INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, RECEPTION INFORMATION SERVER, INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD, PROGRAM, AND RECORDING MEDIUM

• US 20130099971A1
• Filed: 09/06/2012
• Published: 04/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: TAKAOKA, Tomohisa
• Granted Patent: US 10,082,582 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/357.74
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/24 Acquisition or tracking or demodulation of signals transmitted by the system synchronisation aspects of direct sequence spread spectrum modulation H04B1/7073
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/34 Power consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/48 by combining or switching between position solutions derived from the satellite radio beacon positioning system and position solutions derived from a further system

Abstract

There is provided an information processing apparatus including a satellite positioning unit that performs positioning based on a positioning signal received from a positioning satellite, an environment information acquiring unit that acquires environment information unique to a current location, a reception information acquiring unit that acquires reception information indicating a state of the positioning signal at the current location based on the environment information, and an operation condition setting unit that sets an operation condition of the satellite positioning unit based on the reception information.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

a satellite positioning unit that performs positioning based on a positioning signal received from a positioning satellite;

an environment information acquiring unit that acquires environment information unique to a current location;

a reception information acquiring unit that acquires reception information indicating a state of the positioning signal at the current location based on the environment information; and

an operation condition setting unit that sets an operation condition of the satellite positioning unit based on the reception information.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the reception information includes information regarding an azimuth at which the positioning signal is receivable at the current location, and

wherein the operation condition setting unit sets the operation condition such that the satellite positioning unit searches for the positioning satellite at the azimuth included in the reception information.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the reception information includes information regarding an elevation angle at which the positioning signal is receivable at the current location, and

wherein the operation condition setting unit sets the operation condition such that the satellite positioning unit searches for the positioning satellite at the elevation angle included in the reception information.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operation condition setting unit sets the operation condition based on predetermined information indicating whether positioning accuracy is preferred or power consumption is preferred, when the reception information indicates that a distribution of the state of the positioning signal is broad at the current location.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operation condition setting unit sets the operation condition such that the satellite positioning unit does not perform the positioning when the reception information indicates that the current location is a location at which the positioning signal is not receivable.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operation condition setting unit sets the operation condition such that the satellite positioning unit preferentially searches for the positioning signal with high intensity when the reception information indicates that the current location is a location at which the positioning signal with the high intensity is receivable.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the operation condition setting unit sets the operation condition such that the satellite positioning unit does not re-search the positioning satellite when the reception information indicates that the current location is a location at which the positioning signal with the high intensity is receivable.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the operation condition setting unit sets the operation condition such that the satellite positioning unit does not perform high-sensitivity searching of searching for the positioning signal with low intensity for a long time when the reception information indicates that the current location is a location at which the positioning signal with the high intensity is receivable.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operation condition setting unit sets the operation condition such that the satellite positioning unit does not perform strong-signal searching of searching for the positioning signal with high intensity when the reception information indicates that the current location is a location at which the positioning signal with the high intensity is not receivable.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reception information acquiring unit further acquires the reception information based on terminal information specifying a kind of the information processing apparatus.

11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a reception information collecting unit that collects the environment information and the reception information indicating the state of the positioning signal at a time of acquiring the environment information.

12. The information processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the reception information acquiring unit acquires the reception information collected by the information processing apparatus.

13. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the satellite positioning unit performs the positioning under a standard operation condition set in advance, until the operation condition based on the reception information is set.

14. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the satellite positioning unit waits until the operation condition based on the reception information is set, and then the satellite positioning unit performs the positioning after the operation condition based on the reception information is set.

15. A reception information server comprising:

a storage unit that stores information in which environment information unique to a predetermined location is associated with reception information indicating a reception state of a positioning signal from a positioning satellite at the location; and

a reception information notification unit that notifies of the reception information associated with the environment information in response to a request to acquire the reception information including the environment information.

16. An information processing method comprising:

acquiring environment information unique to a current location;

acquiring reception information indicating a state of a positioning signal at the current location based on the environment information;

setting an operation condition used for a satellite positioning unit to search for a positioning satellite based on the reception information; and

performing positioning based on the positioning signal received from the positioning satellite under the operation condition.

17. A program for causing a computer to function as an information processing apparatus including:

a satellite positioning unit that performs positioning based on a positioning signal received from a positioning satellite;

an environment information acquiring unit that acquires environment information unique to a current location;

a reception information acquiring unit that acquires reception information indicating a state of the positioning signal at the current location based on the environment information; and

an operation condition setting unit that sets an operation condition, under which the satellite positioning unit searches for the positioning satellite, based on the reception information.

18. A computer-readable recording medium recording a program for causing a computer to function as an information processing apparatus including:

a satellite positioning unit that performs positioning based on a positioning signal received from a positioning satellite;

an environment information acquiring unit that acquires environment information unique to a current location;

a reception information acquiring unit that acquires reception information indicating a state of the positioning signal at the current location based on the environment information; and

an operation condition setting unit that sets an operation condition, under which the satellite positioning unit searches for the positioning satellite, based on the reception information.