CN110892739A

CN110892739A - Apparatus and method for one-click WIFI connection in a vehicle

Info

Publication number: CN110892739A
Application number: CN201780093233.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 雷文辉; 赖胜; 张晓竹
Original assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
Current assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
Priority date: 2017-09-04
Filing date: 2017-09-04
Publication date: 2020-03-17
Anticipated expiration: 2037-09-04
Also published as: WO2019041339A1; CN110892739B; EP3679731A4; EP3679731A1

Abstract

The present disclosure provides devices and methods for one-click WIFI connectivity in a vehicle. The method comprises the following steps: identifying wireless communication devices in the vicinity of the routing apparatus; determining a distance between the wireless communication device and the routing apparatus and an angle of arrival of a signal received from the wireless communication device; in case the position decided by the determined distance and the determined angle of arrival is within a predetermined space, connection with the wireless communication device is allowed.

Description

Apparatus and method for one-click WIFI connection in a vehicle

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to WIFI connections and, more particularly, to routing devices and methods for use therein.

Background

In recent years, the age of mobile internet has come. People can use the mobile internet without cables. People enjoy the convenience of and enthusiasm for various services from the mobile internet, and hope that they can access the internet, including in vehicles, anytime and anywhere. Meanwhile, the On Demand Mobile (ODM) service is rapidly developing. In ODM vehicles, the vehicle does not belong to the passenger, and the passenger changes different cars daily for commuting or traveling, and they still want convenient and secure access to the internet in the vehicle.

The existing solution is to install a WIFI router in the vehicle. But in this case, to access the internet, the passenger must select the desired WIFI router via the user interface on his mobile handset and enter the password into the handset. Such typing operations can be cumbersome, especially for use with ODM vehicles.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure is directed to a new and improved apparatus and method for use in WIFI routers.

According to a first exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method for use in a routing device, including: identifying wireless communication devices in the vicinity of the routing apparatus; determining a distance between the wireless communication device and the routing apparatus and an angle of arrival of a signal received from the wireless communication device; and allowing connection with the wireless communication device if the location dictated by the determined distance and the determined angle of arrival is within a predetermined space.

In an example of the present embodiment, the predetermined space may be configurable. The predetermined space may be a spherical space having a predetermined radius. In the case where the routing device is an in-vehicle WIFI router, the predetermined space may approximately match an interior space of a vehicle in which the in-vehicle WIFI router is installed.

In another example of this embodiment, the method may further include: establishing a connection with the wireless communication device if the connection is allowed; and terminating the connection with the wireless communication device in case the location decided by the determined distance and the determined angle of arrival is outside the predetermined space. The connection may be established in response to a user confirmation indicating that the user of the wireless communication device wishes to connect with the routing apparatus.

In yet another example of the present embodiment, the distance may be determined from at least one of RSSI, phase and delay of a signal received from the wireless communication device. Also, the angle of arrival may be determined from phase differences of signals received by two or more antennas at the routing apparatus.

According to a second exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a routing apparatus including: means for performing the steps of the above method. In addition, a routing device is also provided, which includes: a memory storing computer-executable instructions, and a processor for performing the steps of the above-described method via execution of the computer-executable instructions.

According to a third exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a vehicle or a robot including the above-described routing device.

According to a fourth exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable medium is provided.

According to a fifth exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a routing system including the above-described routing apparatus and a wireless communication device. In addition, a routing system comprising the routing device and a remote server is provided.

Further areas of applicability of the present disclosure will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the disclosure, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

Drawings

The foregoing and other aspects and advantages of the disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the disclosure. Note that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.

Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of a routing device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2A and 2B illustrate two examples in which the allowed access space is configured according to the interior space of the vehicle according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3 shows a flowchart illustrating a method used in a routing device according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 illustrates a general hardware environment in which the present disclosure is applicable, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the described exemplary embodiments. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the described embodiments may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In other exemplary embodiments, well-known structures or processing steps have not been described in detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the concepts of the present disclosure.

The term "vehicle" as used in this specification refers to a motor vehicle including, but not limited to, an automobile, truck, bus, and the like. The term "A or B" as used in the specification means "A and B" and "A or B" and does not mean that A and B are mutually exclusive unless otherwise specified.

