JP4990850B2 - Location information management apparatus and method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a location information management apparatus and method used for managing the location of a mobile communication terminal, for example.

  In recent years, mobile communication terminals such as mobile phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), and in-vehicle terminal devices use GPS (Global Positioning Service) reception function to measure the position of the terminal periodically or at arbitrary timing. An increasing number of terminals have a function that makes it possible to transmit measured position information from a mobile communication terminal to a server. By using this type of function provided in the mobile communication terminal, for example, it is possible to provide appropriate information and services according to the location of the user who has the mobile communication terminal.

  On the other hand, as a system for providing personal information such as name and address, the user accesses the personal information processing program from the personal information acquisition application in the information acquirer terminal, and the personal information providing server stores the name and address. When the history information is registered and the user accesses the personal information providing server from the personal information disclosure control application of the terminal for information disclosing person, the personal information providing server uses the personal information processing program control means to disclose the personal information. There has been proposed a system that controls the start and stop of the personal information processing program from a control application (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2000-99458 A

  However, when the personal information providing system is applied as the position information management method of the mobile communication terminal described above, this conventional personal information providing system manages only history information of names and addresses that are converted into text. Therefore, the movement history information of the user cannot be managed. For this reason, when the movement history information of the mobile communication terminal is transmitted to the server as it is, the personal information that the user does not want to be known to the third party such as the location of the user's home, work place or school destination is the first. Can be guessed by the three parties. This is extremely undesirable for protecting personal information.

  The present invention has been made paying attention to the above circumstances, and the purpose of this invention is to prevent the location information such as the staying place that the user wants to keep secret from being disclosed indefinitely, thereby improving the protection performance of personal information. An object of the present invention is to provide a location information management apparatus and method.

  In order to achieve the above object, one aspect of the present invention relates to position information related to a point to be concealed that needs to conceal the user's location and a public point that does not need to conceal the location of the user. Position information is stored in advance, and in this state, the presence position of the user is measured periodically or at an arbitrary timing, and position information representing the measured presence position of the user is stored. Then, based on the stored location information related to the concealment target point and the location information related to the public point, the concealment target point and the public point out of the stored location information indicating the location of the user. Search for position information included in the section connecting the points, and based on the search result, delete either the searched position information from the movement history, or limit the reading of the searched position information Either one is executed.

Therefore, the user registers in advance the location information related to his / her personal place of stay, such as his home, work place, school destination, etc., along with the location information related to public places which do not need to be kept secret such as stations and bus stops. Thus, based on the position information, the position information included in the section connecting the concealment target point and the public point is searched from the position information indicating the movement history of the user. Based on the above, the searched position information is deleted from the movement history or reading is restricted. As a result, disclosure of location information related to personal places of stay, such as home, work, and attending school, that are included in the user's travel history is blocked or restricted, thereby protecting personal information. .
That is, according to the present invention, position information relating to a staying place that a user wants to keep secret is not disclosed without limitation, and thereby a position information management apparatus and method for improving personal information protection performance are provided. Can do.

Embodiments according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a mobile communication terminal having a function of a location information management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. This mobile communication terminal is composed of, for example, a mobile phone, and includes a mobile communication antenna 1A, a radio unit 1, a signal processing unit 2, a voice processing unit 3, a control unit 4, a storage unit 5, a GPS receiver 9, and the like. Further, as a user interface, a call unit including a speaker 8R and a microphone 8S, an input device 6, and a display device 7 are provided.

  The wireless unit 22 performs modulation / demodulation processing and frequency conversion processing on control data and information data in order to transmit and receive wireless communication signals to and from the base station of the mobile communication network via the mobile communication antenna 1A. The signal processing unit 2 is configured by, for example, a DSP (Digital Signal Processor), a code decoding process for control data and information data, a format conversion process for CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) or OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) communication, and the like. Baseband signal processing.

