JP2004242354A - Position confirming system for moving body, and moving body - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a position confirming system for a moving body, using a simple and easy constitution by utilizing a mobile communication system, without having to construct a large-scale and exclusive system. <P>SOLUTION: When an identification codes are allocated to moving bodies 5a, 5b, and 5c and when base stations 1a, 1b, and 1c receive identification codes radio-transmitted from the moving bodies, its moving body identifying information is transmitted to a central control station 3 together with the identification information of an own station. As a result, the central control station identifies the moving body and the base station positioning in service areas 2a, 2b, and 2c, and the position of an objective moving body is thereby confirmed. The base station radio-transmits the position information of the own station, when a requirement is periodically received or received from the moving body, and the moving body positioning in a communication range of the base station receives the position information of the base station. As a result, the moving body can confirm whether the own station lies in which base station communication range. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a system and a mobile unit for confirming the position of a mobile unit performing wireless communication with a base station based on the communication range of the base station.

  As a method of tracking and confirming the position of a mobile object such as a person, a car, a ship, or the like using wireless communication, a method using a directional antenna or a method using a navigation signal from an artificial satellite (GPS: Global Positioning System) is known.

A method of using a directional antenna is to install antennas having excellent directivity at a plurality of locations, receive radio waves transmitted wirelessly from the moving body with these antennas, and recognize the position of the moving body from the receiving direction. Things.
However, in this method, each directional antenna is provided with a mechanism for changing its installation direction, and the antenna installation direction must be adjusted each time the position of the moving object is recognized, which makes the operation complicated. There was a problem that there was. Furthermore, since radio waves are reflected, scattered, shielded, and the like by obstacles such as structures, it has been difficult to accurately recognize the direction of the moving object from the reception intensity of the antenna.

In addition, the method using GPS is such that a mobile unit receives navigation signals transmitted from a plurality of artificial satellites, and the mobile unit can recognize its own position from transfer information of the received navigation signals. is there.
However, according to this method, if a mobile object is in an environment where navigation signals from artificial satellites do not reach, such as inside a shield such as a building or underground, it is not possible to confirm the position. There was a defect.

Here, mobile communication systems that perform wireless communication with base stations, such as car phones, mobile phones, and pagers, are widely used today, and base stations that cover a predetermined area (communication range) are widely used. Many are installed. Further, in order to make effective use of the frequency, the service area of each base station is reduced, and the use of microcells in which services are provided by a large number of base stations is being promoted. (PHS: personal handy phone system) is being put to practical use.
In the personal handy phone system, each base station covers a very narrow service area with a radius of about several hundred meters at most, and a large number of such base stations are installed not only outdoors but also in buildings and underground malls, It enables communication from mobile phones via base stations.

  As described above, in the conventional mobile object position confirmation system, despite the construction of a dedicated system for position confirmation, the cost increase and the complicated operation due to the installation of the directional antenna, and the navigation signal There was a problem such as restrictions on the reception environment.

  Therefore, the present invention provides a system for confirming the position of a mobile body with a simple configuration without using a mobile communication system such as a PHS, which is being promoted with microcells, without requiring the construction of a large-scale dedicated system. It is intended to be realized.

  In order to achieve the above object, a mobile position locating system according to the present invention has a plurality of base stations each having a wireless communication range, a central control station that identifies each base station, and an identification code. A mobile unit, comprising: a central control station that recognizes the position of the mobile unit in a communication range unit of the base station in a mobile station position confirmation system, wherein the mobile unit includes a transmission unit that wirelessly transmits an identification code; The base station includes a receiving unit that receives a mobile unit identification code wirelessly transmitted, and a transmitting unit that transmits the received mobile unit identification information to the central control station together with the identification information of the own station. It is characterized by.

  Also, a mobile object position confirmation system according to the present invention includes a plurality of base stations each having a wireless communication range, and a mobile object that performs wireless communication with each base station. What is claimed is: 1. A system for confirming a position of a mobile unit which recognizes a position in units of a communication range of a base station, wherein said base station includes transmitting means for wirelessly transmitting position information including at least a place name of the own station, wherein said mobile unit is a base station. , Receiving means for receiving location information including at least a place name, and output means for outputting a place name as position information of the mobile based on the received location information of the base station.