In the following description, a case is described in which an in-vehicle WIFI router (corresponding to a router apparatus) determines whether to connect with a mobile phone (corresponding to a wireless communication device). However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. The router device of the present disclosure may be a WIFI router used in other application environments. And the wireless communication device of the present disclosure may be any portable electronic device with networking functionality, such as a notebook computer, a tablet computer, and the like.

Referring first to fig. 1, a block diagram of an in-vehicle WIFI router 100 is shown, according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure. The blocks of router 100 may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof to implement the principles of the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art will understand that the blocks described in fig. 1 may be combined or separated into sub-blocks to implement the principles of the present disclosure as described above. Thus, the description herein may support any possible combination or separation or further definition of the blocks described herein.

On-vehicle WIFI router 100 includes: an identification module 110 configured to identify mobile phones in proximity to the in-vehicle WIFI router; a determination module 120 configured to determine a distance between the mobile phone and the in-vehicle WIFI router and an angle of arrival of a signal received from the mobile phone; a connection determination module 130 configured to determine whether to allow a connection with the mobile phone; and a connection establishment module 140 configured to establish or terminate a connection with the mobile phone.

An implementation of in-vehicle WIFI router 100 will be described in detail with reference to fig. 4.

The identification module 110 may identify the mobile phone when the mobile phone is in proximity (e.g., within 5 meters). The identification module 110 may identify the mobile phone by receiving a probe request automatically sent by the mobile phone. Alternatively, the identification module 110 may identify the mobile phone by sending a beacon frame to the mobile phone. Other existing methods may be used to identify or discover or sniff mobile phones.

The detection module 120 may determine a distance between the mobile phone and the in-vehicle WIFI router, which is hereinafter referred to as distance D. The detection module 120 may also determine an angle of arrival of the signal received from the mobile phone, which is referred to hereinafter as angle of arrival θ. In one embodiment, the detection module 120 may determine a pair of physical quantities (D, θ) that represent the location of the mobile phone relative to the in-vehicle WIFI router.

The distance D may be determined from at least one of a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), a phase and a delay of a signal received from the mobile phone. In one embodiment, the distance D is determined from the RSSI of the signal received from the mobile phone. Assuming that the transmission power of a signal transmitted by a mobile phone is known, based on the reception power of a signal received by a WIFI router, the propagation loss of the signal may be calculated, and then the distance may be determined from the propagation loss. In one example, the value of RSSI decreases as the distance D increases according to the following equation:

RSSI＝-(10nlog₁₀D+A)

where n is a signal propagation constant depending on a signal propagation environment, and a is a signal strength value measured in advance at 1 meter from the transmitting node. According to the above equation, the distance D between the mobile phone and the WIFI router may be determined, i.e., D ^ 10 ((abs (rssi) -a)/(10 ^ n)). Note that the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and any existing ranging method may be employed here. For example, the distance between the mobile phone and the WIFI router may also be determined according to the phase or delay of a signal received from the mobile phone, etc.

Since the distance D is determined according to the characteristics of the received signal, the distance D takes into account the influence of obstacles between the mobile phone and the WIFI router if any obstacles are present. For example, if the housing (metal or glass) of the vehicle is located between the mobile phone and the WIFI router, the determined distance D will be much longer than the actual physical distance.

The angle of arrival θ may be determined from phase differences of signals received by two or more antennas at the in-vehicle WIFI router. Here the antenna may be installed in the in-vehicle WIFI router. In one example, the angle of arrival θ may be calculated according to the following equation:

θ＝cos^-1(KΔλ/C)

where K is a constant, Δ λ is the phase difference of the signals received from the mobile phone by the two antennas at the router, and C is the distance between the two antennas. Note that the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and any existing method for determining an angle of arrival may be employed.

The connection determination module 130 may determine whether to allow a connection with the mobile phone. In one embodiment, a connection with the mobile phone is allowed in case the position (D, θ) decided by the determined distance D and the determined angle of arrival θ is within a predetermined space. Otherwise, the connection will not be allowed and then terminated.

