KR100582018B1 - A system and method for measuring indoor location - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is to receive the movement in real time by using the difference in the reception time according to the transmission speed difference between the RF signal and the ultrasonic signal transmitted from a plurality of fixed transmission device in order to grasp the position information of the mobile receiving device whose position changes in real time indoors An indoor positioning system and method for measuring and indicating the position of a device.

The indoor position measuring system according to the present invention is provided with a plurality of fixed transmitting apparatuses installed at fixed positions indoors to transmit RF signals and ultrasonic signals, and synchronizing signals, position information, and unique identification information associated with the respective fixed transmitting apparatuses. Transmitter for transmitting the RF signal comprising a; And an ultrasonic transmitter for transmitting an ultrasonic signal, wherein the position is changed indoors and the RF signal and the ultrasonic signal are received to generate position measurement information on the changed position based on the reception time information and the RF signal. A mobile receiving apparatus comprising: an RF receiving unit for receiving the RF signal; An ultrasonic receiver for receiving the ultrasonic signal; A timer that starts counting in response to receiving the RF signal, and stops counting and generates the reception time information in response to receiving the ultrasonic signal; And a position measuring unit configured to generate the position measurement information based on the reception time information, the position information, and the unique identification information associated with each of the plurality of fixed transmission devices.

According to the indoor position measuring system and method according to the present invention, the position of the mobile receiving apparatus in which the position is changed in real time indoors by using the difference in the reception time according to the transmission speed difference between the RF signal and the ultrasonic signal transmitted from the plurality of fixed transmission device The effect of measuring the position can be obtained.

Position Measurement, Ultrasonic, RF, Mobile Receiver

Description

Indoor positioning system and method {A SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MEASURING INDOOR LOCATION}

1 is a schematic diagram showing a fixed transmitter and a mobile receiver of an indoor positioning system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the structure of a fixed transmission device among the components of Fig. 1;

3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a mobile receiving apparatus among the components of FIG. 1.

4 is a view illustrating an ultrasonic receiver of a mobile receiving apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention among the components of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5A illustrates a method of generating valid reception time information using a sampling window scheme in an ultrasonic receiver of a mobile receiving apparatus; FIG.

FIG. 5B is a table showing a predetermined statistical process of averaging a plurality of reception time information obtained in FIG. 5A to obtain valid reception time information. FIG.

FIG. 6A is a diagram illustrating a method of generating valid reception time information through a predetermined statistical process by a mobile receiving apparatus including a plurality of ultrasonic sensors; FIG.

FIG. 6B is a diagram illustrating a predetermined statistical process of averaging or selecting a mode of a plurality of reception time information obtained in FIG. 6A to derive valid reception time information. FIG.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a method for measuring indoor location using a sampling window method.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a method of measuring an indoor position in a mobile receiving apparatus including a plurality of ultrasonic sensors.

9 is an internal block diagram of a general purpose computer system that may be employed in the indoor positioning system and method according to the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

100: fixed transmission device

110: mobile receiving device

230: RF transmitter

250: ultrasonic transmission unit

310: RF receiver

330: ultrasonic receiver

340: timer unit

370: position measuring unit

420: Ultrasonic Sensor

The present invention relates to an indoor positioning system and method for identifying the location information of a room that changes according to the movement of a mobile receiving apparatus and displaying its location in real time. More specifically, the global positioning system (Global Positioning System) (GPS) A system and method for non-contact method of checking the location of a person or robot moving indoors without using satellites. A distance is estimated using a difference between transmission speeds of an RF signal and an ultrasonic signal. It relates to an indoor positioning system and method for calculating the position through.

Ubiquitousization, which has emerged as a new paradigm of computerization, can be defined as an effort to intelligentize the physical space based on ubiquitous computing and ubiquitous networks and to connect various things spread out in the physical space to the network.

Ubiquitous computing is a concept that adds computing functions to all physical spaces and objects such as roads, bridges, tunnels, buildings, and building walls to create a space where all objects and objects are intelligent and connected to electronic spaces to exchange information with each other. It is a computing environment that is one step ahead of network and mobile computing. In addition, ubiquitous computing is based on the premise that all computers are connected to each other, invisible to the user, can be used anytime, anywhere, and permeate into real world objects and environments and integrate into everyday life.

Ubiquitous network means an information and communication network that anyone can use anytime, anywhere without restriction of communication speed, and can distribute all information or content. By realizing this, the user can freely use the information communication service from various limitations of the existing information communication network and service. In particular, by using the ubiquitous network and various sensors, it is possible to form a community that overcomes the limitations of time and space, thereby enabling context awareness and location awareness of people and things.

In the near future, new and diverse services will be created through these ubiquitous computing and ubiquitous networks. In particular, Ubiquitous Location Based Services (U-LBS), which recognizes the location of objects such as people and things and provides useful services based on them, is emerging as an important service. In addition, the position recognition system technology, which is one of the most important element technologies for providing ubiquitous location-based services, is being actively researched in advanced countries.