  When the reception information data decoded by the signal processing unit 2 includes audio data, the audio processing unit 3 decodes the audio data into an analog audio signal and outputs it from the speaker 8R. The voice processing unit 3 encodes the transmission voice signal input from the microphone 8S into voice data and outputs the voice data to the signal processing unit 2.

  The GPS receiver 9 receives a GPS signal transmitted from a GPS satellite (not shown) via the GPS antenna 9 </ b> A, converts the received signal into a digital signal, and inputs the digital signal to the control unit 4.

  The input device 6 includes a dial keypad and a plurality of function keys including a call key, an end key, a cursor key, and the like. The display device 7 includes a display using an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or an organic EL (Electro Luminescence).

By the way, the control unit 4 and the storage unit 5 are configured as follows. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration.
That is, in addition to the area for storing telephone directory data and outgoing / incoming call history data and the area for storing content data such as music and video, the storage unit 5 includes areas necessary for carrying out the present invention. A location information storage unit 51, a concealment target point information storage unit 52, a public point information storage unit 53, and a provisional storage unit 54 are provided.

  The location information storage unit 51 is used to store location information (expressed by latitude and longitude) of the terminal itself that is periodically calculated based on GPS signals in the control unit 4 to be described later. The concealment target point information storage unit 52 stores position information (latitude and longitude) corresponding to the concealment target point input by the user using the input device 6. The public point information storage unit 53 stores position information (latitude and longitude) corresponding to the public point input by the user using the input device 6. The temporary storage unit 54 is used to store position information determined as a concealment target in a concealment determination process by the control unit 4 described later.

  The control unit 4 includes, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit). As control functions necessary for carrying out the present invention, a position measurement control unit 41, a concealment / public point setting control unit 42, a concealment determination unit 43, and the like. It has. All of these control functions are realized by causing the CPU to execute an application program stored in a program memory in the control unit 4.

  The position measurement control unit 41 periodically activates the GPS receiver 9 at a preset period to receive GPS signals, takes the received GPS signals from the GPS receiver 9, and acquires position information (latitude / longitude) of the terminal itself. ). And the process which stores the calculated positional information in the positional information storage part 51 in the memory | storage unit 5 as a user's movement history information is performed.

  The concealment / public point setting control unit 42, in a state where the concealment / public point registration mode is set, an address representing a stay place (confidential target point) that the user wants to conceal by the input device 6 and an unspecified number of When the address of a public point (public point) that is the starting point when a person moves in various directions is input, for example, each of the input from the map information database (not shown) provided in the recording unit 5 Read the latitude and longitude corresponding to the address. Then, the read latitude / longitude of the secret point and public latitude / longitude are stored in the secret point information storage unit 52 and the public point storage unit 53, respectively.

  The concealment determination unit 43 stores each piece of position information indicating the movement history of the user stored as movement history information in the position information storage unit 51 of the concealment target point stored in the concealment target point information storage unit 52. The location information and the location information of the public location stored in the public location storage unit 53 are compared. Then, based on the comparison result, it is determined whether or not each position information indicating the movement history of the user is included in a section connecting the concealment target point and the public point, and the position determined to be included A process of storing information in the temporary storage unit 54 as position information to be concealed is executed.

Next, the operation of the mobile communication terminal configured as described above will be described.
(1) Registration of confidentiality points and public points
First, the user operates the input device 6 to designate the secret / public point registration mode. Then, the address input screen of the secret point / public point is displayed on the display device 7. In this state, the user operates the input device 6 to input a stay location (confidential target point) that the user wants to conceal, for example, an address representing a home, a commuting destination, or a school destination. Then, the concealment / public point setting control unit 42 of the control unit 4 reads out latitude / longitude information corresponding to the input address from the map information database stored in the storage unit 5, and stores the read latitude / longitude information in the storage unit. 5 is stored in the concealment target point information storage unit 52.