The connection establishment module 140 may establish a connection with the mobile phone in case the connection is allowed. Also, in the case where the location (D, θ) is outside the predetermined space, the connection establishing module 140 may terminate the connection with the mobile phone. Alternatively, the connection establishment module 140 may terminate the connection with the mobile phone in the event that the user of the mobile phone does not wish to connect. Additionally, the connection establishment module 140 may save the unique identifier of the mobile phone in memory in the event that a connection is established.

In one aspect, WIFI router 100 may communicate with a mobile phone to complete an access process for the mobile phone. On the other hand, WIFI router 100 may communicate with a remote server, such as a cloud server, to send and receive necessary information.

The predetermined space may be configurable. In one embodiment, the predetermined space may be a sphere space having a predetermined radius. In another embodiment, the predetermined space may approximately match the interior space of the vehicle in which the on-board WIFI router is installed. In practice, the predetermined space may vary from one vehicle to another. In other words, the predetermined space may be configured as needed.

Next, the connection determination operation performed by the module 130 will be described in detail with reference to fig. 2A and 2B. Fig. 2A and 2B illustrate two examples in which the allowed access space is configured according to the interior space of the vehicle according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

In fig. 2A and 2B, the solid line boundary 210 represents a top view of the interior space of the vehicle. The interior space here refers to the space within the housing of the vehicle in which passengers (including the driver) can conduct networking activities. In one embodiment, the upper side boundary of the solid line boundary represents a position of a front side of a front windshield of the vehicle, and the lower side boundary of the solid line boundary represents a position of a rear side of a rear windshield of the vehicle. The left and right side boundaries correspond to left and right housing portions of the vehicle, respectively. The dashed

boundaries

220, 230 represent a predetermined space within which access to WIFI routers will be allowed. The solid dots in each of fig. 2A and 2B represent the location of the WIFI router.

In fig. 2A, the predetermined space is a sphere having a center at the center of the interior space of the vehicle and a sphere radius R, as indicated by a dotted-line boundary 220. As shown in the solid point, the WIFI router is located at the center of the sphere. For example, a WIFI router is installed at a position between two seats in front of the vehicle. In this case, the sphere radius R may be about half the width of the vehicle body. Note that the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and the sphere radius R may be any suitable value.

Next, two scenarios in which WIFI router 100 performs operations will be described.

In a first scenario, when the passenger gets on the vehicle, his/her mobile phone may be recognized by the recognition module 110 of the WIFI router. When the passenger selects a WIFI router via a user interface on his/her mobile phone, for example, clicking on the identifier of the router with his/her finger, an authentication process is initiated between the mobile phone and the WIFI router. During this authentication process, the detection module 120 detects a pair of physical quantities (D, θ), and outputs (D, θ) to the connection determination module 130. The connection determination module 130 determines whether the location of the mobile phone (i.e., the location determined by (D, θ)) is within a sphere space, for example, as shown in fig. 2A. If so, the connection determination module 130 allows the connection. The connection establishment module 140 then establishes a connection with the mobile phone. Otherwise, the connection determination module 130 rejects the connection, and then the connection establishment module 140 terminates the connection.

In a first scenario, the mobile phone may access the WIFI router without requiring the user of the mobile phone (i.e., the passenger) to enter any passwords. All the user needs to do is to select the WIFI router he/she wishes to connect to. Thus, the operations required to access the WIFI router are simplified. Meanwhile, the safety of the supplier of the WIFI router can be guaranteed.

In a second scenario, when the passenger gets on the vehicle, his/her mobile phone may be recognized by the recognition module 110 of the WIFI router. After the identification process, an authentication process is automatically initiated between the mobile phone and the WIFI router. During this authentication process, the detection module 120 detects a pair of physical quantities (D, θ), and outputs (D, θ) to the connection determination module 130. The connection determination module 130 determines whether the location of the mobile phone (i.e., the location determined by (D, θ)) is within a sphere space, for example, as shown in fig. 2A. If so, the connection determination module 130 allows the connection. Then, on the mobile phone side, a display such as "do you want to connect to WIFI? "and the like. For example, such a pop-up window may include the above-described query and two soft buttons, i.e., a YES button and a NO button for user selection. If a positive response is received from the user, i.e. the YES button is pressed, the connection establishing module 140 establishes a connection with the mobile phone. Conversely, if a negative response is received from the user, i.e., the NO button is pressed, the connection establishment module 140 terminates the connection.

