Traveling state determining device, method for determining traveling state and recording medium

• US 8,862,427 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2011
• Issued: 10/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Sakuraoka, Satoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Schechter, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kessie, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US13/107,099
• Publication Number:
  US 20110282620A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,250 Days
• Field of Search: 702/141, 701/202, 701/200, 701/213
• US Class Current: 702/141
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/12 executed aboard the object being navigated; Dead reckoning
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3423 Multimodal routing, i.e. combining two or more modes of transportation, where the modes can be any of, e.g. driving, walking, cycling, public transport
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/006 Pedometers

Abstract

Disclosed is a traveling state determining device including an acceleration sensor which detects an acceleration, a cycle comparing unit which compares a varying cycle of an acceleration of a vertical direction component in an output of the acceleration sensor to a varying cycle of an acceleration of a horizontal direction component and a state determining unit which determines between a state where a user is walking or running by wearing or retaining the traveling state determining device on a body of the user and a state where the user is walking or running by holding the traveling state determining device in a hand of the user based on the comparing result of the cycle comparing unit.

Claims

1. A traveling state determining device which determines a traveling state of a user, comprising:

an acceleration sensor which detects accelerations of a plurality of directions and outputs the accelerations of the plurality of directions as frequency components of a plurality of types;

a specific acceleration extracting unit which extracts an acceleration of a lateral direction component, which is lateral with respect to a traveling direction and which is a predetermined frequency component from the output of the acceleration sensor;

a traveling determining unit which determines whether the user is traveling or stopped based on a result of comparing a level of an acceleration of a vertical direction component, which is a low frequency component from the output of the acceleration sensor, to a first threshold value;

a constant speed traveling determining unit which determines whether the traveling state is a constant speed state based on (i) a determination result indicating that the user is traveling obtained by the traveling determining unit and (ii) an acceleration of a traveling direction component from the output of the acceleration sensor; and

a state determining unit which, when the constant speed traveling determining unit determines that the traveling state is the constant speed state, determines whether the traveling state is (i) by a transportation option which travels on rails or (ii) by a transportation option which travels on roads based on a level of the acceleration which is extracted by the specific acceleration extracting unit.

2. The traveling state determining device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a direction setting unit which (i) sets a direction in which a gravitational acceleration is always provided in the output of the acceleration sensor as a vertical direction, (ii) detects an acceleration that expresses starting and stopping to set an acceleration direction of the detected acceleration as the traveling direction, and (iii) sets a direction which is perpendicular to the vertical direction and the traveling direction as the lateral direction;

wherein the specific acceleration extracting unit extracts the acceleration of the lateral direction component based on the settings of the direction setting unit.

3. The traveling state determining device as claimed in claim 1, wherein when the traveling determining unit determines that the user is traveling, the state determining unit compares the level of the acceleration which is extracted by the specific acceleration extracting unit to a second threshold value, and determines between the states based on a result of the comparison.

4. The traveling state determining device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the predetermined frequency component is a frequency component which is included in a range of 0.5 Hz to 10 Hz.

5. A traveling state determining method for determining a traveling state of a user by using an acceleration sensor which detects accelerations of a plurality of directions and outputs the accelerations of the plurality of directions as frequency components of a plurality of types, the method comprising:

extracting a specific acceleration of a lateral direction component which is lateral with respect to a traveling direction and which is a predetermined frequency component from the output of the acceleration sensor;

determining whether the user is traveling or stopped based on a result of comparing a level of an acceleration of a vertical direction component, which is a low frequency component from the output of the acceleration sensor, to a first threshold value;

determining whether the traveling state is a constant speed state based on (i) a determination result indicating that the user is traveling and (ii) an acceleration of a traveling direction component from the output of the acceleration sensor; and

when it is determined that the traveling state is the constant speed traveling state, determining whether the traveling state is (i) by a transportation option which travels on a rail or (ii) by a transportation option which travels on a road based on a level of the specific acceleration extracted in the extracting.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having a program recorded thereon for controlling a computer to determine a traveling state of a user, wherein the computer is provided with an output of an acceleration sensor which detects accelerations of a plurality of directions and outputs the accelerations of the plurality of directions as frequency components of a plurality of types, and wherein the program controls the computer to perform functions comprising:

extracting a specific acceleration that is an acceleration of a lateral direction component which is lateral with respect to a traveling direction and which is a predetermined frequency component from the output of the acceleration sensor;

determining whether the user is traveling or stopped based on a result of comparing a level of an acceleration of a vertical direction component, which is a low frequency component from the output of the acceleration sensor, to a first threshold value;

determining whether the traveling state is a constant speed state based on (i) a determination result indicating that the user is traveling and (ii) an acceleration of a traveling direction component from the output of the acceleration sensor; and

when it is determined that the traveling state is the constant speed state, determining whether the traveling state is (i) by a transportation option which travels on a rail or (ii) by a transportation option which travels on a road based on a level of the specific acceleration extracted in the extracting.