JP2007140830A - Mobile information terminal, position information monitoring system and position information monitoring method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce a burden on a monitoring side in a monitoring system for position information using a GPS. <P>SOLUTION: A mobile information terminal 10 having a GPS reception mechanism 14 finding the position information of a present location has: a means 11b storing address information of a monitoring terminal communicable with the mobile information terminal 10 itself into a memory 13 of the mobile information terminal 10 itself; a means 11a storing area information showing a specific coordinate range in an electronic map into the memory; a means 11d deciding whether the position information supplied from the GPS reception mechanism corresponds to the area information; and a means 11e transmitting a warning message to the monitoring terminal on the basis of the address information of the memory when the decision shows denial. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a system for grasping individual behavior using GPS (Global Positioning System), and more particularly to a system using a portable information terminal having a GPS receiving function.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a technique for monitoring an individual's location with GPS for the purpose of location management of children and elderly people or business management is known. When using GPS, it is necessary to carry a GPS receiver to the person to be monitored, but considering the convenience of carrying, a technology that adds a GPS reception function to a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone Has been proposed. Such a conventional technique is described in, for example, Patent Document 1 described later.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-133867 discloses a portable terminal that includes a GPS receiver and means for recording time and position data, and a host apparatus that includes means for editing and displaying a movement history based on position data from the terminal. Proposed systems have been proposed.
JP 2001-194177 A

  According to the method described in Patent Document 1, the current location can be grasped remotely by giving the monitoring subject a portable terminal. However, in order to confirm the current location, each time the host device is connected to the host device. An inquiry is required.

  Therefore, for example, in the situation where the inquiry operation by the supervisor is difficult, such as when the guardian of the child to be monitored is on duty, the current location of the subject cannot be frequently confirmed. In particular, when trying to monitor a person who is unaccustomed to going out alone, such as a child or an elderly person, the monitor is further anxious.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of reducing the burden on the monitoring side in a position monitoring system using GPS.

  The portable information terminal according to the present invention is a portable information terminal having a GPS receiving mechanism for obtaining position information of the current location, and stores address information of a monitoring terminal capable of communicating with the own terminal in a memory of the own terminal; Means for storing area information representing a specific coordinate range in the electronic map in the memory; means for determining whether or not the position information supplied from the GPS receiving mechanism corresponds to the area information; Means for transmitting a warning message to the monitoring terminal based on the address information of the memory.

  A position information monitoring system according to the present invention includes a portable information terminal including a GPS receiving mechanism for obtaining position information of a current location, a server device and a monitoring terminal capable of communicating with the portable information terminal, and the portable information terminal includes: Means for transmitting the address information of the monitoring terminal and area information representing a specific coordinate range in the electronic map to the server device, and means for transmitting the position information supplied from the GPS receiving mechanism to the server device. Then, the server device determines whether the address information and the area information from the portable information terminal are stored in the memory of the own device and whether the position information from the portable information terminal corresponds to the area information. And means for transmitting a warning message to the monitoring terminal based on the address information of the memory when the determination is negative.

  According to the present invention, a warning message is automatically distributed to the monitoring terminal when the current location of the portable information terminal carried by the monitoring target departs from the registration area. There is no need to confirm the location. This significantly reduces the burden on the monitoring side.

  FIG. 1 shows a basic configuration of the first embodiment of the present invention. The system 101 of this embodiment includes a mobile phone 10 as a mobile information terminal carried by a monitored individual, a monitoring-side monitoring terminal 20 that can communicate with the mobile phone 10 via a communication network 100 such as the Internet, It is composed of a GPS satellite group 30 that provides positioning data to the telephone 10.

  In the present embodiment, the mobile information terminal and the monitoring terminal are mobile phones that can communicate by telephone call and e-mail, but may be terminals that do not have a telephone function.

  FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the mobile phone 10. The mobile phone 10 has, as its hardware configuration, a CPU 11 as a control device, an input / output device 12 including a key button for input operation and a display for screen display, and storage such as ROM and RAM for storing data A device 13, a GPS receiving mechanism 14 that determines the current location of the terminal based on positioning data from the GPS satellite group 30 and generates position information, and a communication device 15 that performs wireless communication processing for the communication network 100 are provided.