The pop-up window on the mobile phone mentioned here can be implemented, for example, by an application installed on the mobile phone. In one example, the application pushes the pop-up window in response to receiving an authentication response from the WIFI router. The authentication response indicates that the WIFI router allows connection.

In this second scenario, the mobile phone may also access the WIFI router without requiring the user of the mobile phone to type any password. All the user needs to do is click on YES or NO button by pushing a query to the user asking if the user wishes to connect to the router. Thus, the operations required to access the WIFI router are further simplified. Meanwhile, the safety of the supplier of the WIFI router can be guaranteed.

In both the first and second scenarios, only one action from the user, i.e., clicking on the identifier of the desired router, or clicking on a soft button, is required in order to access the WIFI router. In other words, a one-click WIFI connection in the vehicle is enabled.

Note that the present disclosure is not limited to the above two contexts. Other communication scenarios between the WIFI router and the mobile handset are conceivable.

Also note that for the example of fig. 2A, there is no requirement for the angle of arrival θ when determining whether to allow access to the router. That is, whatever the angle of arrival θ, as long as the distance D is less than the sphere radius R, then the connection is allowed. In other words, in this particular case, the detection module 120 may not detect the angle of arrival θ, and the connection determination module 130 may make the determination based only on the distance D.

In fig. 2B, the predetermined space is a rectangular parallelepiped space approximately matching the interior space of the vehicle, as indicated by a dotted line boundary 230. As shown in the solid point, the WIFI router is installed at an intermediate position on the front side of the interior space of the vehicle. In practice, the dotted boundary 230 indicates a horizontal sectional view of the predetermined space. The rectangular solid space has a height in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the paper. Such a height will approximately match the height of the vehicle body, i.e. the height from the bottom to the ceiling of the vehicle. Such a height may be, for example, the height of the vehicle body ± 10 cm.

The predetermined space shown in fig. 2B may be represented by a set of polar coordinates of some or all of the points that constitute the boundary of the space. The pole of the polar coordinate would be the location of the WIFI router. Taking the points P1, P2 as an example, each of the points P1, P2 is located at a boundary of a predetermined space, and their polar coordinate representations may be (D), respectively₁,θ₁) And (D)₂,θ₂). By using the above-mentioned set of polar coordinates, a predetermined space can be defined. The set of polar coordinates may be generated in advance by measuring the size of the interior space of the vehicle, and may be stored in advance in the memory of the WIFI router. The stored set of polar coordinates may be used for determination by module 130. Incidentally, the sphere radius R may be generated and stored in a similar manner.

By using a predetermined space as shown in fig. 2B, a mobile phone at an arbitrary position within the vehicle can access the WIFI router. For example, even if a mobile phone located in front of a vehicle is nearby, it cannot access a WIFI router. This is mainly because the arrival angle θ of the mobile phone located in front of the vehicle is outside the allowable range. Also, a mobile phone located behind the vehicle cannot access the WIFI router. This is mainly because the distance D of the mobile phone located behind the vehicle is outside the allowable range. In addition, as mentioned previously, the distance D takes into account the effect of the obstacle. Thus, if the mobile phone is outside the vehicle, i.e. the housing of the vehicle will be between the mobile phone and the router, the mobile phone will more likely be denied a connection. This is primarily because the distance D determined by the module 120 will be much longer than the actual physical distance between the mobile phone and the router.

Note that, although in fig. 2B, the predetermined space is shown to be slightly larger than the interior space of the vehicle, the predetermined space may be just equal to or slightly smaller than the interior space of the vehicle. In practice, the range of the predetermined space may have a certain amount of deviation, for example ± 10cm, with respect to the interior space of the vehicle as indicated by the solid line boundary.

Both scenarios mentioned above apply to the case of fig. 2B. That is, by using the predetermined space of fig. 2B, it is also possible to simplify operations required to access the WIFI router, and at the same time, it is also possible to secure the security of the provider of the WIFI router.

The predetermined space of fig. 2B seems to be preferable in some cases, compared to fig. 2A. For example, if the mobile phone is placed on a resting table at the front-most end of the vehicle interior space, the networking capability of the mobile phone may still be ensured by using the predetermined space of fig. 2B.

