Method and system for providing indoor positioning service

• US 10,149,112 B2
• Filed: 05/23/2017
• Issued: 12/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Naver Cloud Corporation (Naver Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Naver Business Platform Corporation (Naver Corporation)
• Inventors: Lee, Ho Jin, Yoo, Jaewook, Kang, Tae Gyu, Oh, Sechun, Kim, Daewoong, Shin, Hee Su, Kang, Jungmin
• Primary Examiner(s): Shen, Qun
• Application Number:
  US15/602,911
• Publication Number:
  US 20170265043A1
• Time in Patent Office: 560 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/30 Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Disclosed are a method and a system for providing an indoor positioning service. A method for providing an indoor positioning service comprises receiving a request to provide an indoor positioning service from a user terminal; receiving, in response to the request, information for wireless access points located near the user terminal; calculating the similarity between the items of information, and accuracy of the locations of the wireless access points on the basis of the received information for the wireless access points and information for the wireless access point collected from each point positioned inside the building; and determining the current location of the user terminal on the basis of the similarity and accuracy of the location.

Claims

1. An indoor positioning service providing method, performed by a processor, to determine a current location of a user terminal located inside a building, the method comprising:

receiving a request for providing an indoor positioning service from the user terminal;

receiving information about adjacent wireless access points of the user terminal in response to the request;

calculating a similarity between information and another piece of information, and a location accuracy of a wireless access point based on the received information about the adjacent wireless access points of the user terminal and information about adjacent wireless access points collected from each of a plurality of virtual regions disposed inside the building; and

determining the current location of the user terminal based on the similarity between information and another piece of information, and the location accuracy;

wherein the calculating comprises;

determining a wireless access point that matches a media access control (MAC) address of an adjacent wireless access point of the user terminal, with respect to information about the adjacent wireless access points collected from each region; and

calculating the location accuracy for each corresponding, region based on at least one of a number of adjacent wireless access points collected from each corresponding virtual region and a number of the matching wireless access points, with respect to a virtual region corresponding to the wireless access point that matches the MAC address.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the calculating comprises calculating a movement distance for each of the plurality of virtual regions based on coordinate information associated with a previous location of the user terminal and coordinate information of each of the plurality of virtual regions, and

the determining of the current location of the user terminal comprises determining the current location based on the similarity between information and another piece of information, the location accuracy, and the movement distance.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the similarity between information and another piece of information is calculated between a signal strength of an adjacent wireless access point collected from each virtual region and a signal strength of an adjacent wireless access point of the user terminal based on a MAC address of each of the adjacent wireless access points collected from each virtual region and the adjacent wireless access points of the user terminal;

and

the location accuracy is calculated based on a reference similarity and the similarity between information and another piece of information, the reference similarity indicating a time at which the user terminal is located at each of the plurality of virtual regions and being preset for each virtual region.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises determining the current location of the user as a previously positioned location based on the location accuracy and a preset reference accuracy.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises determining the current location of the user terminal as a previously positioned location, in response to each virtual region belonging to a different floor based on coordinate information of each virtual region included in a candidate list, with respect to the candidate list that is generated based on the MAC address of each of the adjacent wireless access points collected from each of the plurality of virtual regions and the adjacent wireless access points of the user terminal.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises determining the current location of the user terminal by excluding a wireless access point having the location accuracy greater than or equal to a preset reference value in response to a continuous matching between the current location of the user terminal and a previously positioned location.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing at least one of a location-based tracking service and a find-way service based on the current location of the user terminal.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of virtual regions indicates a fingerprint point virtually disposed at the same preset interval inside the building.

9. An indoor positioning service providing system to determine a current location of a user terminal located inside a building, the system comprising:

an information receiver configured to receive information about adjacent wireless access points of the user terminal, in response to receiving a request for providing an indoor positioning service from the user terminal;

a calculator configured to calculate a similarity between information and another piece of information, and a location accuracy of a wireless access point based on the received information about the adjacent wireless access points of the user terminal and information about adjacent wireless access points collected from each of a plurality of virtual regions disposed at same preset intervals inside the building; and

a location determiner configured to determine the current location of the user terminal based on the similarity between information and another piece of information and the location accuracy;

wherein the calculator is configured to determine a wireless access point that matches a media access control (MAC) address of an adjacent wireless access point of the user terminal, with respect to information about the adjacent wireless access points collected from each virtual region, and to calculate the location accuracy for each corresponding virtual region based on at least one of a number of adjacent wireless access points collected from each corresponding virtual region and a number of the matching wireless access points, with respect to a virtual region corresponding to the wireless access point that matches the MAC address.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the calculator is configured to calculate a movement distance for each of the plurality of virtual regions based on coordinate information associated with a previous location of the user terminal and coordinate information of each of the plurality of virtual regions, and

the location determiner is configured to determine the current location based on the similarity between information and another piece of information, the location accuracy, and the movement distance.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the similarity between information and another piece of information is calculated between a signal strength of an adjacent wireless access point collected from each virtual and a signal strength of an adjacent wireless access point of the user terminal based on the MAC address of each of the adjacent wireless access points collected from each virtual region and the adjacent wireless access points of the user terminal, and the location accuracy is calculated based on a reference similarity and the similarity between the signal strengths, the reference similarity indicating a time at which the user terminal is located at each of the plurality of virtual regions and being preset for each virtual region.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the location determiner is configured to determine the current location of the user as a previously positioned location based on the location accuracy and a preset reference accuracy.

13. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

a service provider configured to provide at least one of a location-based tracking service and a find-way service based on the current location of the user terminal.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions to control a computer system to provide an indoor positioning service, wherein the instructions control the computer system to execute the steps comprising:

receiving a request for providing an indoor positioning service from the user terminal;

receiving information about adjacent wireless access points of the user terminal in response to the request;

calculating a similarity between information and another piece of information, and a location accuracy of a wireless access point based on the received information about the adjacent wireless access points of the user terminal and information about adjacent wireless access points collected from each of a plurality of virtual regions disposed at same preset intervals inside the building; and

determining the current location of the user terminal based on the similarity between information and another piece of information, and the location accuracy;

wherein the calculating comprises;

determining a wireless access point that matches a media access control (MAC) address of an adjacent wireless access point of the user terminal, with respect to information about the adjacent wireless access points collected from each virtual region; and

calculating the location accuracy for each corresponding virtual region based on at least one of a number of adjacent wireless access points collected from each corresponding virtual region and a number of the matching wireless access points, with respect to a virtual region corresponding to the wireless access point that matches the MAC address.

15. A file distribution system to distribute an installation file for installing on a user terminal an application for determining a current location of the user terminal located inside a building, the system comprising:

an installation file manager configured to store and manage the installation file; and

an installation file transmitter configured to transmit the installation file to the user terminal in response to a request from the user terminal,

wherein the application controls the user terminal to receive a current location of the user terminal inside a building based on a similarity between information and another piece of information and a location accuracy, which are calculated by determining a wireless access point that matches a media access control (MAC) address of an adjacent wireless access point of the user terminal, with respect to information about the adjacent wireless access points collected from each virtual region; and

calculating the location accuracy for each corresponding virtual region based on at least one of a number of adjacent wireless access points collected from each corresponding virtual region and a number of the matching wireless access points, with respect to a virtual region corresponding to the wireless access point that matches the MAC address.

16. The file distribution system of claim 15, wherein the application controls the user terminal to calculate a movement distance for each virtual region based on coordinate information associated with a previous location of the user terminal and coordinate information of each of the plurality of virtual regions, and to receive the current location of the user terminal that is determined based on the similarity between information and another piece of information, the location accuracy, and the movement distance.