  Further, the mobile phone 10 has a functional configuration indicated by a chain line in the CPU 11 of FIG. That is, the area registration unit 11a, the address registration unit 11b, the position recording unit 11c, the warning determination unit 11d, and the message transmission unit 11e. These functional configurations correspond to operations realized by the CPU 11 executing a program stored in advance in the storage device 13.

  The area registration unit 11a functions to store the coordinate range designated by the input / output device 12 as area information in the storage device 13 for the electronic map developed on the coordinates. As the electronic map, for example, one stored in the storage device 13 in advance is used, or the information is acquired each time using the information distribution service of the communication network 100.

  The address registration unit 11b functions to store an e-mail address used when transmitting a warning message described later to the monitoring terminal 20 from the input / output device 12 in the storage device 13.

  The position recording unit 11c stores the current position information supplied from the GPS receiving mechanism 14 at regular time intervals in the storage device 13 in time series. Each time the position information is supplied, the warning determination unit 11d determines whether the current location is within the registration area. Specifically, it is determined whether or not the coordinates on the electronic map of the supplied position information are within the coordinate range of the area information. If the result is NO, it is assumed that the current location is out of the registration area.

  When the determination result of the warning determination unit 11d is negative, the message transmission unit 11e transmits an email of a warning message indicating that the current location of the terminal is out of the registration area to the monitoring terminal 20 through the communication device 15. This warning message is created in advance and registered in the storage device 13, for example.

  The operation procedure of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3 and the explanatory diagrams of FIGS. First, as advance preparation, area information and address information are registered in the mobile phone 10.

  In registering the area information, an electronic map is displayed on the screen of the mobile phone 10 by a user operation, and the action range of the monitoring subject is designated on the screen via the input / output device 12. As the action range, for example, an area of about several kilometers around the home or an area including a school road can be considered. When this designation is performed, the area registration unit 11a stores data indicating the corresponding coordinate range in the storage device 13. Thereby, area information is registered (FIG. 3: step A1-1, FIG. 4).

  Further, when registering the address information, the mail address of the monitoring terminal 20 that is the destination of the warning message is input by a user operation. The inputted mail address is stored in the storage device 13 as address information by the address registration means 11b (FIG. 3: Step A1-2, FIG. 4).

  After the registration, the cellular phone 10 sequentially stores the position information supplied from the GPS receiving mechanism 14 at regular intervals in the storage device 13 by the position recording unit 11c (FIG. 3: step A2, FIG. 5). At this time, as shown in FIG. 5, by storing the coordinate data in association with the time data, it is possible to record the history of the behavior of the monitoring subject.

  Further, the mobile phone 10 determines whether or not the current location is within the registration area for each recording of the position information by the warning determination means 11d (step A3-1). If the current position is within the area as a result of the determination, it is determined that there is no problem and the process proceeds to the next position information process.

  On the other hand, when it is determined that the current location is out of the registered area, the message transmission unit 11e instructs the communication device 15 to transmit a warning message in order to notify the monitor of the warning. The communication device 15 transmits an e-mail of a warning message addressed to the address information stored in advance in the storage device 13 to the communication network 100 (step A3-2).

  As a result, an e-mail having the contents shown in FIG. 6 is delivered to the monitoring terminal 20. Then, the user of the monitoring terminal 20 confirms the safety of the monitoring target person by sending a call or e-mail to the mobile phone 10.

  According to the first embodiment described above, since the warning message is automatically distributed to the monitoring terminal 20 when the current location of the monitoring target is out of the registration area, the monitor is actively monitored. There is no need to confirm the location. This significantly reduces the burden on the monitoring side.

  FIG. 7 shows the configuration of the second embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 7, the system 102 according to the present embodiment has a configuration in which a server device 40 is connected to a communication network 100 and the server device 40 is interposed between the mobile phone 10 and the monitoring terminal 20. The server device 40 is operated by, for example, a provider that provides an information service using this system.