Note that the placement position of the WIFI router is not limited to the positions shown in fig. 2A and 2B. The WIFI router may be placed anywhere within the vehicle, for example, at the upper left or right corners of the rectangular boundary 210, etc. As the location of the WIFI router changes, the predetermined space may or may not change. For example, in the case of fig. 2A, the predetermined space may change when the location of the WIFI router changes. For another example, in the case of fig. 2B, the predetermined space may not change, and the polar coordinate representation of the predetermined space may change accordingly.

Note that the examples of the predetermined space as shown in fig. 2A and 2B are merely exemplary. The present disclosure is not limited to these examples. For example, the predetermined space may be a spherical space, a cubic space, or even an irregular solid space.

The predetermined space may be changed as necessary. Such alteration may be accomplished by modifying stored data defining the predetermined space, such as the sphere radius R, polar coordinate set, and the like. Alternatively, the predetermined space may be disabled. For example, when a vehicle is driven to a suburban area and a party is to be held near the vehicle, the predetermined space may be disabled and then the coverage of the WIFI router may be as large as possible.

The method performed by in-vehicle WIFI router 100 will be described in detail below. Fig. 3 illustrates a flow chart showing a method 300 for use in a WIFI router, according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

The steps of the methods presented below are intended to be illustrative. In some embodiments, the method may be implemented with one or more additional steps not described and/or without one or more of the steps discussed. Additionally, the order of the steps of the method illustrated in fig. 3 and described below is not intended to be limiting. In some embodiments, the methods may be implemented in one or more processing devices (e.g., a digital processor, an analog processor, a digital circuit designed to process information, an analog circuit designed to process information, a state machine, and/or other mechanisms for electronically processing information). One or more processing devices may include one or more modules that perform some or all of the steps of a method in response to instructions stored electronically on an electronic storage medium. The one or more processing modules may include one or more devices configured through hardware, firmware, and/or software to be specifically designed to perform one or more steps of a method.

The method 300 begins at step 302 where the identification module 110 identifies a mobile phone at step 302. In one embodiment, one passenger gets on the vehicle and then the WIFI router installed on the vehicle will discover the mobile phone carried by the passenger.

At step 304, the detection module 120 determines a pair of physical quantities (D, θ). The pair of physical quantities (D, θ) represents the spatial position of the mobile phone relative to the WIFI router. The methods for determining such physical quantities have been described in detail previously.

At step 306, the connection determination module 130 determines whether the position decided by (D, θ) is within a predetermined space. If so, then at step 308, the connection determination module 130 allows connection with the mobile phone. Otherwise, at step 312, the connection determination module 130 denies the connection and then the connection establishment module 140 terminates the connection.

In the case shown in fig. 2A, at step 306, the connection determination module 130 determines whether the position determined by (D, θ) is within the sphere space 220. If so, then the connection is allowed. Otherwise, the connection is terminated. In the case shown in fig. 2B, at step 306, the connection determination module 130 determines whether the position decided by (D, θ) is within the rectangular solid space 230. If so, then the connection is allowed. Otherwise, the connection is terminated. Thus, a passenger in the vehicle can enjoy the networking services provided by the WIFI router without having to enter any password into his/her mobile phone. Meanwhile, even if anyone outside the vehicle can see the WIFI router on his mobile phone, he cannot access the WIFI router.

If the connection is allowed at step 308, the connection establishment module 140 establishes a connection with the mobile phone at step 310. As previously described, the connection establishment module 140 may establish a connection with the mobile phone immediately after the connection is allowed. Alternatively, the connection establishment module 140 may establish a connection with the mobile phone after receiving a user confirmation indicating that the user of the mobile phone wishes to connect with the router.

At step 310, the connection establishment module 140 also saves the unique identifier of the mobile phone in memory if the connection is established. The unique identifier of the mobile phone may be the MAC address, unique serial number or other unique indicia of the mobile phone. The memory for holding the unique identifier may be a local memory at the WIFI router. By saving the unique identifier in local memory, the user of the mobile phone can automatically access the WIFI router without any action when he/she is riding the same vehicle a second time. The memory for holding the unique identifier may be a remote memory at a remote server. The remote server may share such identifier information among multiple vehicles, such as a fleet of vehicles. As a result, if the user of the mobile phone accesses a WIFI router on one vehicle in the fleet, he/she can automatically access the WIFI router without any action when he/she next rides another vehicle in the fleet. The memory may hold such identifier information in a long-term or short-term manner.

