Method and apparatus for estimating location of electronic device

• US 9,781,570 B2
• Filed: 04/24/2015
• Issued: 10/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Cho, Sung-Rae, Lim, Chae-Man, Kim, Tae-Yoon, Ryu, Dong-Ryeol
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, DINH
• Application Number:
  US14/695,348
• Publication Number:
  US 20150312719A1
• Time in Patent Office: 893 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/00 Beacons or beacon systems transmitting signals having a characteristic or characteristics capable of being detected by non-directional receivers and defining directions, positions, or position lines fixed relatively to the beacon transmitters; Receivers co-operating therewith position fixing by co-ordinating a plurality of determinations of direction or position lines G01S5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/52 Determining velocity
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/021 Calibration, monitoring or correction G01S5/0252 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0264 at least one of the systems being a non-radio wave positioning system
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment

Abstract

An electronic device apparatus and method are disclosed herein. The apparatus includes a processor. The processor may execute the method, which includes detecting a first location and a movement velocity of the electronic device, estimating a second location of the electronic device based on the detected movement velocity of the electronic device, comparing the first location of the electronic device and the estimated second location of the electronic device to determine a location measurement error, and correcting the detected first location of the electronic device based on the determined location measurement error.

Claims

1. A method in an electronic device, comprising:

detecting a first location of the electronic device based on a first location detecting scheme;

estimating a second location of the electronic device based on a second location detecting scheme;

comparing the detected first location and the estimated second location;

if a difference between the detected first location and the estimated second location is larger than a difference threshold, correcting the detected first location into the estimated second location;

if the difference between the detected first location and the estimated second location is smaller than the difference threshold, determining whether a number of location measurements is smaller than a location measurements threshold;

in response to determining that the number of location measurements is smaller than the location measurements threshold, setting the detected first location as a current location of the electronic device; and

in response to determining that the number of location measurements is not smaller than the location measurements threshold, updating the current location using a filtering scheme,

wherein the estimating the second location comprises estimating the second location based on a movement velocity of the electronic device, movement direction of the electronic device, and a previously determined location of the electronic device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtering scheme comprises Kalman filtering executed utilizing the estimated second location as corrected based on the first location.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the first location comprises detecting the first location based on GPS or detecting the first location based on location information and signal intensity of an eNB.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the detecting the first location based on the location information and the signal intensity of the eNB comprises:

if signal intensity of a serving cell is larger than a signal intensity threshold, detecting the first location based on a weighted centroid estimation scheme; and

if the signal intensity of the serving cell is smaller than the signal intensity threshold, detecting the first location based on trilateration according to a number of effective eNBs.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the first location comprises:

detecting the first location based on a weighted centroid estimation scheme when a number of effective eNBs is smaller than an effective eNB threshold; and

calculating the first location based on the weighted centroid estimation scheme when a separation distance between cells is smaller than a separation distance threshold.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the movement velocity is determined by one of Doppler frequency, change of a location of the electronic device, or sensing information acquired by a sensor of the electronic device.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the detection by location information and signal intensity of an eNB comprises at least one of:

acquiring the location information of the eNB from a server; and

estimating the location information of the eNB utilizing trilateration based on the signal intensity of the eNB as detected for the electronic device in at least three separate locations.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the difference between the detected first location and the estimated second location is below a target location measurement error level, and

in response to determining that the difference between the detected first location and the estimated second location is not below the target location measurement error level, controlling a location measurement cycle.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a cycle on which the first location is updated is altered inverse proportion to the movement velocity.

10. An apparatus for estimating a location of an electronic device, comprising:

a transceiver; and

a processor configured to;

detect a first location based on a first location detecting scheme,

estimate a second location of the electronic device based on a second location detecting scheme,

compare the detected first location and the estimated second location,

if a difference between the detected first location and the estimated second location is larger than a difference threshold, correct the first detected location into the estimated second location considering the detected movement velocity,

if the difference between the detected first location and the estimated second location is smaller than the difference threshold, determine whether a number of location measurements is smaller than a location measurements threshold,

in response to determining that the number of location measurements is smaller than the location measurements threshold, set the detected first location as a current location of the electronic device, and

in response to determining that the number of location measurements is not smaller than the location measurements threshold, update the current location of the electronic device using a filtering scheme,

wherein the processor is configured to estimate the second location based on a movement velocity of the electronic device, movement direction of the electronic device, and a previously determined location of the electronic device.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the filtering scheme comprises Kalman filtering executed utilizing the estimated second location as corrected based on the first location.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to detect the first location based on GPS or detect the first location based on location information and signal intensity of an eNB.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to:

if signal intensity of a serving cell is larger than a signal intensity threshold, detect the first location based on a weighted centroid estimation scheme; and

if the signal intensity of the serving cell is smaller than the signal intensity threshold, detect the first location based on trilateration according to a number of effective eNBs.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to:

detect the first location based on the weighted centroid estimation scheme when the number of effective eNBs is smaller than an effective eNB threshold; and

calculate the first location based on the weighted centroid estimation scheme when a separation distance between cells is smaller than a separation distance threshold.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the movement velocity is determined by one of Doppler frequency, change of a location of the electronic device, or sensing information acquired by a sensor of the electronic device.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to execute at least one of:

acquiring the location information of the eNB from a server; and

estimating the location information of the eNB utilizing trilateration based on the signal intensity of the eNB as detected for the electronic device in at least three separate locations.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine whether the difference between the detected first location and the estimated second location is below a target location measurement error level; and

in response to determining that the difference between the detected first location and the estimated second location is not below the target location measurement error level, control a location measurement cycle.

18. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein a cycle on which the first location is updated is altered inverse proportion to the movement velocity.