Positioning method

• US 9,602,960 B2
• Filed: 09/21/2012
• Issued: 03/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sensewhere Limited
• Inventors: Alsehly, Firas, Sevak, Zankar Upendrakumar, Arslan, Tughrul Sati
• Primary Examiner(s): Karikari, Kwasi
• Application Number:
  US14/346,469
• Publication Number:
  US 20140243025A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,642 Days
• Field of Search: 455/457
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0244 Accuracy or reliability of position solution or of measurements contributing thereto
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

There is disclosed a method of estimating the position of a user device (902), the method comprising: receiving signal data from a plurality of electromagnetic signal sources (W) having known locations; dividing the plurality of electromagnetic signal sources (W) into a plurality of groups (G₁, G₂, G₃, G₄, G₅) of the signal sources; processing the received signal data to generate group position data representing the position of at least one group location (910, 912, 914, 916, 918), each group location being characteristic of the location of a respective group of the signal sources; and processing the group position data to generate position data representing an estimate of the position of the user device (902); and outputting the position data.

Claims

1. A method of estimating the position of a user device, the method comprising:

receiving signal source data from a plurality of electromagnetic signal sources having known locations;

dividing the plurality of electromagnetic signal sources into a plurality of groups of the signal sources;

processing the received signal source data to generate group position data representing the position of at least one group location, each group location being characteristic of the location of a respective group of the signal sources; and

processing the group position data to generate position data representing an estimate of the position of the user device; and

outputting the position data,

wherein at least one of the groups of the signal sources comprises more than one signal source.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the group position data represents the position of a plurality of group locations, each group location being characteristic of the location of a respective group of the signal sources.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of electromagnetic signal sources is divided into groups such that the distribution of the plurality of group locations is generally more uniform than the distribution of the plurality of electromagnetic signal sources.

4. A method according claim 1, wherein at least one group location is substantially equivalent to the location of an electromagnetic signal source in the respective group.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein at least one group location is derived from the locations of a plurality of the electromagnetic signal sources in the respective group.

6. A method according to claim 1, further comprising selecting said at least one group location by accessing stored group data, and selecting said at least one group location from the stored group data.

7. A method according to claim 1, further comprising generating said at least one group location in dependence on the received signal data.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein generating said at least one group location comprises selecting a datum point and wherein the plurality of signal sources are divided into groups with respect to the datum point.

9. A method according to claim 8, wherein the plurality of signal sources is divided into groups by at least one dividing line passing through the datum point.

10. A method according to claim 8, wherein the plurality of signal sources are divided into groups by a plurality of dividing lines extending radially from the datum point.

11. A method according to claim 8, further comprising selecting the datum point in dependence on user input.

12. A method according to claim 8, further comprising receiving further signal data from a further device in the vicinity of the user device, determining the position of the further device in dependence on the further signal data, and selecting the datum point in dependence on the determined position of the further device.

13. A method according to claim 1, wherein at least one group of signal sources has a plurality of group locations associated with it.

14. A method according to claim 1, further comprising receiving signal source position data representing the position of each of the plurality of electromagnetic signal sources.

15. A method according to claim 14, further comprising assessing the validity of the positions of each of the plurality of electromagnetic signal sources, and disregarding any signal sources which are considered invalid.

16. A method according to claim 1, wherein processing the group position data to generate position data further comprises generating position accuracy data representing an estimate of the accuracy of the position estimate of the user device.

17. A method according to claim 16, wherein processing the received signal data to generate group position data further comprises generating group position accuracy data representing an estimate of the accuracy of the group position data, and wherein the position accuracy data is generated in dependence on the group position accuracy data.

18. A method according to claim 1, wherein each of at least a majority of the groups of the signal sources comprises more than one signal source.

36. A user device comprising a processor, an electromagnetic signal receiver, and a memory containing computer program code that, when executed by the processor in conjunction with the electromagnetic signal receiver, causes the user device to carry out a method according to claim 1.

37. A user device according to claim 36, wherein the memory further comprises a database containing the known positions of the plurality of electromagnetic signal sources.

40. A non-transitory computer readable medium tangibly embodying computer program code for causing a computer to carry out a method as claimed in claim 1.

19. A method of estimating the position of an electromagnetic signal source, the method comprising:

receiving signal data from the electromagnetic signal source at a plurality of reference locations;

dividing the plurality of reference locations into a plurality of groups of the reference locations;

processing the received signal data to generate group position data representing the position of at least one group location, each group location being characteristic of the location of a respective group of the reference locations; and

processing the group position data to generate position data representing an estimate of the position of the electromagnetic signal source; and

outputting the position data,

wherein at least one of the groups of the reference locations comprises more than one reference location.

20. A method according to claim 19, wherein the group position data represents the position of a plurality of group locations, each group location being characteristic of the location of a respective group of the reference locations.

21. A method according to claim 19, wherein the plurality of reference locations is divided into groups such that the distribution of the plurality of group locations is generally more uniform than the distribution of the plurality of reference locations.

22. A method according to claim 19, wherein at least one group location is substantially equivalent to the location of a reference location in the respective group.

23. A method according to claim 19, wherein at least one group location is derived from the locations of a plurality of the reference locations in the respective group.

24. A method according to claim 19, wherein selecting a plurality of group locations comprises accessing stored group data, and selecting the plurality of group locations from the stored group data.

25. A method according to claim 19, wherein selecting a plurality of group locations comprises generating the plurality of group locations in dependence on the received signal data.

26. A method according to claim 25, wherein generating the plurality of group locations comprises selecting a datum point and wherein the plurality of reference locations are divided into groups with respect to the datum point.

27. A method according to claim 26, wherein the plurality of reference locations is divided into groups by at least one dividing line passing through the datum point.

28. A method according to claim 26, wherein the plurality of reference locations are divided into groups by a plurality of dividing lines extending radially from the datum point.

29. A method according to claim 26, further comprising selecting the datum point in dependence on user input.

30. A method according to claim 26, further comprising receiving further signal data from a further device in the vicinity of the electromagnetic signals source, determining the position of the further device in dependence on the further signal data, and selecting the datum point in dependence on the determined position of the further device.

31. A method according to claim 19, wherein at least one group of reference locations has a plurality of group locations associated with it.

32. A method according to claim 19, further comprising receiving reference location data representing the position of each of the plurality of group locations.

33. A method according to claim 32, further comprising assessing the validity of the positions of each of the plurality of reference locations, and disregarding any signal sources which are considered invalid.

34. A method according to claim 19, wherein processing the group position data to generate position data further comprises generating position accuracy data representing an estimate of the accuracy of the position estimate of the electromagnetic signal source.

35. A method according to claim 34, wherein processing the received signal data to generate group position data further comprises generating group position accuracy data representing an estimate of the accuracy of the group position data, and wherein the position accuracy data is generated in dependence on the group position accuracy data.

38. A computing device comprising a processor and a memory storing computer program code that, when executed by the processor, causes the computing device to carry out a method according to claim 19.

39. A computing device according to claim 38, wherein the memory further comprises a database of the known positions of the plurality of reference locations.