Method for supplying a program-aided information system with specific positional information

• US 7,392,131 B2
• Filed: 01/15/2003
• Issued: 06/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forsching E.V.
• Original Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft ZUR Forderung Der Angewandten Forschung EV
• Inventors: Haseloff, Sandra
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, CUONG H
• Application Number:
  US10/502,035
• Publication Number:
  US 20050065714A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,987 Days
• Field of Search: 701/200, 701/213, 701/207, 701/23, 701/212, 455/456.1, 455/456.6, 707/E17.108
• US Class Current: 701/200
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/01 Detecting movement of traffic to be counted or controlled G08G1/07 - G08G1/14 take precedence

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for supplying a program-aided information system with specific location information, in which the information system provides at least one selection of certain location-dependent information on the basis of a person-specific or object-specific location which is detectable by a sensor.

The present invention is distinguished by the combination of the following steps:

• • detection of positional data for a person-specific or object-specific location by a sensor,
  • transformation of said sensor-detected positional data into a location representing form, which is associated with a reference system, within which said positional data can be spatially attributed, as well as being associated with a hierarchical structure,
  • combination of said location representing forms in a location set and/or in form of positional vectors in which said positional data of at least two locations are linked in a prescribed order, and/or
  • formation of location relations and/or positional vector relations between the locations, persons or objects within so-called positioned location sets, and
  • application of operations for determining the matching of locations as a basis of generating or providing location-dependent person-specific or object-specific information.

Claims

1. A method for supplying a program-aided information system with specific location information, in which the information system provides a selection of location-dependent information based on at least one of a plurality of person-specific or object-specific locations, wherein a first location is detectable by a first sensor having a first reference system and a second location is detectable by a second sensor having a second reference system, the method comprising:

detecting positional data for at least one of the plurality of person-specific or object-specific locations through an associated sensor;

transforming said sensor-detected positional data into corresponding location representing forms using at least one sensor adaptor which establishes a single reference system from the first and second reference systems, within which positional data of the plurality of person-specific and object-specific locations being spatially attributed and associated with a hierarchical structure;

combining said location representing forms in a location set based on the single reference system;

forming location relations between any combination of locations, persons or objects within the location sets, which includes identifying a distance relationship and hierarchical relationship between each location, person, or object in the location set; and

applying operations for determining the matching of locations as a basis of generating or providing location-dependent person-specific or object-specific information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said sensor detection of said positional data is conducted by means of technical locating systems.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said transformation of said sensor-detected positional data into a location representing form occurs using at least one sensor adaptor which establishes said single reference system associated with the respective positional data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said sensor-detected positional data are transformed into a location representing form in the manner of coordinate values within the single reference system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein information or characteristics of the person locations associated with the respective location representing forms of the sensor-detected locations are stored in the respective reference system associated with each sensor.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said locations are associated with the hierarchical structure in the form of a tree structure.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said sensor-detected positional data are combined in a random order in said location set.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the information requests are stored in the form of computer-aided data, and on the basis of said operations it is determined whether the positional data contained in said information requests match the positional data acquired by the position sensors.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said location representing forms are associated with information regarding a precision, with which the positional data is acquired by said technical locating system, and are associated with information regarding distances within the reference system.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said positional data associated with information regarding the precision and the distances within said location relations.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein said operations check whether the location representing forms acquired from the sensor data and said locations in said information requests match or whether there is an inclusion relationship, and

matching or numerical information regarding the spatial distance of said location representing forms acquired from the sensor data and said respective location-dependent information requests is determined.

12. A method for supplying a program-aided information system with specific location information, in which the information system provides a selection of location-dependent information based on person-specific or object-specific locations, wherein a first location is detectable by a first sensor having a first reference system and a second location is detectable by a second sensor having a second reference system, the method comprising:

detecting positional data for at least one of the plurality of person-specific or object-specific locations through an associated sensor;

transforming said sensor-detected positional data into corresponding location representing forms using at least one sensor adaptor which establishes a single reference system from the first and second reference systems, within which positional data of the plurality of person-specific and object-specific locations can be spatially attributed and associated with a hierarchical structure;

combining said location representing forms into a form of positional vectors in which said positional data of at least two locations are linked in a prescribed order based on the single reference system;

forming positional vector relations between any combination of locations, persons, or objects within the location sets, which includes identifying a distance relationship and hierarchical relationship between each location, person, or object in the location set; and

applying operations for determining the matching of locations as a basis of generating or providing location-dependent person-specific or object-specific information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said location representing forms are associated with information regarding a precision, with which the positional data is acquired by said technical locating system, and are associated with information regarding distances within the reference system.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein, in said combining step, said positional vectors have at least two nodes at which a sensor-detected location is provided in a fixed order, and

a connection is provided between two said nodes, along said connection information regarding the route between two locations being linked, if need be, in the form an additional location set and/or an additional positional vector.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein said positional vector relations are grouped in said positioned location sets and are associated with so-called prepositions, which describe a spatial relative position between locations and persons, respectively between said locations and objects, numerically and/or semantically.