Further, it is assumed that the user operates the input device 6 to input a public point, for example, an address indicating the position of a station or a bus stop, an interchange of a highway, or an address of an intersection of a main national road. In this case, the concealment / public point setting control unit 42 of the control unit 4 reads the latitude / longitude information corresponding to the input address from the map information database of the storage unit 5 as in the case of registration of the concealment target point. The read latitude / longitude information is stored in the public point information storage unit 53 of the storage unit 5. Thereafter, similarly, every time the user inputs an address representing another public point, latitude / longitude information corresponding to the input address is stored in the public point information storage unit 53 of the storage unit 4.
In this way, the user registers the latitude and longitude information of the concealment target point and the public point in the storage unit 5 without going to the concealment target point and the public point, and without accessing the position information search site. can do.

(2) Measurement of user movement position
In the standby state, the position measurement control unit 41 of the control unit 4 periodically measures the position of the terminal itself, and stores the measured position information in the storage unit 5 as information representing the movement history of the user. Do.
For example, the GPS receiver 9 is activated at a preset period (for example, 1 minute) to receive a GPS signal, and the received GPS signal is taken from the GPS receiver 9 to obtain the position information (latitude and longitude) of the terminal itself. calculate. Then, the calculated position information is stored in the position information storage unit 51 in the storage unit 5. FIG. 6 shows an example of the stored position information. Each position information is a record number associated with date, time, latitude, and longitude.

  The position information stored in the position information storage unit 51 and the concealment target point and public point stored in the concealment target point information storage unit 52 and the public point information supplementary part 53 include the latitude and longitude information. They can be associated with each other. FIG. 7 shows a state in which this association is made.

(3) Location information concealment processing
A user inputs a concealment processing start request through the input device 6 or a concealment processing start request transmitted from a service server that uses location information is received via the wireless unit 1 and the signal processing unit 2. Then, the concealment determination unit 43 of the control unit 4 is activated, and the concealment process for the movement history information is performed as follows. 3 and 4 are flowcharts showing the processing procedure and processing contents.

  The concealment determination unit 43 first reads all or a part of the position information group from the position information storage unit 51 of the storage unit 5 in step S1. When reading a part of the position information group, the position information group stored in the position information storage unit 51 is divided into a plurality of blocks according to a predetermined division, number, or period, and these blocks are set in a predetermined priority order. It is made by selecting according to. For example, if the predetermined break is the date change timing, the period is 1 day, and the selection priority is the order of the oldest date, the block with the oldest date among the blocks divided by 1 day. Is selected, and the position information group included in the block is read from the position information storage unit 51.

  Subsequently, the anonymity determination unit 43 determines whether or not the selectively read position information group has been concealed in step S2. This determination of whether or not concealment has been made is performed, for example, by adding flag information to each position information and determining whether or not the value of this flag information is a value indicating “concealment has been determined” Is possible. Note that the flag information includes not only a value indicating whether or not the confidentiality determination has been completed, but also includes a value indicating the result of the confidentiality determination, that is, whether or not the information is to be confidential.

  The concealment determination unit 43 ends the processing as it is if all the position information included in the block is “concealment determination complete” as a result of the determination as to whether or not the confidentiality determination has been completed. On the other hand, if undetermined position information is included, one of the undetermined position information is selected, and the concealment determination process is executed for the selected position information as follows.

  That is, the concealment determination unit 43 first reads out latitudes and longitudes of a plurality of concealment target points registered in advance from the concealment target point information storage unit 52 of the storage unit 5 in step S3, and stores the selected undetermined position information. The distance between the latitude / longitude and the latitude / longitude of each of the read secret points is calculated. In step S4, by comparing each of the calculated distances with a preset threshold value, whether the undetermined position information exists in any vicinity of the plurality of concealment points. Determine whether or not.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the threshold value is set to a radius r centered on the latitude and longitude of the concealment target point, and the distance between the undetermined position information and the concealment target point is within the above r, the above It is determined that the undetermined position information exists in the vicinity of the concealment target point. Then, as a result of this determination, if it is determined that the object does not exist in the vicinity of any concealment target point, the process returns to step S2 to select one of the next undecided position information, and the above steps S3 and S4 The determination process by is executed. Thereafter, in the same manner, the process of determining whether or not all position information that has not been determined exists in the vicinity of the point to be concealed is performed repeatedly in steps S3 and S4.