Most non-contact indoor positioning systems that do not currently use GPS satellites are applied to mobile robots.They use infrared sensors, cameras to measure location through image recognition, and robots moving along a defined path. There is a way to measure the position through.

In the case of using infrared rays, the measurement of the position is not accurate due to the influence of sunlight, and the method of measuring the position through image recognition using a camera has a disadvantage in that the cost of installation and maintenance is too high. Position measurement through a robot that is difficult to apply in an application environment having a general degree of freedom.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to introduce a new position measuring method and system capable of providing more accurate and reliable position information in real time with respect to the indoor position of the moving object.

The present invention has been made to improve the prior art as described above, the transmission rate of the RF signal and the ultrasonic signal transmitted from a plurality of fixed transmission device to grasp the location information of the mobile receiving device whose position changes in real time indoors An object of the present invention is to provide an indoor positioning system and method for measuring and displaying the position of a mobile receiving apparatus in real time using a difference in reception time according to a difference.

In addition, the indoor position measuring system and method according to the present invention enables to install a plurality of ultrasonic sensors in the ultrasonic receiving unit of the mobile receiving apparatus to obtain a plurality of receiving time information at the same time at the ultrasonic receiving unit, to determine a more accurate position It is an object of the present invention to provide an indoor positioning system and method for enabling a quick update of location information.

In addition, the indoor positioning system and method according to the present invention more accurate and improved update rate through a statistical processing operation such as averaging a plurality of reception time information received from a plurality of ultrasonic sensors installed in the mobile receiving apparatus or selecting the mode; It is an object of the present invention to provide an indoor positioning system and method capable of obtaining positional measurement information.

In addition, the indoor position measuring system and method according to the present invention receives a plurality of receiving time information from the fixed transmission device for a predetermined period in the ultrasonic receiving unit in the mobile receiving apparatus statistical processing such as averaging the reception time information or selecting the mode; It is an object of the present invention to provide an indoor positioning system and method that can obtain more accurate position measurement information by reducing an error of an ultrasonic signal due to environmental factors through work.

In order to achieve the above object and to solve the problems of the prior art, the indoor position measuring system according to the present invention is installed in a fixed position indoors, a plurality of fixed transmitting apparatus for transmitting the RF signal and the ultrasonic signal, each of the A transmitter for transmitting an RF signal including a synchronization signal, position information, and unique identification information associated with the fixed transmitter; And an ultrasonic transmitter for transmitting an ultrasonic signal, wherein the position is changed indoors and the RF signal and the ultrasonic signal are received to generate position measurement information on the changed position based on the reception time information and the RF signal. A mobile receiving apparatus comprising: an RF receiving unit for receiving the RF signal; An ultrasonic receiver for receiving the ultrasonic signal; A timer that starts counting in response to receiving the RF signal, and stops counting and generates the reception time information in response to receiving the ultrasonic signal; And a position measuring unit configured to generate the position measurement information based on the reception time information, the position information, and the unique identification information associated with each of the plurality of fixed transmission devices.

In addition, the indoor position measuring system according to an aspect of the present invention, including installing a plurality of ultrasonic sensors in the movement receiving apparatus, the timer unit receiving time information for the ultrasonic signal received in each of the plurality of ultrasonic sensors Separately generate the position measurement unit, and the position measuring unit averages the respective reception time information or selects the most frequent value to derive valid reception time information, generates distance information corresponding to the valid reception time information, and generates the generated distance. And generating location measurement information of the mobile receiving apparatus based on the information.

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the indoor positioning system and method according to the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail.

Indoor positioning system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is largely composed of two parts.

The first is a fixed transmission device that is distributed indoors and generates RF signals and ultrasonic signals at irregular intervals. The second is a fixed transmission device that receives RF signals and ultrasonic signals transmitted from the fixed transmission device and performs predetermined statistical processing. A mobile reception device for generating location measurement information for a location to be.

1 is a schematic diagram showing an overall network configuration of a fixed transmitting device and a mobile receiving device of an indoor positioning system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

As described above, at least three stationary transmission devices 100 are installed at designated locations indoors. In the method of calculating the distance from each stationary transmission device and obtaining the intersection point of three or more circles whose radius is a radius, the method of measuring the position of the mobile reception device is performed. It is to install a plurality of stationary transmission devices.

When the plurality of fixed transmitting apparatuses transmit RF signals and ultrasonic signals, the mobile receiving apparatus 110 that changes its position indoors receives them and calculates position measurement information through predetermined steps. The mobile receiving apparatus may be carried by a person as a predetermined terminal, or may be mounted on a robot moving indoors.