  FIG. 8 shows configurations of the mobile phone 10 and the server device 40 of the present embodiment. The cellular phone 10 is periodically obtained from the GPS reception mechanism 14 and the registration information transmitting means 11f that transmits the area information and address information input from the input / output device 12 to the server device 40 by the communication device 15 as its functional configuration. Position information transmitting means 11g for transmitting the position information to the server device 40.

  The server device 40 includes a CPU 41, a communication device 45, and a database 43 as a storage device. Further, as a functional configuration, area registration means 41a, address registration means 41b and position recording means 41c for storing area information, address information and position information received from the mobile phone 10 by the communication device 45 in the database 43, and FIG. The mobile phone 10 includes a warning determination unit 41d and a message transmission unit 41e that perform the same functions as the warning determination unit 11d and the message transmission unit 11e.

  The operation procedure of this embodiment will be described with reference to the sequence shown in FIG. First, an electronic map is developed on the mobile phone 10 in order to register the action range of the monitoring subject. Note that an electronic map stored in advance in the storage device 13 of the mobile phone 10 may be used, but here it is acquired from the server device 40.

  When the mobile phone 10 accesses the server device 40 and requests an electronic map, the server device 40 transmits the electronic map data stored in the database 43 to the mobile phone 10 (step S1). At this time, an electronic map published on the Internet may be used instead of the electronic map in the database 43. In this case, the URL of the corresponding site is notified from the server device 40 to the mobile phone 10.

  The cellular phone 10 transmits area information formed based on the acquired electronic map and address information indicating the mail address of the monitoring terminal 20 to the server device 40 (steps S2 and S3). The server device 40 registers the area information and address information received from the mobile phone 10 in the database 43 (step S4).

  After the registration, the mobile phone 10 transmits the position information from the GPS receiving mechanism 14 to the server device 40 (step S5). The server device 40 records the received position information in the database 43 and determines whether or not the current location is within the registration area (step S6). If the current location is within the area, the next position information is awaited on the assumption that there is no problem.

  Here, it is assumed that the person to be monitored acts out of the registration area. When the cellular phone 10 transmits the location information of the current location to the server device 40 (step S7), the server device 40 records it and determines that the current location of the cellular phone 10 is outside the area (step S8). In this case, the server device 40 transmits an e-mail of a warning message to the monitoring terminal 20 using the registered address information (step S9).

  The monitoring terminal 20 receives the email from the server device 40 and displays a warning message (step S10). The monitor who confirmed the warning message operates the monitoring terminal 20 to request the server device 40 to present the behavior history of the monitoring target person (step S11). The request for the action history can be made at an arbitrary time point during monitoring even after the warning message is not received.

  When the server device 40 receives the above request from the monitoring terminal 20, the server device 40 reflects the history of position information as shown in FIG. 5 accumulated in the database 43 on the electronic map and transmits the data to the monitoring terminal 20 (step S12). ). This data is image data in which an image representing a locus based on position information is combined with an electronic map.

  The monitoring terminal 20 receives and displays the data from the server device 40 (step S13). This is shown in FIG. On the illustrated monitoring terminal 20, an electronic map in which a trajectory of movement to the current location is recorded is displayed. The supervisor who has confirmed this confirms the safety of the subject to be monitored who is acting outside the area, for example, by calling the mobile phone 10.

  According to the second embodiment described above, since the server device 40 is interposed between the mobile phone 10 and the monitoring terminal 20, the processing load on the mobile phone 10 is reduced. If the operator of the server device 40 is a security company or the like, it is possible to quickly protect a monitoring target person who acts out of the area. In addition, when the monitoring terminal 20 acquires the locus of the monitoring target from the server device 40, it is possible to estimate the behavior of the monitoring target.

  FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing characteristic operations of the third embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, in addition to monitoring based on a registered area, it is intended to monitor a specific action of a monitoring target in the area.

  The system configuration of the present embodiment may be any of the system 101 shown in FIG. 1 and the system 102 of FIG. 7 using the server device 40. The configuration is preferably implemented by the system 102 using the server device 40.

