Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01S—RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
  • G01S1/00—Beacons or beacon systems transmitting signals having a characteristic or characteristics capable of being detected by non-directional receivers and defining directions, positions, or position lines fixed relatively to the beacon transmitters; Receivers co-operating therewith
  • G01S1/02—Beacons or beacon systems transmitting signals having a characteristic or characteristics capable of being detected by non-directional receivers and defining directions, positions, or position lines fixed relatively to the beacon transmitters; Receivers co-operating therewith using radio waves
  • G01S1/68—Marker, boundary, call-sign, or like beacons transmitting signals not carrying directional information
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01S—RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
  • G01S5/00—Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations
  • G01S5/02—Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations using radio waves
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01S—RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
  • G01S5/00—Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations
  • G01S5/0009—Transmission of position information to remote stations
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01S—RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
  • G01S5/00—Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations
  • G01S5/0009—Transmission of position information to remote stations
  • G01S5/0072—Transmission between mobile stations, e.g. anti-collision systems
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01S—RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
  • G01S5/00—Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations
  • G01S5/02—Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations using radio waves
  • G01S5/0257—Hybrid positioning
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W64/00—Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W84/00—Network topologies
  • H04W84/18—Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Definitions

• This invention relates to position determination, and has particular relation to position determination where the Global Positioning System (GPS) is not available.
• GPS Global Positioning System
• Bluetooth is a proposed Radio Frequency (RF) specification for short-range, point-to-multipoint voice and data transfer.
• RF Radio Frequency
• Bluetooth can transmit through solid, non-metal objects. Its nominal link range is from 10 cm to 10 m, but can be extended to 100 m by increasing the transmit power. It is based on a low-cost, short-range radio link, and facilitates ad hoc connections for stationary and mobile communication environments.
• Bluetooth enables portable electronic devices to connect and communicate wirelessly via short-range, ad hoc networks. It is a universal radio interface in the 2.45 GHz frequency band that has gained the support of many wireless and computer equipment manufacturers. In order to function on a worldwide basis, Bluetooth requires a radio frequency that is license-free and open to any radio. The 2.45 GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band satisfies these requirements, although it must cope with interference from other devices which also use the same band. Bluetooth uses shorter data packets and higher hop rate, a combination that makes Bluetooth devices more immune to interference from other ISM devices and other sources of radio frequency.
• ISM Industrial, Scientific and Medical
• Bluetooth technology will be built into hundreds of millions of electronic devices. This would make Bluetooth technology the fastest growing ever. It is estimated that before year 2002, Bluetooth will be a built-in feature in more than 100 million mobile phones and in several million other communication devices, ranging from headsets and portable PCs to desktop computers and notebooks. Bluetooth connects devices to the Internet both on the fixed and mobile infrastructure worldwide.
• Bluetooth will enable users to connect to a wide range of computing and telecommunications devices without the need to buy, carry, or connect cables. It delivers opportunities for rapid communications with access points, ad hoc connections, and in the future, cable replacement, and possibly for automatic, unconscious, connections between devices. Bluetooth's power- efficient radio technology can be used with (see FIG. 1):
• Bluetooth characteristics include:
• TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
• Bluetooth considers data exchange to be a fundamental function. Data exchange can be as simple as pushing a business card from a mobile phone to a PDA or as sophisticated as synchronizing personal information between a PDA and a PC. Bluetooth specifies these applications as well as other data exchange applications. Bluetooth uses the upper layer protocol (object exchange, or "OBEX”) to implement these applications.
• object exchange or "OBEX”
• Bluetooth devices can be either peer-to- peer with each device being equal or between a master and slaves in a piconet configuration.
• a piconet is a small ad hoc network. It starts with two connected devices and may grow to include as many as many as eight devices. All devices in the piconet are synchronized to the master clock and hopping sequence.
• Table 1 is a comparison between Bluetooth and cables:
• Bluetooth devices in places where access to GPS signals or any other means of finding position is prohibitive. Examples of these places include but are not limited to: Building lobbies, basements, inside elevators, inside parking garages, at bus stops, inside trains, inside buses, inside subway stations, etc. These Bluetooth devices will be provided by information about their geographical position by one of the following means:
• FIG. 2 demonstrates SDP client-server interaction.
• the service discovery mechanism provides the means for client application to discover the existence of services provided by server applications as well as the attributes of those services.
• the attributes of a service include the type or class of service offered and the mechanism or protocol information needed to utilize the service.
• the SDP does not provide a mechanism though for utilizing these services.
• the SDP server maintains a list of service records that describe the characteristics of services associated with the server.
• a client may retrieve information from a service record maintained by the SDP server by issuing an SDP request.
• a Bluetooth device or an application associated with the device, decides to use the Position Determination Service, it must open a separate connection to the service provider in order to utilize the service.
• a single Bluetooth device may function as an SDP server and as an SDP client. There is a maximum of one SDP server per Bluetooth device. If multiple applications on a device provide services, an SDP server may act on behalf of those service providers to handle requests for information about the services that they provide. Similarly, multiple client applications may utilize an SDP client to query services on behalf of the client applications.
• the Position Determination Service is an activity undertaken by a device that provides information describing the geographical position of the device. All the information about the service is contained within a single service record.