Note that step 306 may be performed periodically so that the connection may be terminated when the passenger leaves the predetermined space. For example, the connection may be terminated automatically when the passenger gets off the vehicle.

In one embodiment, a routing system is provided that includes the WIFI router described above and the mobile phone described above. After the WIFI router allows the connection, the mobile phone may send a query to its user to confirm whether the user wishes to connect with the WIFI router. As previously described, such query transmission may be accomplished by the mobile phone using a locally installed application, for example. Implementations are not so limited. The pop-up window form of the query is exemplary, and the disclosure is not limited thereto. The query may be delivered to the user in various ways, such as via images, audio, video, and so forth.

In one embodiment, a routing system is provided that includes the WIFI router described above and a remote server. The WIFI router may send/receive information to/from the remote server. And the remote server may receive/transmit information from/to the routing device. The remote server may share information among multiple vehicles. For example, the aforementioned fleet information sharing may be implemented in such routing systems. In addition, the remote server may maintain the received information and perform data analysis. For example, the received information may be information about networking behavior of a plurality of mobile phones, such as one or more of: networking time over a predetermined period of time, average network usage time, etc. The remote server may analyze such information in order to adjust the operating parameters of the WIFI router.

Fig. 4 illustrates a general hardware environment 400 in which the present disclosure is applicable, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

With reference to fig. 4, a computing device 400 will now be described that may be applied to an example of a hardware device of aspects of the present disclosure. Computing device 400 may be any machine configured to perform processing and/or computing, and may be, but is not limited to, a workstation, a server, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a personal data assistant, a smart phone, an on-board computer, or any combination thereof. The aforementioned router apparatus 100 may be implemented, in whole or at least in part, by a computing device 400 or similar device or system.

Computing device 400 may include elements capable of connecting to bus 402 or communicating with bus 302 via one or more interfaces. For example, computing device 400 may include a bus 402, one or more processors 404, one or more input devices 406, and one or more output devices 408. The one or more processors 404 may be any kind of processor and may include, but are not limited to, one or more general purpose processors and/or one or more special purpose processors (such as special purpose processing chips). Input device 406 may be any kind of device capable of inputting information to a computing device and may include, but is not limited to, a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen, a microphone, and/or a remote control. Output device 408 may be any variety of device capable of presenting information and may include, but is not limited to, a display, speakers, video/audio output terminals, vibrators, and/or a printer. Computing device 400 may also include or be connected with a non-transitory storage device 410, which non-transitory storage device 410 may be any storage device that is non-transitory and that may enable data storage, and may include, but is not limited to, a disk drive, an optical storage device, solid state memory, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape or any other magnetic medium, a compact disk or any other optical medium, a ROM (read only memory), a RAM (random access memory), a cache memory, and/or any other memory chip or cartridge, and/or any other medium from which a computer may read data, instructions, and/or code. Non-transitory storage device 410 may be detachable from the interface. Non-transitory storage device 410 may have a memory for storing dataData/instructions/code for the methods and steps described above. Computing device 400 may also include a communication device 412. The communication device 412 may be any kind of device or system capable of communicating with external apparatus and/or with a network, and may include, but is not limited to, a modem, a network card, an infrared communication device, wireless communication equipment, and/or a device such as bluetooth^TMDevices, 1302.11 devices, WiFi devices, WiMax devices, cellular communications facilities, and the like.

When the computing device 400 is used as an in-vehicle device, it may also be connected to external devices, for example, a GPS receiver, sensors such as acceleration sensors, wheel speed sensors, gyroscopes, etc. for sensing different environmental data. In this manner, the computing device 400 may, for example, receive location data and sensor data indicative of a driving condition of the vehicle. When the computing device 400 is used as an in-vehicle device, it may also be connected to other facilities for controlling the travel and operation of the vehicle (such as an engine system, a wiper, an anti-lock brake system, etc.).

Further, non-transitory storage device 410 may have map information and software elements such that processor 404 may perform route navigation processing. Further, the output device 406 may include a display for displaying a map, a position marker of the vehicle, and an image indicating the driving condition of the vehicle. The output device 406 may also include a speaker or headphone interface for audio navigation.