  On the other hand, if it is determined that the undetermined position information exists in the vicinity of any of the concealment target points, the concealment determination unit 43 stores the position information in the temporary storage unit 54 of the storage unit 5 and then step S5. Then, the flag information given to the position information is changed to “Concealment determination completed” and “Value indicating that it is a concealment target”.

  Next, in step S6, the concealment determination unit 43 reads out latitudes and longitudes of a plurality of public points registered in advance from the public point information storage unit 53 of the storage unit 5, and the latitude of the position information passed from step S5. The distance between the longitude and the latitude and longitude of each read public point is calculated. In step S7, each of the calculated distances is compared with a preset threshold value to determine whether the position information exists in the vicinity of any of the plurality of public points.

  Then, as a result of this determination, if it is determined that the position information does not exist in any vicinity of the plurality of public points, the concealment determination unit 43 selects the position information in step S1 first in step S8. It is determined whether or not it is the top data in the block, that is, whether there is position information with the oldest measurement time. As a result, if it is not the head data, the position information obtained at the measurement time one time before the position information is selected in step S9. And about the position information obtained at the selected measurement time one time before, the process which determines whether the said position information exists in the vicinity of a public point by step S5-step S8 mentioned previously. Execute.

  On the other hand, it is assumed that, as a result of the determination in step S7, it is determined that the position information exists in the vicinity of any one of the public points. In this case, the concealment determination unit 43 reads the position information determined to exist in the vicinity of the concealment target point in step S4 from the temporary storage unit 54 of the storage unit 5 in step S10. Then, in step S11 of FIG. 4, it is determined whether or not the position information is the last data in the block previously selected in step S1, that is, whether or not there is position information with the latest measurement time. As a result, if there is position information with the newest measurement time, the concealment process is terminated as it is.

  On the other hand, if the position information is not the final data, the concealment processing unit 43 proceeds to step S12, where the position information obtained at the measurement time one time after the position information is selected. Then, the flag information given to the position information obtained at the selected measurement time one time later is changed to “Concealment determination completed” and “Value indicating that it is a concealment target”.

  Next, in step S14, the concealment processing unit 43 reads out latitudes and longitudes of a plurality of public points registered in advance from the public point information storage unit 53 of the storage unit 5, and the latitudes of the position information selected in step S12 above. The distance between the longitude and the latitude and longitude of each read public point is calculated. In step S15, each of the calculated distances is compared with a preset threshold value to determine whether the position information exists in the vicinity of any of the plurality of public points.

  As a result of this determination, if it is determined that the position information does not exist in any vicinity of the plurality of public points, the concealment determination unit 43 returns to step S11 where it is determined whether or not the position information is final data. Determine. If it is not the final data, position information at the measurement time one time later is selected in step S12, and after the flag information of this position information is changed to “a value indicating that it is a concealment target”, the position information is It is determined whether or not it is in the vicinity of any public point. Thereafter, similarly, the processing in steps S12 to S15 is repeatedly executed until it is confirmed that the position information to be determined is the final data. To do.

  On the other hand, in the determination in step S15, it is determined that the position information to be determined exists in the vicinity of any of a plurality of public points. In this case, the concealment processing unit 43 returns to step S <b> 2 and determines whether or not all the position information included in the selected block has become “concealment determination completed”. Then, when it is confirmed that all the position information is “concealment determination completed”, the concealment process is terminated. On the other hand, if there is still “non-concealed” position information remaining in the selected block, this undetermined position information is selected and the processes in and after step S3 are executed.