  Further, the mobile object according to the present invention is an antenna that transmits and receives radio waves, a radio receiving unit that receives position information from a base station by radio, and information based on the position information from the base station received by the radio receiving unit. Display means for displaying and outputting, the position information including at least the place name of the base station transmitted from the base station is received by the wireless transmission means via the antenna, and when the carrier performs a position confirmation operation At least a place name is displayed and output by the display unit based on the position information received by the wireless reception unit.

  The present invention is based on the viewpoint that if it is possible to confirm in which communication range (service area) a mobile unit is located, the position of the mobile unit can be confirmed in units of the communication range. Therefore, when using a mobile communication system such as a PHS in which micro-cells are being promoted, the position of the mobile can be confirmed in an area having a radius of about several hundred meters. Even with this level of accuracy, it is possible to confirm, for example, where in the city (how many streets) the mobile carrier is located, and depending on the purpose of use, sufficient accuracy can be obtained. Can be realized.

  That is, in the present invention, an identification code is assigned to a mobile unit, and when the base station receives the identification code wirelessly transmitted from the mobile unit, the base station transmits the mobile unit identification information to the central control station together with its own station identification information. Send. As a result, the central control station can identify the mobile unit and the base station where the mobile unit is located within the communication range, thereby confirming the position of the target mobile unit.

  Further, in the present invention, the base station wirelessly transmits its own location information including at least the place name periodically or when there is a request from the mobile unit, and the mobile unit located within the communication range of the base station is transmitted. This base station position information is received. As a result, the mobile unit can confirm which base station is located within the communication range of which base station by the place name, and by displaying this position information on a display or the like, the mobile unit of the mobile unit can notify the mobile unit of the mobile unit. Can be confirmed by the display of the place name.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the position of a mobile body can be easily confirmed only by making a slight change to a base station using a mobile communication system, and system construction can be realized at low cost. In addition, with the use of micro-cells in mobile communication systems, the accuracy of position confirmation of mobile objects has been improved, and a highly practical system has been realized.

A moving object position confirmation system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show an embodiment in which the position confirmation system according to the present invention is applied to a PHS.
As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of base stations 1a, 1b, 1c are installed at a predetermined interval from each other, and each base station 1a, 1b, 1c has a predetermined service area (communication range) 2a, 2b, 2c. Is set. These service areas 2a, 2b, 2c are set in a relatively narrow range, and when using the PHS as a preferred embodiment, the service areas 2a, 2b, 2c are set in a range of a radius of several hundred meters.

Each of the base stations 1a, 1b, 1c is connected to a central control station 3 via a line 4, and the central control station 3 stores information on the location of each base station 1a, 1b, 1c and its service area in each base station. And is managed in association with the identifier assigned to.
As shown in FIG. 2, each of the mobile units 5a, 5b, and 5c has a communication unit 6 for performing wireless communication with the base stations 1a, 1b, and 1c, an antenna 7 for transmitting and receiving wireless radio waves, and a unique system. And a memory 8 for storing the identification code assigned to.
The mobile units 5a, 5b, and 5c can also be configured by mounting the memory 8 on a mobile phone such as a PHS. In this case, the central control station 3 also has an exchange function and receives data via a base station. The calls from the mobile phones 5a, 5b, 5c are connected to a telephone line.

  Also, a communication means 9 for performing wireless communication with the mobile units 5a, 5b, 5c and communicating with the central control station 3 is provided for each of the base stations 1a, 1b, 1c. And a memory 11 for storing an identifier uniquely assigned on the system.

  In this embodiment, when the person carrying the mobiles 5a, 5b, 5c performs a transmission operation, the communication means 6 reads the mobile identification code from the memory 8 and wirelessly transmits the mobile identification code to the base station. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the mobile unit 5a located in the service area 2b wirelessly transmits a mobile unit identification code to the base station 1b, and the mobile units 5b and 5c located in the service area 2c are transmitted to the base station 1c respectively. The mobile body identification code is wirelessly transmitted.