In the present embodiment, the fixed transmission device 100 installed indoors maintains position information calculated in advance through surveying, and transmits the position information from at least three fixed transmission devices. As an example of the location information, the location information may be displayed as a coordinate value. In addition, the fixed transmission device maintains not only positional information associated with each fixed transmission device, but also synchronization signal information and each unique identification information, and includes the information in an RF signal to transmit the signal to the mobile reception device. The synchronization signal information included in the RF signal serves to inform the start of a signal transmitted from the fixed transmission device, and the mobile reception device receiving the synchronization signal information detects the start of the corresponding signal, and counts by driving the timer unit. To start. In addition, as an example of the unique identification information, the unique identification information may be represented by a unique number of each of the fixed transmitting device, the mobile receiving device is the unique identification of a plurality of randomly transmitted from each fixed transmitting device Judging from the information.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a fixed transmission device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the fixed transmission device 200 according to the present invention includes a control unit 210 for controlling a series of operations inside the device, and an RF signal including a synchronization signal, position information, and unique identification information. An antenna 240 and an RF transmitter 230 for transmitting, an ultrasonic transmitter 250 for transmitting an ultrasonic signal, and an actuator for driving the RF transmitter 230 and the ultrasonic transmitter 250 under the control of the controller. The driver 220 and a storage unit 260 for storing and managing various data in the fixed transmission device.

The storage unit 260 stores and manages unique identification information (number) and preset location information (coordinates) of the fixed transmission device 200.

The fixed transmission device 200 having the above-described configuration is installed in a predetermined geographic space indoors, for example, on a ceiling or a wall of a building. The control unit 210 of the fixed transmission device 200 controls the driver 220 to include the position information (coordinate), the unique identification information, and the synchronization signal of the fixed transmission device stored in the storage unit 260 in the RF signal. It transmits by driving the RF transmitter 230. At the same time, the controller 210 drives the ultrasonic transmitter 250 through the driver 220 and transmits an ultrasonic signal. The transmission of the RF signal and the ultrasonic signal as described above may be sent in a certain period and order, or may be sent in an irregular period and order.

As an example of a method for transmitting an RF signal and an ultrasonic signal in a fixed transmission device, a carrier sensing multiple access / collision avoidance (CSMA / CA) method may be used. In the present method, a radio frequency (RF) signal and an ultrasonic wave signal randomly transmitted from a plurality of fixed transmission apparatuses may be distinguished from each other by using a carrier. That is, through carrier sensing, one fixed transmission device that wants to transmit data detects whether a data RF signal is being transmitted from another fixed transmission device and then transmits its own RF signal when there is no RF signal. That's how. At this time, a collision avoidance method is used, in which a random delay is waited before sending data.

As such, each stationary transmission apparatus can continuously transmit an RF signal and an ultrasonic signal arbitrarily through the CSMA / CA method. By transmitting the RF signal and the ultrasonic signal through such a series of processes, the plurality of fixed transmitting apparatuses 200 may transmit the respective position information and the unique identification information to the mobile receiving apparatus 300 without being confused.

On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the fixed transmission device is described as including an RF transmitter 230 for transmitting an RF signal, and the control program, the unique identification information, or the location information of the fixed transmission device 200 is updated. To this end, the fixed transmission device 200 according to the present invention may further include an RF receiver, and the controller 210 may maintain and update data received through the RF receiver in the storage 260.

3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a mobile receiving apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the mobile reception apparatus 300 according to the present invention includes an antenna 320 for receiving an RF signal including a synchronization signal, location information, and unique identification information transmitted from the fixed transmission device 200. RF receiving unit 310, ultrasonic receiving unit 330 for receiving ultrasonic signals transmitted from fixed transmission device 200, and counting when receiving a synchronization signal and counting when receiving ultrasonic signal ends counting time A timer unit 340 for generating information, a storage unit 350 for storing data in the mobile receiving apparatus 300, and a control unit 360 for controlling a series of operations in the mobile receiving apparatus 300. ), A position measuring unit 370 for calculating the position of the mobile receiving apparatus 300 according to the reception time information of the RF signal and the ultrasonic signal received from the fixed transmitting apparatus 200, the measured position information, and the like. Various tablets It is configured to include a display unit 380 for displaying.

The mobile receiving apparatus 300 having the above-described configuration according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may receive an RF signal and an ultrasonic signal transmitted from the fixed transmitting apparatus 200 and measure a position thereof. same.

When initial power is applied to the mobile receiving apparatus 300, an internal operation is reset and initialization is performed. System reset and variable initialization are performed by the reset, and the environment settings and variables of the control unit 360 and the storage unit 350 are initialized.

When the initialization is completed by the operation, the controller 360 determines whether the synchronization signal SYNC included in the RF signal transmitted from the fixed transmission device 200 is received through the antenna 320 and maintains the standby state. At this time, when the synchronization signal is received through the antenna 320, the control unit 360 drives the timer unit 340 to count the timer for measuring the reception time information.

