Identification of points of interest and positioning based on points of interest

• US 9,313,617 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2010
• Issued: 04/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Dousse, Olivier
• Primary Examiner(s): Batista, Marcos
• Application Number:
  US13/994,899
• Publication Number:
  US 20130344888A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,943 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-4563, 370/338
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02524 Creating or updating the radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/022 with dynamic range variability
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

It is inter alia disclosed methods, apparatuses, systems, computer programs and computer-readable mediums for identifying a point of interest, for providing a point of interest, and for receiving a point of interest. According to one aspect of the invention, a respective position-related information collected by at least one device at a plurality of time points is obtained. One or more of the collected position-related information is represented as respective position-related points in a one- or multidimensional space. At least one point of interest is identified by detecting at least one accumulation zone from the position-related points in the space.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to

obtain respective position-related information collected by at least one device based on signals from a plurality of coverage providing entities having respective coverage area identifications at a plurality of time points;

represent one or more of the collected position-related information as respective position-related points in a multidimensional space, wherein each position-related point is defined by a signal parameter value and a respective coverage area identification, and wherein the multidimensional space is defined by dimensions representative of the coverage area identifications and the signal parameter values; and

identify at least one point of interest by detecting at least one accumulation zone based on a density of the position-related points in the space.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is one of:

the device or a part thereof, or

a server that is configured to obtain the position-related information from the device or a part of the server.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein collected position-related information comprises all receivable coverage area signals which exceed at least one signal threshold.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

determine at least one coverage area identification from at least one collected coverage area signal,

determine at least one signal parameter value from at least one collected coverage area signal, and

assign at least one coverage area identification to at least one dimension of the multidimensional space, wherein the dimension comprises a coordinate corresponding to the signal parameter value, and

wherein at least one collected position-related point is represented in the space by storing the determined coverage area identification and the respective signal parameter value of at least one received coverage area signal as a position-related point in the space.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein detecting the accumulation zone comprises detecting at least one of:

whether a number of the position-related points within the accumulation zone exceeds at least one density threshold and

whether a distance between at least two neighboured position-related points falls below at least one distance threshold.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5 wherein the distance comprises an average pair-wise absolute difference for a respective coverage providing entity at a respective time point.

7. The apparatus according to claim 5 wherein detecting the accumulation zone comprises detecting at least a minimum number of position-related points within the accumulation zone.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein detecting the accumulation zone comprises applying at least one density clustering algorithm to the position-related points.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to map at least one identified point of interest against at least one existing specific point location database.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to establish at least one hull points set, wherein hull points of the hull points set form an outer boundary of the accumulation zone.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to associate the at least one point of interest to at least one established hull points set, and to store at least the point of interest together with the associated hull points set in the database.

12. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to receive position-related information collected by a device, and determine a point of interest corresponding to the received position-related information by checking whether the received position-related information is comprised in at least one accumulation zone stored in a database.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12 wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to store the hull points set without storing all other position-related points.

14. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to associate further attributes to the at least one accumulation zone, wherein an attribute is at least one of:

a) a semantic label, or

b) a geographical location information.

15. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

receive position-related information represented by position-related points located in the multidimensional space at a location between at least to accumulation zones; and

merge the at least two accumulation zones into a single accumulation zone.

16. An apparatus, comprising at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to check whether a position-related point representing, in a multidimensional space, a position-related information collected by a device based on signals from a plurality of coverage providing entities having respective coverage area identifications is comprised in at least one accumulation zone corresponding to a point of interest stored in a database, the point of interest identified by detecting at least one accumulation zone based on a density of position-related points in the space, wherein each position-related point is defined by a signal parameter value and a respective coverage area identification, and wherein the multidimensional space is defined by dimensions representative of the coverage area identifications and the signal parameter values;

and provide the point of interest corresponding to the accumulation zone, only if the checking yields a positive result.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein checking whether a position-related point representing, in the multidimensional space, a position-related information collected by a device is comprised in at least one accumulation zone comprises checking whether the position-related information is comprised in at least one hull points set defining the at least one accumulation zone.

18. An apparatus, comprising at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to collect position-related information at a device based on signals from a plurality of coverage providing entities having respective coverage area identifications;

transmit the position-related information from the device to a server; and

receive, at the device, a point of interest corresponding to an accumulation zone from the server, the point of interest identified by detecting at least one accumulation zone based on a density of position-related points in a multidimensional space, the accumulation zone identified by the server to comprise a position-related point representing, in the multidimensional space, the collected position-related information, wherein each position-related point is defined by a signal parameter value and a respective coverage area identification, and wherein the multidimensional space is defined by dimensions representative of the coverage area identifications and the signal parameter values.

19. The apparatus according to claim 18, wherein collecting position-related information comprises collecting all receivable coverage area signals which exceed at least one signal threshold.

20. The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to

determine at least one coverage area identification from at least one collected coverage area signal,

determine at least one signal parameter value from at least one collected coverage area signal, and

assign at least one coverage area identification to at least one dimension of the multidimensional space, wherein the dimension comprises a coordinate corresponding to the signal parameter value, and

wherein at least one collected position-related point is represented in the space by storing the determined coverage area identification and the respective signal parameter value of at least one received coverage area signal as a position-related point in the space.