DETERMINING THE GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION OF A PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE

• US 20160135007A1
• Filed: 04/27/2015
• Published: 05/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: KARLSSON, Peter C., PERSSON, Magnus, BERGGREN, Anders, NORD, Lars
• Granted Patent: US 10,306,405 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/46 using antennas spaced apart and measuring phase or time difference between signals therefrom, i.e. path-difference systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0036 of measured values, i.e. measurement on mobile and position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/04 Position of source determined by a plurality of spaced direction-finders
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/12 by co-ordinating position lines of different shape, e.g. hyperbolic, circular, elliptical or radial
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Determining the geographic location of a portable electronic device (100) in a radio communications network, by transmitting radio signals from a plurality of first network transmitters (200, 300, 400); receiving, in the network, a measurement signal from the portable electronic device, which measurement signal comprises, for each transmitted radio signal, a plurality of data samples obtained in the electronic device from the respective transmitted signal at different time points during a measurement period with movement of the portable electronic device (100), and local position data associated to each data sample obtained from a local positioning unit in the electronic device, so as to form a synthetic antenna array; obtaining, a direction measurement between the electronic device and the first network transmitter from the synthetic antenna array; obtaining geographic location data for the first network transmitter; and identifying geographic location data of the portable electronic device based on the direction measurement and the geographic location data for the first network transmitter.

Claims

1. A method of determining the geographic location of a portable electronic device in a radio communications network, comprising the steps of:

transmitting radio signals from a first network transmitter,

receiving, in the network, a measurement signal from the portable electronic device, which measurement signal comprises, for the transmitted radio signal, a plurality of data samples obtained in the electronic device from the transmitted signal at different time points during a measurement period with movement of the portable electronic device, and local position data associated to each data sample obtained from a local positioning unit in the electronic device, so as to form a synthetic antenna array;

obtaining, in the network, a direction measurement between the electronic device and the first network transmitter from the synthetic antenna array;

obtaining geographic location data for the first network transmitter; and

identifying geographic location data of the portable electronic device based on the direction measurement and the geographic location data for the first network transmitter.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining a direction measurement comprises the steps of

obtaining an array response of the synthetic antenna array;

and

processing the synthetic antenna array as a function of the array response

3. The method of claim 1, comprising the steps of:

obtaining a distance measurement, based on a signal received in the apparatus from a second network transmitter, representing an estimated distance between the apparatus and said second network transmitter.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the distance measurement is calculated from time difference data, received from the portable electronic device, representing time difference measured between specific signals from a number of network transmitters.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the distance measurement is calculated from propagation time data, measured on a signal between the portable electronic device and the second network transmitter.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the steps of obtaining a direction measurement and obtaining a distance measurement are carried out independently from each other.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of identifying geographic location data comprises the step of correlating geographic location information obtained from processing the synthetic antenna array, with geographic location information determined from said time difference data.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising the step of

receiving a relative rotational position of the apparatus with respect to a global coordinate system, wherein the step of identifying geographic location data of the portable electronic device is also based on said rotational position.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said relative rotational position is received as compass data from the apparatus.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network transmitter is a wireless access points.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network transmitter is cellular base stations.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said data samples include signal phase data for a plurality of physical antenna elements of the apparatus, taken at different time points.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the synthetic antenna array comprises one virtual antenna element for each combination of one of said physical antenna elements and one of said time points.

14. The method of claim 2, wherein the array response is a model of at least the phase of the signal at the local positions as a function of the relative location between the synthetic antenna array and the transmitter.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of processing the synthetic antenna array comprises optimizing a function that relates amplitude and phase of the signal at the local positions to the direction of arrival of the signal at the synthetic antenna array.

16. A portable electronic device, comprising:

a signal receiving unit including an antenna configured to receive a signal from at least one remote transmitter;

a local positioning unit for determining a local position of the portable electronic device; and

a processor, configured to obtain a plurality of data samples from the signal at different time points during a measurement period with arbitrary movement of the portable electronic device, associate each data sample with a local position obtained from the local positioning unit so as to form a synthetic antenna array, obtain an array response of the synthetic antenna array, and identify the geographic location of the portable electronic device, by processing the synthetic antenna array as a function of the array response and by using knowledge about the geographic location of the or each remote transmitter,

characterized in that said antenna includes a plurality of antenna elements, wherein the processor is configured to obtain a plurality of data samples at each local position of the apparatus.

17. The portable electronic device of claim 16, comprising:

a sample timer function, configured to determine the speed or velocity of movement of the apparatus during the measurement period, and to control the sample period to target a predetermined distance between the measurement points.