Method and apparatus of positioning mobile terminal based on geomagnetism

• US 9,451,496 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2015
• Issued: 09/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Inventors: Zhang, Zhipeng, Zhou, Liangjie, Qian, Xiao, Shen, Hui, Yao, Yunjiao
• Primary Examiner(s): Hua, Quan M
• Application Number:
  US14/969,996
• Publication Number:
  US 20160183116A1
• Time in Patent Office: 280 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/08 involving use of the magnetic field of the earth
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A method and an apparatus of positioning a mobile terminal based on geomagnetism. The mobile terminal has at least one magnetic force sensor. The method includes obtaining magnetic induction values of the mobile terminal at a plurality of predetermined measurement angles at a position to be measured via a magnetic force sensor; generating a geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured, the geomagnetic fingerprint including the plurality of predetermined measurement angles and a respective magnetic induction value measured at each of the plurality of predetermined measurement angles; sending the geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured to a fingerprint map matching system to determine geographical position information corresponding to the geomagnetic fingerprint; and receiving the geographical position information corresponding to the geomagnetic fingerprint returned from the fingerprint map matching system, and setting the received geographical position information as geographical position information of the position to be measured. The present disclosure is able to perform matching through magnetic induction values of multiple measurement angles at a same position in a positioning and matching process to increase the accuracy of positioning and reduce the cost of positioning.

Claims

1. A method implemented by one or more computing devices, the method comprising:

obtaining respective magnetic induction values of a mobile terminal at a plurality of measurement angles at a position to be measured;

generating a geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured, the geomagnetic fingerprint comprising the plurality of measurement angles and respective magnetic induction values measured at the plurality of measurement angles;

sending the geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured to a fingerprint map matching system to cause a determination of geographical position information corresponding to the geomagnetic fingerprint; and

receiving the geographical position information corresponding to the geomagnetic fingerprint from the fingerprint map matching system, the received geographical position information being set as geographical position information of the position to be measured,

wherein;

the geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured further comprises an air pressure value of the mobile terminal at the position to be measure; and

the determination of geographical position information comprises matching the received geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured with one or more geomagnetic fingerprints in a fingerprint map belonging to a height range that is same as geographical position information corresponding to a previously confirmed geomagnetic fingerprint of the mobile terminal in response to a difference between the air pressure value in the received geomagnetic fingerprint and an air pressure value in a previous geomagnetic fingerprint being less than a predetermined threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a measurement angle of the plurality of measurement angles comprises an included angle between a device line of a magnetic force sensor of the mobile terminal and a direction of gravitational acceleration.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile terminal comprises a plurality of magnetic force sensors, and each measurement angle of the plurality of measurement angles comprises an included angle between a device line of a respective magnetic force sensor of the plurality of magnetic force sensors and a direction of gravitational acceleration.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of measurement angles are measured via the plurality of magnetic force sensors of the mobile terminal at a same time point.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the respective magnetic induction values of the mobile terminal comprises:

sending a prompt to a user of the mobile terminal to rotate the mobile terminal to each of the plurality of measurement angles;

monitoring the plurality of measurement angles during a rotation of the mobile terminal; and

obtaining the respective magnetic induction values measured by a magnetic force sensor of the mobile terminal at the plurality of measurement angles.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the prompt comprises one or more of a display message or a voice prompt.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the air pressure value is measured by an air pressure sensor of the mobile terminal.

8. One or more computer-readable media storing executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:

receiving a geomagnetic fingerprint of a position to be measured from a mobile terminal, the geomagnetic fingerprint comprising a plurality of measurement angles and respective magnetic induction values measured at the plurality of measurement angles;

performing a matching between the received geomagnetic fingerprint and geomagnetic fingerprints in a fingerprint map;

determining geographical position information corresponding to the geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured in accordance with a result of the matching; and

returning the geographical position information corresponding to the geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured to the mobile terminal,

wherein

the geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured further comprises an air pressure value of the mobile terminal at the position to be measure; and

performing the matching comprises matching the received geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured with one or more geomagnetic fingerprints in the fingerprint map belonging to a height range that is same as geographical position information corresponding to a previously confirmed geomagnetic fingerprint of the mobile terminal in response to a difference between the air pressure value in the received geomagnetic fingerprint and an air pressure value in a previous geomagnetic fingerprint being less than a predetermined threshold.

9. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein performing the matching further comprises comparing a magnetic induction value of the received fingerprint to respective magnetic induction values of the geomagnetic fingerprints obtained at a measurement angle that is the same as the magnetic induction value of the received fingerprint.

10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the respective magnetic induction values are measured by one or more magnetic force sensors of the mobile terminal at the plurality of measurement angles.

11. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein performing the matching further comprises matching the received geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured with each geomagnetic fingerprint in the fingerprint map in response to a difference between the air pressure value in the received geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured and the air pressure value in the previous geomagnetic fingerprint of the mobile terminal being greater than the predetermined threshold.

12. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8, the acts further comprising:

determining whether the difference between the air pressure value in the received geomagnetic fingerprint and the air pressure value in the previous geomagnetic fingerprint is greater than a first threshold or less than a second threshold, the second threshold being less than the first threshold;

matching the received geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured with each geomagnetic fingerprint in the fingerprint map in response to the difference between the air pressure value in the received geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured and the air pressure value in the previous geomagnetic fingerprint of the mobile terminal being greater than the first threshold; and

matching the received geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured with one or more geomagnetic fingerprints in the fingerprint map belonging to the height range that is same as geographical position information corresponding to the previously confirmed geomagnetic fingerprint of the mobile terminal in response to the difference between the air pressure value in the received geomagnetic fingerprint and the air pressure value in the previous geomagnetic fingerprint being less than the second threshold.

13. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein prior to perform the matching, the acts further comprise:

selecting a plurality of collection points in a region to be positioned in advance;

measuring a magnetic induction value of each measurement angle of the plurality of measurement angles at each collection point of the plurality of collection points to form a corresponding geomagnetic fingerprint; and

storing each formed geomagnetic fingerprint and geographical position information of the respective collection point corresponding to each formed geomagnetic fingerprint to obtain the fingerprint map.

14. An apparatus comprising:

one or more processors;

memory;

a second acquisition unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to obtain respective magnetic induction values of a mobile terminal at a position to be measured at a plurality of predetermined measurement angles, to obtain a geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured; and

a second matching unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to perform a matching between the received geomagnetic fingerprint and one or more geomagnetic fingerprints previously stored in a fingerprint map, and determine geographical position information corresponding to the geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured based at least in part on a result of the matching,

wherein;

the geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured further comprises an air pressure value of the mobile terminal at the position to be measure; and

performing the matching comprises matching the received geomagnetic fingerprint of the position to be measured with one or more geomagnetic fingerprints in the fingerprint map belonging to a height range that is same as geographical position information corresponding to a previously confirmed geomagnetic fingerprint of the mobile terminal in response to a difference between the air pressure value in the received geomagnetic fingerprint and an air pressure value in a previous geomagnetic fingerprint being less than a predetermined threshold.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the apparatus comprises the mobile terminal.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the mobile terminal comprises one or more magnetic force sensors that measure the respective magnetic induction values at the plurality of predetermined measurement angles.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the second matching unit performs the matching by comparing a magnetic induction value of the obtained fingerprint to respective one or more magnetic induction values of the one or more geomagnetic fingerprints obtained at a measurement angle that is the same as the magnetic induction value of the received fingerprint.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the fingerprint map comprises at least two pieces of geographical position information and a geomagnetic fingerprint corresponding to each of the at least two pieces of geographical position information.