The position information and the unique identification information included in the RF signal transmitted from the fixed transmission device 200 are read to receive an ultrasonic signal corresponding to each fixed transmission device 200. When the ultrasonic signal is received, the controller 250 drives the timer 340 to end the counting of the timer. The controller 250 performs a parity check procedure to check an error of data included in an RF signal transmitted from the fixed transmission apparatus 200. If it is determined that there is no error after the parity check, the mobile reception apparatus 300 may provide the current location to the user by calculating and displaying the current location, and may transmit the location information to a separate application.

 The operation may be performed after the mobile reception apparatus 300 receives the synchronization signal, and then the timer value generated by counting between the start and end times of the operation of the timer unit 340 after the RF signal including the information is transmitted. Correlation is only required when ultrasonic signals are received during the cycle. That is, the timer at the time when the mobile receiver 300 receives the RF signal and does not receive the ultrasonic signal does not have a timer value of the timer unit 340 or the count of the timer unit 340 continues and ends. If the value cannot be specified, a new procedure of receiving an ultrasonic signal is performed again.

As described above, according to the present invention, when receiving the RF signal and the ultrasonic signal from the fixed transmission device, since the transmission speed of the RF signal is much larger than the transmission speed of the ultrasonic speed, the difference in the reception time between the RF signal and the ultrasonic signal is measured through a timer. This makes it possible to measure the absolute distance between the mobile receiver and the fixed transmitter. That is, since the distance between the fixed transmission device and the mobile reception device installed indoors is considered to be very small compared to the transmission speed of the RF signal, the delay time until the reception of the RF signal can be regarded as almost "0". Therefore, the difference in the reception time between the two signals is regarded as the delay time until the reception of the ultrasonic signal, and the distance between the fixed transmission device and the mobile reception device can be measured by multiplying the speed of the ultrasonic wave by the reception time difference. Such distance measurement may be performed on at least three fixed transmitters to obtain distance information from three or more fixed transmitters, and the position information (coordinate values) of three or more fixed transmitters already known to the distance information. By further considering, the position of the mobile receiving apparatus can be calculated accurately.

According to the present invention, there is provided a method of reducing errors caused by environmental influences of ultrasonic signal propagation and improving measurement reliability by using a statistical method in generating the position measurement information. Hereinafter, a sampling window technique according to the present invention will be described first.

In the sampling window technique, the ultrasonic sensor of the mobile receiving apparatus 300 receives a plurality of reception time information transmitted from a fixed transmission device for a predetermined time (window size), averages the received reception time information, or selects a mode. A method of calculating valid reception time information is performed by performing predetermined statistical processing. This technique can reduce the error of the reception time information due to the environmental influence of the ultrasonic signal, but since the signal must be received from the fixed transmission device 200 for a predetermined time, the mobile reception continuously changes its position during that time. There is a disadvantage that the updated location information of the device 300 is not properly reflected. As a result, when the size of the window is short enough that there is no positional variation of the mobile receiving apparatus or the positional variation is small, the number of measurements for performing statistical processing may not be sufficient, and may be insufficient to generate more reliable positional measurement information. On the other hand, when the size of the window is increased, the possibility of position fluctuation or position fluctuation within the window time increases, and thus the changed position information is difficult to properly reflect in the statistics. In addition, the sampling window technique may also cause a problem of delayed generation of position measurement information by the window size.

As another embodiment according to the present invention, in addition to the sampling window technique described above, a plurality of ultrasonic sensors may be used to generate statistics.

4 is a diagram illustrating an ultrasonic receiver 410 of a mobile receiving apparatus 400 including a plurality of ultrasonic sensors according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

A plurality of ultrasonic sensors 420 may be installed in the ultrasonic receiver 410 of the mobile receiver 400 so that the ultrasonic signals transmitted from the ultrasonic transmitter 250 of the fixed transmitter 200 may not be used. By simultaneously receiving the two ultrasonic sensors 420, it is possible to obtain the reception time information of the signal of the fixed transmission device.

Using a plurality of ultrasonic sensors, reception time information, that is, information on the difference between reception times of the RF signal and the ultrasonic signal, is generated as many as the number of used ultrasonic sensors. At this time, the mobile reception apparatus 400 performs the predetermined statistical processing such as taking an average value or selecting a mode value and using the obtained multiple reception time information as the effective reception time information. In this case, the accuracy of the system for obtaining the reception time information can be maintained as much as using the sampling window, and once receiving a signal from the fixed transmission device 200, the reception time information can be obtained immediately. The information update rate for the changing position of 400 is significantly faster than using the sampling window scheme.

In addition, the position measurement operation of the mobile receiving apparatus 400 including the plurality of ultrasonic sensors 420 according to an embodiment of the present invention are as follows.

When initial power is applied to the mobile reception apparatus 400, an internal operation is reset and initialization is performed. System reset and variable initialization are performed by the reset, and the environment settings and variables of the control unit 360 and the storage unit 350 are initialized.