  In addition, the wireless transmission of the mobile unit identification code to the base station may be performed automatically by setting a timer in the mobile unit every certain period of time, or a request from the central control station 3 that specifies the mobile unit identification code. , The base station may transmit the request and the corresponding mobile unit may respond accordingly. When the mobile unit is configured as a mobile phone, when wireless communication is performed with the base stations 1a, 1b, and 1c, the communication unit 6 reads the mobile unit identification code from the memory 8 and reads the mobile unit identification code. The code may be wirelessly transmitted to the base station together with the call signal.

  The mobile unit identification codes wirelessly transmitted from the mobile units 5a, 5b, 5c are received by the corresponding base stations 1a, 1b, 1c. Then, in the base stations 1a, 1b, and 1c, the communication means 9 reads the identifier of the own station from the memory 11, and transmits the received mobile unit identification code to the central control station 3 together with the base station identifier. The central control station 3 recognizes the position of each mobile unit 5a, 5b, 5c as a service area of a specific base station based on the received base station identifier and the mobile unit identification code. Holds and manages the recognized positions of the moving objects 5a, 5b, and 5c for a certain fixed period.

  Therefore, the user can confirm the desired locations of the mobile units 5a, 5b, and 5c by referring to the central control station 3. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 1, it can be confirmed that the mobile unit 5a is located in the service area 2b of the base station 1b, and that the mobile units 5b and 5c are located in the service area 2c of the base station 1c. it can.

3 and 4 show an embodiment in which the position confirmation system according to the present invention is applied to a PHS.
As shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of base stations 1a, 1b, 1c are installed at a predetermined interval from each other, and each base station 1a, 1b, 1c has a predetermined service area (communication range) 2a, 2b, 2c. Is set.

  As shown in FIG. 4, each of the base stations 1a, 1b, and 1c stores a memory 21 for storing information on an installation position (or an identifier) of the own station as position information, and mobiles 5a, 5b, and 5c. Wireless receiving means 22 for wirelessly receiving a position confirmation request from the mobile terminal, wireless transmitting means 23 for wirelessly transmitting position information to the moving bodies 5a, 5b, 5c, communication control means 24 for controlling transmission and reception of information, And an antenna 10 for transmitting and receiving.

  The mobile units 5a, 5b, and 5c each have a wireless transmitting unit 25 that wirelessly transmits a position confirmation request to the base stations 1a, 1b, and 1c, and a wireless unit that wirelessly receives positional information from the base stations 1a, 1b, and 1c. Receiving means 26, position confirming means 27 for outputting and processing own position information based on received base station position information, output means 28 for displaying and outputting own position information on a display, and antenna 7 for transmitting and receiving radio waves And

  In the present embodiment, when the carrier of the moving bodies 5a, 5b, 5c performs a position confirmation operation, the position confirmation unit 27 wirelessly transmits a position confirmation request from the wireless transmission unit 25. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the mobile unit 5a located in the service area 2b wirelessly transmits a position confirmation request to the base station 1b, and the mobile units 5b and 5c located in the service area 2c send the position confirmation requests to the base station 1c. The confirmation request is transmitted by radio.

The wirelessly transmitted position confirmation request is received by the wireless receiving means 22 of the corresponding base station 1a, 1b, 1c. In response to this request, the communication control means 24 reads out the position information of the own station from the memory 21 and transmits It is transmitted from the transmitting means 23.
Here, in the PHS, a control carrier is set in radio waves transmitted from the base station, and a data packet channel that can be used by a user is prepared in the control carrier. In the present embodiment, position information is carried on this data packet channel and transmitted to the mobiles 5a, 5b, 5c.

  The location information transmitted from the base stations 1a, 1b, 1c is received by the mobiles 5a, 5b, 5c located in the service area. That is, in the above example, the mobile unit 5a located in the service area 2b receives the position information from the base station 1b by its wireless receiving means 26, and the mobile units 5b and 5c located in the service area 2c The position information from 1c is received by each wireless receiving means 26.