• the service record consists of a list of service attributes. Each service attribute consists of two components: attribute identity (ID) and attribute value. An attribute ID is used to distinguish each service attribute from other service attributes within a service record.
• the attribute value is a field whose meaning is determined by the attribute ID and by the service class of the service record in which the attribute is contained.
• a service class specifies each of the attributes IDs for the service class and assigns a meaning to the attribute value associated with each attribute ID.
• Position information may consist of: (a) Latitude: 21 bit field; covers the range -180 degrees to + 180 degrees with resolution of 10 meters;
• Bluetooth devices Users have the option of setting up their Bluetooth devices to automatically establish a connection with another Bluetooth device as soon as they are within range. With automatic connection, two Bluetooth devices can exchange position data (latitude, longitude and altitude).
• Bluetooth is not limited to apparatus and methods which strictly comply with the official Bluetooth specification, but generally includes all apparatus and methods which provide information exchange over short-range radio links.
• FIG. 1 is a schematic view of prior art Bluetooth technology.
• FIG. 2 is a block diagram prior art service discovery protocol.
• FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method according to the invention.
• FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a client-server method according to the invention.
• FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of apparatus according to the invention.
• FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method according to the invention.
• a first Bluetooth device (generally mobile) is located (302) within Bluetooth range of a second Bluetooth device (generally fixed). Position information is transmitted (304) from the second Bluetooth device, and is received (306) at the first Bluetooth device. The position of the first Bluetooth device is determined (308) from this information. Since Bluetooth is a short-range technology, the position of the first Bluetooth device may be considered to be the position of the second Bluetooth device.
• Locating (310) a third Bluetooth device (or several third Bluetooth devices) within Bluetooth range of the first Bluetooth device provides additional accuracy.
• Each of the third Bluetooth devices transmits (304) additional position information, which the first Bluetooth device receives (306).
• the position of the first Bluetooth device is then determined using both the position information from the second Bluetooth device and the additional position information from the third Bluetooth device (or devices).
• triangulation may be used to provide even more accuracy.
• a signal is either transmitted or received by the first Bluetooth device, and is measured (312) for signal delay, signal strength, or both. The measurement is then used, in conjunction with the position information and the additional position information, to determine the position of the first Bluetooth device. The measurement may be processed where it is made, or it may be transmitted to another Bluetooth device for processing.
• a poll-response may be used.
• the first Bluetooth device transmits (314) a signal requesting another Bluetooth device to transmit position information.
• the second Bluetooth device receives (316) this signal before it transmits (304), in response to the signal, the position information.
• FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a client-server method according to the invention.
• the first Bluetooth device makes at least one measurement (402) from at least one sensor. This typically is the signal delay or signal strength referred to above, but may be a measurement of any parameter which will assist in positioning.
• the first Bluetooth device transmits (404) this measurement (or these measurements) to the second Bluetooth device, which receives (406) it.
• the second Bluetooth device processes (408) the measurement into position information, and transmits (410) the position information back to the first Bluetooth device, which receives it (412).
• This method is particularly desirable when, as often occurs, the mobile (first) Bluetooth device has limited processing abilities, and even more limited battery power, which is needed to exercise these processing abilities.
• the first Bluetooth device is fixed, and the second Bluetooth device is mobile.
• One or more third Bluetooth devices are located (310) within Bluetooth range of the first Bluetooth device, and the first Bluetooth device transmits (304) position information to all of them. They all receive (306) this information, and determine (308) their position.
• FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of apparatus according to the invention.
• the second Bluetooth device may receive position information from one or more third Bluetooth devices (506), as described above.
• the architecture may be inverted, with the central "mobile station” (504) being the first Bluetooth device (which transmits the position information).
• the peripheral "fixed stations" (502), (506) then become the second and third Bluetooth devices.
• the invention is thus seen to encompass at least three embodiments, namely, a Bluetooth device structured to transmit position information, a Bluetooth device structured to receive position information, and a method for using them together, singly or with other Bluetooth devices.
• a Bluetooth device structured to transmit position information
• a Bluetooth device structured to receive position information
• a method for using them together, singly or with other Bluetooth devices.
• Other embodiments will occur to the ordinarily skilled artisan, and all such embodiments are considered to be within the spirit and scope of this invention.
• This invention is capable of exploitation in industry, and can be made and used, whenever is it desired to locate a position where the Global Positioning System (GPS) is not available.
• GPS Global Positioning System
• the individual components of the apparatus and method shown herein, taken separate and apart from one another, may be entirely conventional, it being their combination that is claimed as the invention.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Radar, Positioning & Navigation (AREA)
• Remote Sensing (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Mobile Radio Communication Systems (AREA)
• Position Fixing By Use Of Radio Waves (AREA)
• Small-Scale Networks (AREA)

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• 2001
  • 2001-02-07 IL IL15108001A patent/IL151080A0/xx unknown
  • 2001-02-07 JP JP2001557237A patent/JP2004500566A/ja active Pending
  • 2001-02-07 CN CN01806316A patent/CN1451216A/zh active Pending
  • 2001-02-07 BR BR0108120-9A patent/BR0108120A/pt not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2001-02-07 KR KR1020027010113A patent/KR20020073537A/ko not_active Ceased
  • 2001-02-07 WO PCT/US2001/003982 patent/WO2001058098A2/en not_active Ceased
  • 2001-02-07 AU AU3491201A patent/AU3491201A/xx active Pending
  • 2001-02-07 CA CA002399730A patent/CA2399730A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2001-02-07 AU AU2001234912A patent/AU2001234912B2/en not_active Ceased
  • 2001-02-07 EP EP01907087A patent/EP1256211A2/de not_active Withdrawn

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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