When the initialization is completed by the operation, the controller 360 determines whether the synchronization signal SYNC included in the RF signal transmitted from the fixed transmission device 200 is received through the antenna 220 and maintains the standby state. At this time, when the synchronization signal is received through the antenna 320, the control unit 360 drives the timer unit 340 to count the timer for measuring the reception time information. Thereafter, the position information and the unique identification information included in the RF signal transmitted from the fixed transmission device 200 are read, and the ultrasonic signals corresponding to each fixed transmission device 200 are received by a plurality of ultrasonic sensors. When the ultrasonic signals are received by a plurality of ultrasonic sensors, the controller 250 drives each timer to terminate the count of the timer 340. The mobile receiving apparatus 300 determines whether there is another timer value in the reception of an ultrasonic signal, and if the timer value does not exist, the mobile receiver 300 returns to the variable initialization process and performs a series of operations again. The fixed transmission apparatus generates effective reception time information by performing predetermined statistical processing such as averaging or obtaining a mode of reception time information of signals received by two ultrasonic sensors, and multiplying the effective reception time information by the speed of an ultrasonic signal. Generating distance information between the mobile communication device and the mobile reception device, calculating and displaying a current location of the mobile reception device based on the distance information, and providing the current location to the user. You can also send.

In addition, the plurality of pieces of first time information are generated by multiplying each of the pieces of received time information by the speed of an ultrasonic signal, and the first location information is averaged or the mode is selected to obtain the position measurement information of the mobile receiving apparatus. It may be.

FIG. 5A illustrates a method in which the ultrasonic receiving unit 330 of the mobile receiving apparatus 300 generates reception time information according to an ultrasonic signal received through one ultrasonic sensor as valid reception time information using a sampling window method. Figure is a diagram.

The graph of FIG. 5A illustrates a process of receiving a transmission signal from one fixed transmission device 200 over time. After receiving the first synchronization signal from the fixed transmission device 200, the mobile reception device starts the counting of the timer to receive the ultrasonic signal transmitted from the fixed transmission device 200 for a predetermined window size 540. For example, the first ultrasonic signal is received from the fixed transmitter # 1 (510), the second ultrasonic signal is received from the fixed transmitter # 1 (520), and the third ultrasonic signal is received from the fixed transmitter # 1. Next, the count of the timer is ended to obtain valid reception time information by performing predetermined statistical processing on the received first, second, and third ultrasound signals (550). In addition, while performing the operation during the window size, the ultrasonic signal is also received from the fixed transmission device # 2 and the fixed transmission device # 3 to perform the above series of operations.

FIG. 5B is a diagram illustrating a predetermined statistical process of averaging a plurality of reception time information obtained in the operation of FIG. 5A to obtain valid reception time information.

Referring to the receiving time information statistical processing according to an embodiment of the present invention, the ultrasonic sensor receives 10 ultrasonic signals from each fixed transmitting device (three examples) for a predetermined window size (example 5 seconds). Each of these values is averaged to derive valid reception time information. For example, referring to the case of the fixed transmission device # 1, when the mobile reception device 300 receives the synchronization signal for the first time, the timer starts counting for a predetermined window size, and while the count starts, the ultrasonic wave is started. The sensor receives 10 ultrasonic signals from the fixed transmission device # 1 and receives 10 reception time information of 0.010 seconds, 0.012 seconds, 0.011 seconds, 0.010 seconds, 0.009 seconds, 0.010 seconds, 0.010 seconds, 0.013 seconds, 0.010 seconds, 0.009 seconds. Get After receiving 10 ultrasonic signals and passing a predetermined window size, the timer counts out and averages the received 10 reception time information to derive 0.0104 seconds or to select 0.010 seconds by mode. Then, valid reception time information is obtained.

When the effective reception time information obtained as described above is multiplied by the speed of the ultrasound, the distance from the fixed transmission device # 1 to the mobile reception device can be obtained.

When the above process is performed in the fixed transmitter # 2 and the fixed transmitter # 3 to obtain the distance between the mobile receiver and the fixed transmitter, the respective signals included in the RF signals received from the respective fixed transmitters Compared with the location information and the unique identification information to obtain the current position measurement information of the mobile receiving device.

On the other hand, the method for obtaining the position measurement information can be obtained in such a way that the coordinate point of each fixed transmitting device as the origin and the intersection point of the circles whose radius is the distance from each fixed transmitting device to the mobile receiving device can be obtained. Include.

6A illustrates a predetermined statistical process of receiving time information obtained by the mobile receiving apparatus 400 including the plurality of ultrasonic sensors 420, receiving ultrasonic signals from each fixed transmitting apparatus 200, as shown in FIG. A method of deriving valid reception time information through a diagram is shown.