  As described above, by performing the concealment determination process on the position information under the control of the concealment processing unit 43, the concealment among the position information representing the movement trajectory of the user stored in the position information storage unit 51 is performed. The position information existing within the radius r with respect to the target point and each position information existing in the section connecting the concealment target point and the public point are determined as the concealment target position information. Then, each position information determined to be a concealment target is changed to a value indicating that it is a concealment target.

  Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, it is assumed that the user moves along a route indicated by the broken line R, and position information representing the movement locus is stored in the position information storage unit 51. In this case, each position information existing within the radius r with respect to the concealment target point Q and each position information existing in a section connecting the concealment target point Q and each of the public points P1 and P2 are shown in FIG. As illustrated by x, it is determined as position information to be concealed. Each piece of position information determined to be concealed is stored in a state in which the value of the flag information is changed to “a value indicating that it is a concealment target”.

  Note that the latitude and longitude of the corresponding position information is deleted from the position information storage unit 51 instead of changing the flag information given to the position information determined to be concealed to “a value indicating that it is a concealment target”. It is also possible. FIG. 8 shows the storage state of the position information after deleting the latitude and longitude.

  As described above, when the concealment process is performed on the position information, for example, when a position information transmission request is received from a server that performs an information distribution service according to the position of the user, the position information is assigned to each position information. Based on the flag information, it is determined whether or not the position information is a concealment target. If it is determined that the position information is a concealment target, the position information can be excluded from the transmission target.

  If the latitude / longitude of the position information to be concealed is deleted from the position information storage unit 51, the movement history stored in the position information storage unit 51 is transmitted as it is in response to the position information transmission request from the server. However, there is no worry that the third party is aware of the location information that should be concealed such as the user's home, commuting destination, and school destination. Accordingly, it is possible to keep the security of the personal information of the user high.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 8, the latitude and longitude of the position information determined to be confidential is deleted, but instead of deleting, it may be encrypted using a random number or the like. In this way, by decoding the position information using the encryption key, the user can check the latitude and longitude of the position information of the concealment target point as necessary.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, the positional information on the measured mobile communication terminal is stored as a user's movement history information in the positional information storage part 51 in the said terminal, and the concealment process of each memorize | stored positional information is performed in the said movement. Executed on communication terminals. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the movement history information measured in the mobile communication terminal is transmitted to a server computer or a personal computer of the same user, and the concealment processing is performed for each piece of position information in the server computer or personal computer. May be executed. In this way, the processing load required for the concealment process of the mobile communication terminal can be reduced.

Further, the following may be considered as means for registering the location information of the concealment target point. That is, at the point to be concealed, the input device 6 is operated to select a concealment target point registration menu. Then, the concealment / public point setting control unit 42 of the control unit 4 activates the GPS receiver 9 to receive the GPS signal, and calculates the latitude and longitude at the point based on the received GPS signal. Then, the calculated latitude and longitude are stored in the concealment target point information storage unit 52 of the storage unit 5 as the position information of the point to be concealed. Thereafter, similarly, every time the user moves to a point to be concealed and performs the same operation, the latitude and longitude of the concealment target point can be stored in the concealment target point information storage unit 52 of the storage unit 5, respectively.
In this way, since the mobile communication terminal can acquire the latitude and longitude information of the concealment target point by itself without relying on an external site or the like equipped with a map database, the confidentiality of the information related to the concealment target point is further enhanced. Can do.

  In addition, as a means for registering public points, a method of using a site (for example, http://www.geocoding.jp/) that provides a service for converting addresses into latitude and longitude is conceivable. In this case, the control unit 4 accesses the site via the mobile communication network using the browser function, and transmits address data to the site. Then, the latitude / longitude information returned from the site is received, and the received latitude / longitude information is stored in the public point information storage unit 53 of the storage unit 4.