The bus 402 may include, but is not limited to, an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, an enhanced ISA (eisa) bus, a Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus. In particular, for in-vehicle devices, the bus 402 may also include a Controller Area Network (CAN) bus or other architecture designed for use in automotive applications.

Computing device 400 may also include a working memory 414, which working memory 414 may be any type of working memory capable of storing instructions and/or data useful to the operation of processor 404 and may include, but is not limited to, random access memory and/or read only memory devices.

Software elements may reside in the working memory 414 including, but not limited to, an operating system 416, one or more application programs 418, drivers, and/or other data and code. Instructions for performing the above-described methods and steps may be included in one or more applications 418, and the above-described elements of the routing device 100 may be implemented by the processor 404 reading and executing the instructions of the one or more applications 418. More specifically, the identification module 110 of the routing device 100 described above may be implemented, for example, by the processor 404 when executing the application 418 with instructions to perform step 301. The detection module 120 of the routing device 100 described above may be implemented, for example, by the processor 404 when executing the application 418 with instructions to perform step 302. The connection determination module 130 of the routing device 100 described above may be implemented, for example, by the processor 404 when executing the application 418 with instructions to perform

steps

306 and 308. Also, the connection establishment module 140 of the routing device 100 described above may be implemented, for example, by the processor 404 when executing the application 418 with instructions to perform steps 310 and 312. Executable or source code for the instructions of the software elements may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as storage device(s) 410 described above, and may be read into working memory 414, where compilation and/or installation is possible. Executable code or source code for the instructions of the software elements may also be downloaded from a remote location.

From the above embodiments, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that the present disclosure can be implemented by software and necessary hardware, or can be implemented by hardware, firmware, and the like. Based on this understanding, embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented partially in software. The computer software may be stored in a computer readable storage medium such as a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, or flash memory. The computer software includes a series of instructions that cause a computer (e.g., a personal computer, a service station, or a network terminal) to perform a method according to various embodiments of the present disclosure, or a portion thereof.

Having thus described the disclosure, it will be apparent that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the disclosure, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. A method for use in a routing device, comprising:

identifying wireless communication devices in the vicinity of the routing apparatus;

determining a distance between the wireless communication device and the routing apparatus and an angle of arrival of a signal received from the wireless communication device; and

in case the position decided by the determined distance and the determined angle of arrival is within a predetermined space, connection with the wireless communication device is allowed.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined space is configurable.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined space is a sphere space having a predetermined radius.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the routing device is an in-vehicle WIFI router, and wherein the predetermined space approximately matches an interior space of a vehicle in which the in-vehicle WIFI router is installed.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing a connection with the wireless communication device if the connection is allowed; and

in case the location decided by the determined distance and the determined angle of arrival is outside the predetermined space, the connection with the wireless communication device is terminated.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the connection is established in response to a user confirmation indicating that the user of the wireless communication device wishes to connect with the routing apparatus.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the distance is determined from at least one of RSSI, phase and delay of a signal received from a wireless communication device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the angle of arrival is determined from phase differences of signals received by two or more antennas at the routing device.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

in the event that a connection is established, the unique identifier of the wireless communication device is saved to memory.

10. A routing device, comprising: means for performing the steps of the method of any one of claims 1 to 9.

11. A routing device, comprising:

a memory configured to store a series of computer executable instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the series of computer-executable instructions,

wherein the series of computer executable instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps of the method of any of claims 1 to 9.

12. A vehicle or robot characterized by comprising a routing device according to any one of claims 10 to 11.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

14. A routing system, comprising:

the routing device of any one of claims 10 to 11; and

a wireless communication device configured to send a query to a user of the wireless communication device after the connection is allowed to confirm whether the user wishes to connect with the routing apparatus.

15. A routing system, comprising:

the routing device of any one of claims 10 to 11, being mounted on a vehicle and configured to send/receive information to/from a remote server; and

a remote server configured to receive/transmit information from/to the routing device.

16. The routing system of claim 15, wherein the information is a unique identifier of the wireless communication device.

17. The routing system of claim 15, wherein the information is information about networking behavior of the plurality of wireless communication devices.