In the method for measuring the position of the mobile receiving apparatus 400 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when the fixed transmitting apparatus # 1 transmits an RF signal and an ultrasonic signal, the signals are transmitted from six ultrasonic sensors of the mobile receiving apparatus. Each will be received (610). In addition, the RF signals and the ultrasonic signals transmitted from the fixed transmitter # 2 and the fixed transmitter # 3 are also received by the six ultrasonic sensors, respectively (620 and 630).

The mobile reception apparatus 400 may obtain valid reception time information by performing a statistical process of immediately averaging or selecting a mode of the six reception time information received from one fixed transmission device (640).

FIG. 6B is a diagram illustrating a predetermined statistical process of averaging or selecting a mode of the plurality of reception time information obtained in the operation of FIG. 6A and deriving it into valid reception time information.

In the reception time information statistical processing according to an embodiment of the present invention, for example, the ultrasonic signal transmitted from the fixed transmission device # 1 can be simultaneously received by six ultrasonic sensors of the mobile receiving device. Each reception time information is obtained. Receive time information of 0.010 seconds in sensor 1, 0.012 seconds in sensor 2, 0.013 seconds in sensor 3, 0.013 seconds in sensor 4, 0.011 seconds in sensor 5, and 0.010 seconds in sensor 6. As soon as the reception time information is obtained, the mobile reception apparatus obtains valid reception time information such as 0.010 seconds by selecting 0.011 seconds or the mode value by averaging the reception time information obtained from six sensors.

The above process is also performed on the ultrasonic signals received from the fixed transmission device # 2 and the fixed transmission device # 3 to derive the respective valid reception time information. When the derived effective reception time information is multiplied by the speed of the ultrasonic signal, distance information with each fixed transmitter is obtained, and compared with the position information and the unique identification information of the fixed transmitter included in the received RF signal. The current position measurement information of the mobile receiver is obtained by using a coordinate point of each stationary transmitter as an origin and obtaining an intersection point of circles having a radius of the distance between the stationary transmitter and the mobile receiver according to the obtained distance information. .

In the process of obtaining the position measurement information, the distance information is obtained by multiplying each received time information received by the six ultrasonic sensors by the speed of the ultrasonic waves, and averaging the distance information or selecting the most frequent value to derive the effective distance information. And generating location measurement information of the mobile reception apparatus based on the effective distance information.

Hereinafter will be described in detail with respect to the indoor location measuring method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a method of measuring indoor location using a sampling window method.

Referring to FIG. 7, when initial power is applied to the mobile receiving apparatus 300, the mobile receiving apparatus 300 performs initialization by reset (S710), and the system initial environment setting is initialized by the reset. . When the initialization is completed by the reset in this step, the environment settings and variables of the control unit 360 and the storage unit 350 are initialized (S720). After initialization, the controller 360 determines whether a synchronization signal is received from the radio wave receiving antenna 320 (S730). If it is determined that the synchronization signal is received, the controller 360 drives the timer 340 to count the timer value (S740).

The controller 360 determines whether an ultrasonic signal transmitted from the fixed transmission device 200 is received through the ultrasonic receiver 330 (S751), and waits until the ultrasonic signal is received. When it is determined that the ultrasonic signal transmitted from the fixed transmission device 200 is received, the controller 360 drives the timer unit 340 to end the counting of the timer, and stores the timer value in the storage unit 350 (S752). ).

While performing the above process, the RF receiver 310 receives an RF signal including location information and unique identification information transmitted from the fixed transmission device 200 through the antenna 320 in operation S753.

The control unit 360 performs a parity check for error checking of data included in the received RF signal in step S753 of receiving the RF signal (S760), and determines whether there is an error (S770). If it is determined that there is an error according to the parity check in this step, the control unit 360 returns to the variable initialization step S720 to initialize the variable and then perform the subsequent step again. However, if it is determined that there is no error as a result of the parity check (S760), the controller 250 reads the timer value of the storage unit 350 and determines whether the timer value exists, that is, whether the timer count is completed (S780). . If it is determined that the timer value does not exist, that is, if it is determined that the count is not present, the controller 360 determines that the cycle for measuring the position has elapsed, and returns to the variable initialization step S720 to initialize the variable and perform the subsequent steps again. do.

However, if it is determined that the timer value exists, the position measuring unit 370 averages or selects the most recent reception time information generated through the timer value to derive valid reception time information, and the ultrasonic wave is applied to the valid reception time information. The distance information is obtained by multiplying the speed of the signal, and the current position of the mobile receiving apparatus 300 is measured based on the distance information. In order to measure the current position, the controller 360 receives data transmitted from the plurality of fixed transmitting apparatuses 200 by the above-described process, so that the mobile receiving apparatus 300 corresponds to the difference in the reception time according to the timer value. The current location of the mobile reception device 300 may be measured from the location information and the unique identification information of the fixed transmission device 200 (S790).

8 is a flowchart illustrating a method of measuring an indoor position in a mobile receiving apparatus including a plurality of ultrasonic sensors.