Furthermore, the following can be considered as means for registering public points. That is, a map database in which names or addresses and latitude and longitude are stored in association with representative public points such as stations, bus stops, highway interchanges, and intersections of major national roads is stored in a server or the like. The mobile communication terminal accesses the server and sends the name or address of the public point input by the user to the server via the mobile communication network. The server reads latitude / longitude information corresponding to the name or address of the public point sent from the mobile communication terminal from the map database, and downloads it to the mobile communication terminal as the inquiry source. The mobile communication terminal receives the latitude / longitude information downloaded from the server and stores it in the public point information storage unit 53 in the storage unit 5.
In this way, since the mobile communication terminal does not need to have a map database by itself, it is possible to reduce the storage capacity of the storage unit 5 and suppress the cost increase of the terminal.

  Moreover, although the case where position information is measured based on a GPS signal has been described as an example in the embodiment, for example, when a base station or a control station of a mobile communication system has a position management function of each mobile communication terminal Alternatively, the location information of the mobile communication terminal managed by this location management function may be used.

In addition, the configuration of the position information management apparatus, the procedure and contents of the position information concealment process, and the like can be variously modified without departing from the scope of the present invention.
In short, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment as it is, and can be embodied by modifying the constituent elements without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage. Further, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the embodiment. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment. Furthermore, you may combine suitably the component covering different embodiment.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the mobile communication terminal provided with the function of the positional infomation management apparatus concerning one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the control unit and memory | storage unit of the mobile communication terminal shown in FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the first half part of the position information concealment processing procedure by the control unit shown in FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the latter half part of the concealment processing procedure of the positional information by the control unit shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the movement history of a mobile communication terminal, and the position determined as the concealment object. It is a figure which shows an example of the movement history information memorize | stored in a positional information storage part. It is a figure which shows the state which matched the confidential point and the public point with the positional information. It is a figure which shows the state which deleted the location information of the concealment object from movement history information.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1A ... Antenna for mobile communication, 1 ... Wireless unit, 2 ... Signal processing unit, 3 ... Audio processing unit, 4 ... Control unit, 5 ... Storage unit, 6 ... Input device, 7 ... Display device, 8R ... Speaker, 8S ... Microphone, 9A ... GPS antenna, 9 ... GPS receiver, 41 ... position measurement control unit, 42 ... confidential / public location setting control unit, 43 ... confidentiality determination unit, 51 ... location information storage unit, 52 ... confidential target point Information storage unit, 53 ... public point information storage unit, 54 ... provisional information storage unit.

Claims (2)

First storage means for storing position information related to a concealment target point that needs to conceal a user's location;
Second storage means for storing position information relating to public points that do not require the user's location to be concealed;
A position measuring means for measuring the position of the user periodically or at an arbitrary timing;
Third storage means for storing location information representing the measured location of the user;
Based on the position information related to the concealment target point stored in the first storage unit and the position information related to the public point stored in the second storage unit, stored in the third storage unit Search means for searching for position information included in a section connecting the concealment target point and the public point, from among the position information representing the presence position of the user,
An anonymity means for executing one of a process for deleting the searched position information from the third storage means and a process for restricting the reading of the searched position information from the third storage means. A position information management device comprising: A process of storing position information related to a concealment target point that needs to be concealed in the first storage means;
Storing in the second storage means location information related to public points that do not require the user's location to be concealed;
A step of measuring the user's presence position periodically or at an arbitrary timing, and storing position information representing the measured user's presence position in a third storage unit;
Based on the position information related to the concealment target point stored in the first storage unit and the position information related to the public point stored in the second storage unit, stored in the third storage unit A process of searching for position information included in a section connecting the concealment target point and the public point from among the position information indicating the presence position of the user;
Performing a process of deleting one of the searched position information from the third storage unit and a process of restricting reading of the searched position information from the third storage unit. The positional information management method characterized by the above-mentioned.

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