  When the mobile unit receives the position information from the base station, the position recognizing unit 27 determines the area where the mobile unit is located based on the installation position (or its identifier) of the base station, and outputs the area to the output unit 28. Is displayed on the display. Here, the position recognizing means 27 has a table for converting into a specific place name, address, etc. based on the information on the installation position of the base station and its service area. (Or its identifier), a specific place name or the like is stored in advance. It is also possible to include a specific place name or the like in the position information transmitted from the base station, and in this case, the above table can be omitted.

  Therefore, the person carrying the moving bodies 5a, 5b, and 5c can confirm his / her location by performing the position confirmation operation. For example, in the above example, it can be confirmed that the mobile unit 5a is located in the service area 2b of the base station 1b, and that the mobile units 5b and 5c are located in the service area 2c of the base station 1c.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show another embodiment in which the position confirmation system according to the present invention is applied to a PHS. Note that the same reference numerals are given to the same parts in the above-described embodiment, and the overlapping description will be omitted.
In the present embodiment, unlike the above-described embodiment, the base stations 1a, 1b, and 1c wirelessly transmit the position information every predetermined period.

For this reason, as shown in FIG. 6, each of the base stations 1a, 1b, and 1c is provided with a timer 29, and the communication control means 24 reads the position information from the memory 21 every period measured by the timer 29. It is read and transmitted from the wireless transmission means 23.
In each of the mobile units 5a, 5b, and 5c, a wireless transmission unit for transmitting a position confirmation request is omitted, and position information periodically transmitted from the base stations 1a, 1b, and 1c is transmitted to a wireless reception unit. Received at 26.

In the present embodiment, when the person carrying the moving object 5a, 5b, 5c performs a position confirmation operation, the position recognizing means 27 determines the name of the place where the moving object is located based on the position information received by the wireless receiving means 26. The output means 28 calculates the location name and displays the location name on the display.
Therefore, the person carrying the moving bodies 5a, 5b, and 5c can confirm his / her location by performing the position confirmation operation. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 5, it can be confirmed that the mobile unit 5a is located in the service area 2b of the base station 1b, and that the mobile units 5b and 5c are located in the service area 2c of the base station 1c. it can.

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a mobile object position confirmation system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a mobile unit and a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is an overall configuration diagram of a mobile object position confirmation system according to another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a mobile unit and a base station according to another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is an overall configuration diagram of a mobile object position confirmation system according to still another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a mobile unit and a base station according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of reference numerals

1a, 1b, 1c ... base station,
2a, 2b, 2c: service area (communication range), 3: central control station,
5a, 5b, 5c: moving body, 6: communication means,
8 ... identification code memory 9 ... communication means 11 ... identifier memory
21: position information memory 24: communication control means
27: position recognition means, 28: output means,

Claims (3)

A plurality of base stations having respective wireless communication ranges, a central control station for identifying each base station, and a mobile unit to which an identification code is assigned, comprising: A position confirmation system for a moving object that is recognized on a communication range basis,
The mobile unit includes a transmission unit that wirelessly transmits an identification code,
The base station includes a receiving unit that receives a mobile unit identification code wirelessly transmitted, and a transmitting unit that transmits the received mobile unit identification information to the central control station together with the identification information of the own station. A position confirmation system for a moving object. A plurality of base stations each having a wireless communication range, and a mobile unit that performs wireless communication with each base station, wherein the mobile unit recognizes its own position in units of the communication range of the base station. A position confirmation system,
The base station includes a transmitting unit that wirelessly transmits position information including at least a place name of the own station,
The mobile unit includes a receiving unit that receives position information including at least a place name from a base station, and an output unit that outputs a place name as position information of the mobile unit based on the received position information of the base station. A position confirmation system for a moving object, characterized in that: An antenna for transmitting and receiving radio waves, a radio receiving unit for receiving radio position information from the base station, and a display unit for displaying and outputting information based on the position information from the base station received by the radio receiving unit,
Position information including at least a place name of the base station transmitted from the base station is received by the wireless transmission means via the antenna, and when a carrier performs a position confirmation operation, the position information received by the wireless reception means A moving body, wherein at least a place name is displayed and output by the display means based on the information.

Images