Referring to FIG. 8, when initial power is applied to the mobile receiving apparatus 300 (S810), the mobile receiving apparatus 300 performs initialization by a reset (S820), and the system initial environment setting by the reset. Is initialized. When the initialization is completed by the reset in the above step, the environment settings and variables of the control unit 360 and the storage unit 350 are initialized (S830). After initialization, the controller 360 determines whether a synchronization signal is received from the radio wave receiving antenna 320 (S840). If it is determined that the synchronization signal is received, the controller 360 drives the timer 340 corresponding to each of the plurality of ultrasonic sensors to count the timer value (S851).

The controller 360 determines whether an ultrasonic signal transmitted from the fixed transmission device 200 is received by each of the plurality of ultrasonic sensors through the ultrasonic receiver 330 (S852), and waits until the ultrasonic signal is received. When it is determined that the ultrasonic signal transmitted from the fixed transmission device 200 is received, the controller 360 drives each timer to end the counting of the timer, and stores the timer value in the storage 350 (S853).

While performing the above process, the RF receiver 310 receives an RF signal including location information and unique identification information transmitted from the fixed transmission device 200 through the antenna 320 (S860).

After the counting of the timers corresponding to the plurality of ultrasonic sensors ends, the control unit 250 reads the timer value of the storage unit 350 to determine whether each timer value exists, that is, whether the timer count is completed. It is determined (S870). If it is determined that the timer value does not exist, that is, if it is determined that the count is not present, the control unit 360 determines that the reception of the ultrasonic signal for the position measurement has not been made, and returns to the variable initialization step S830 to perform the variable initialization and subsequent steps. Do it again.

However, if it is determined that the timer value exists, the position measuring unit 370 measures the current position of the mobile receiving apparatus 300. In order to measure the current position, the position measuring unit 370 derives valid reception time information by averaging or selecting a mode of reception time information according to the respective timer values (S880), and an ultrasonic signal to the valid reception time information. The distance information is obtained by multiplying the speed of the signal, and the current position of the mobile receiver 300 may be measured based on the distance information (S890).

When the current position of the mobile receiving apparatus 300 is measured by performing the position measuring step, the controller 360 may transmit the measured position information to the corresponding application. In this case, the application may be a predetermined program driven in the mobile receiving apparatus 300 or an external device. In addition, the controller 360 may display the current location information of the mobile reception apparatus 300 through the display unit 380 so that the user can recognize the current location.

For the indoor position measuring method described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8, the technical configurations related to the indoor position measuring system described above may be applied as it is. Therefore, the detailed description will be referred to the embodiments of the indoor positioning system, and will be omitted below.

Embodiments of the invention also include computer-readable media containing program instructions for performing various computer-implemented operations. The computer readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, etc. alone or in combination. The medium or program instructions may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present invention, or they may be of the kind well-known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts. Examples of computer-readable recording media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape, optical media such as CD-ROMs, DVDs, and magnetic disks, such as floppy disks. Magneto-optical media, and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions, such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. The medium may be a transmission medium such as an optical or metal wire, a waveguide, or the like including a carrier wave for transmitting a signal specifying a program command, a data structure, or the like. Examples of program instructions include not only machine code generated by a compiler, but also high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like.

9 is an internal block diagram of a general purpose computer system that may be employed in the indoor positioning system and method according to the present invention.

Computer system 900 includes one or more processors 910 coupled with a main memory including random access memory (RAM) 920 and read only memory (ROM) 930. The processor 910 is also called a central processing unit (CPU). As is well known in the art, the ROM 930 serves to transfer data and instructions to the CPU unidirectionally, and the RAM 920 typically transfers data and instructions bidirectionally. Used to. RAM 920 and ROM 930 may include any suitable form of computer readable media. Mass storage 940 is bidirectionally coupled to processor 910 to provide additional data storage capability and may be any of the computer readable recording media described above. The mass storage device 940 is used to store programs, data, and the like, and is a secondary memory device such as a hard disk which is generally slower than the main memory device. Certain mass storage devices such as CD ROM 960 may be used. The processor 910 may include one or more input / output interfaces, such as video monitors, trackballs, mice, keyboards, microphones, touchscreen displays, card readers, magnetic or paper tape readers, voice or handwriting readers, joysticks, or other known computer input / output devices. 950. Finally, the processor 910 may be connected to a wired or wireless communication network through the network interface 970. Through this network connection, the procedure of the method described above can be performed. The apparatus and tools described above are well known to those skilled in the computer hardware and software arts.

The hardware device described above may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the present invention.

According to the indoor positioning system and method according to the present invention, according to the difference in the transmission speed of the RF signal and the ultrasonic signal transmitted from a plurality of fixed transmission device in order to grasp the location information of the mobile receiving device whose position changes in real time indoors The position of the mobile receiving apparatus can be measured in real time using the difference in reception time.

