage medium, the detected current orientation together with the determined measurement package in a reference database

wherein at least one of the detector, the accordance measure determiner, the selector, the estimate determiner, and the storage medium comprises a hardware implementation.

22. A non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon a computer program for executing the method for storing a current orientation of a mobile terminal device at a current geographical position, wherein, at the current geographical position, a current measurement package may be determined which comprises a transmitter identification and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a radio transmitter which may be received at the current geographical position with the current orientation of the mobile terminal device at a current measurement time, comprising:

detecting the current orientation using a method for estimating a current orientation of a mobile terminal device at a current geographical position, wherein, at the current geographical position, a current measurement package may be determined which comprises a transmitter identification and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a radio transmitter which may be received at the current geographical position with the current orientation of the mobile terminal device at a current measurement time, the method comprising;

determining an accordance measure between the current measurement package and a reference measurement package comprising a transmitter identification, a reference orientation and an electromagnetic signal characteristic of a reference radio transmitter which was receivable at a geographical reference position associated with the reference measurement package with the reference orientation at a reference time lying before the current measurement time;

selecting at least one reference measurement package comprising an accordance measure; and

determining an estimate for the current orientation of the mobile terminal device based on the reference orientation of the at least one selected reference measurement package; and

storing the detected current orientation together with the determined measurement package in a reference database.