In addition, according to the indoor position measuring system and method according to the present invention, it is possible to install a plurality of ultrasonic sensors in the ultrasonic receiving unit of the mobile receiving apparatus to obtain a more accurate position by obtaining a plurality of reception time information at the same time at the ultrasonic receiving unit In addition, it is possible to obtain an effect of enabling the update of the location information quickly.

In addition, according to the indoor positioning system and method according to the present invention, more accurate and improved update through statistical processing operations such as averaging a plurality of reception time information received from a plurality of ultrasonic sensors in a mobile receiving device or selecting the mode; There is an effect that the position measurement information by the rate can be obtained.

In addition, according to the indoor position measuring system and method according to the present invention, the ultrasonic receiving unit in the mobile receiving apparatus receives a plurality of receiving time information from the fixed transmission device for a predetermined period to average the reception time information or select the mode, etc. By reducing the error of the ultrasonic signal due to environmental factors through the statistical processing of, it is possible to obtain more accurate position measurement information.

As described above, the present invention has been described by way of limited embodiments and drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, which can be variously modified and modified by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Modifications are possible. Accordingly, the spirit of the present invention should be understood only by the claims set forth below, and all equivalent or equivalent modifications thereof will belong to the scope of the present invention.

Claims (12)

In the system for measuring the position of the mobile receiving device whose position changes in real time indoors, A fixed transmission device installed at each of a plurality of fixed locations in the indoor, and including an RF transmitter for transmitting an RF signal and an ultrasound transmitter for transmitting an ultrasound signal, wherein the RF signal is a synchronization signal associated with the fixed transmitter, position information And unique identifying information; And An RF receiver for receiving the RF signal, an ultrasonic receiver for receiving the ultrasonic signal through a plurality of ultrasonic sensors, respectively, starting a count in response to receiving the RF signal, and receiving the ultrasonic signal of each ultrasonic sensor A timer unit which stops the count and generates reception time information on a difference in reception time between the RF signal and each ultrasound signal, wherein the reception time information corresponding to each fixed transmission device and the received RF signal A mobile receiving apparatus comprising a position measuring unit for generating position measurement information for the position changed in the indoor based on the position information and the unique identification information to include Indoor positioning system comprising a. delete The method of claim 1, And the position measuring unit reads the timer value of the timer unit and generates the position measurement information only when it is determined that a timer value exists. The method of claim 1, And the location measuring unit derives effective reception time information by averaging the respective reception time information, and generates location measurement information of the mobile reception device based on distance information corresponding to the valid reception time information. Positioning system. The method of claim 1, The location measuring unit selects the most frequent value from the respective reception time information to derive valid reception time information, and generates location measurement information of the mobile receiving apparatus based on distance information corresponding to the valid reception time information. Indoor positioning system. The method of claim 1, The ultrasonic receiver receives a plurality of RF signals and a plurality of ultrasonic signals for a predetermined period, The timer unit generates a plurality of reception time information for the received plurality of RF signals and the received ultrasonic signal, The position measuring unit obtains effective reception time information by averaging the generated plurality of reception time information or selecting a mode, and obtaining distance information by multiplying the effective reception time information by the speed of the ultrasonic signal. And generate the position measurement information based on the position measurement system. The method of claim 1, And the RF transmitter transmits the RF signal through a CSMA / CA method. The method according to any one of claims 1 and 3 to 7, And said plurality of stationary transmitters comprises at least three stationary transmitters. In the method for measuring the position of the mobile receiving apparatus that changes in real time indoors, Receiving an RF signal comprising a synchronization signal, position information, and unique identification information associated with each fixed transmission device from a plurality of fixed transmission devices; Initiating a count of a timer in response to receiving the RF signal; Receiving ultrasonic signals from the plurality of fixed transmitters through a plurality of ultrasonic sensors, ending the count in response to the ultrasonic reception, and generating a plurality of reception time information corresponding to each of the received ultrasonic signals ; And Generating location measurement information based on the reception time information, the location information, and the unique identification information respectively associated with the plurality of fixed transmission devices; Including, The generating of the position measuring information comprises generating the position measuring information only when the value of the timer is valid. The method of claim 9, The generating of the position measurement information comprises averaging the respective reception time information or selecting a mode to derive the effective reception time information, and generating the position measurement information based on the distance information corresponding to the valid reception time information. Indoor location measuring method characterized in that. The method of claim 9, Receiving a plurality of ultrasonic signals from a plurality of fixed transmission device for receiving a plurality of ultrasonic signals for a predetermined period, The generating of the reception time information may include generating a plurality of reception time information in response to each of the received ultrasonic signals, The generating of the position measurement information may include obtaining the effective reception time information by averaging the plurality of reception time information or selecting a mode, and generating the position measurement information based on distance information corresponding to the valid reception time information. To do Indoor location measuring method further comprising. delete

Images