  A procedure for registering area information in the mobile phone 10 will be described with reference to an explanatory diagram shown in FIG. In the present embodiment, the action range designated on the electronic map is defined as a wide area registration area A, and an area obtained by dividing the wide area registration area A for each predetermined coordinate range is defined as a detailed area a. That is, the wide area registration area A is divided into a plurality of detailed areas a.

  In registering the area information of the person to be monitored, after specifying the wide area registration area A on the electronic map, one of the detailed areas a is specified. The designated detailed area a is registered in the area information together with the wide area registration area A as the detailed registration area a1. The detailed registration area a1 is an area where a long stay of the monitoring subject is predicted, and examples thereof include a school and a home.

  After the registration of the area information and the registration of the address information of the monitoring terminal 20, the monitoring is performed according to the procedure shown in FIG. The following process is a process executed by the mobile phone 10 in the case of the system 101 of FIG. 1 and executed by the server device 40 in the case of the system 102 of FIG.

  First, when the position information from the GPS receiving mechanism 14 is acquired, it is recorded (step C1), and it is determined whether or not the current location is in the wide area registration area A (step C2). As a result of the determination, if the current location is out of the wide area registration area A, for example, a warning message as shown in FIG. 6 is transmitted to the monitoring terminal 20 (step C7).

  If the current location is within the wide area registration area A (step C2: Yes), it is next determined whether the detailed area a corresponding to the current location is the same as the previous one (step C3). If it is different from the previous time, the movement is within the wide area registration area A, and there is no problem, and the process proceeds to the next position information processing.

  On the other hand, if the detailed area “a” of the current location is the same as the previous one (step C3: Yes), “1” is added to the count value in another process for counting the number of times the number is the same (step C4). For the count value, an upper limit value such as “10” or “20” is set in advance. This upper limit value is set as an allowable value for a period during which the monitoring target stays in the same detailed area a.

  When the count process is finished, it is determined whether or not the result has reached the upper limit value (step C5). If the upper limit is reached, whether or not the target detail area a is the same as the previously registered detail registration area a1. Determine (step C6). As a result of the above determination, if the target detailed area a is the same as the detailed registration area a1, it is a long-term stay at a registered school or home, etc., and there is no problem, and processing proceeds to the next location information. .

  In addition, if the target detailed area a is different from the detailed registration area a1, that is, if it is determined that the user stays in a place outside the detailed registration area a1 even in the wide area registration area A, A warning message indicating that the action is unique is transmitted to the monitoring terminal 20 (step C7).

  According to the third embodiment, it is possible to monitor the specific behavior of the monitoring target person in the wide area registration area A. As a result, it is possible to cope with an unexpected situation in the monitoring target person in the area registered as being in the safe zone.

  In the above description, when the monitoring target in the wide registration area A has been out of the detailed registration area a1 for a long period of time, it is determined to be a specific action. There may be. For example, when a movement speed estimated from a plurality of pieces of position information does not correspond to the action of the person to be monitored, such as when a person who moves on foot usually moves by car, it is regarded as a specific action.

  In each of the embodiments described above, the procedure for notifying the monitoring terminal 20 of a warning when the monitoring target is out of the area has been described. However, it is also possible to perform notification when the monitoring target returns to the area thereafter. The procedure will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  When the warning message is transmitted, a flag indicating that it has been transmitted is set in the register (step D1). By setting this flag, it is possible to prevent the same warning message from being repeatedly transmitted to the monitoring terminal 20. In applications that require repeated transmission, the setting of the flag is omitted.

  After transmitting the warning message, the position information from the GPS receiving mechanism 14 is continuously recorded (step D2), and it is determined whether or not the current location is within the registration area (step D3). As a result, if the current location is out of the registered area, the necessity of the warning message is recognized based on the transmitted flag. Here, since the flag is set to be valid and there is no need for transmission, the process proceeds to processing of the next position information without transmitting a warning message.

  On the other hand, if the current location is within the registered area as a result of the determination, an e-mail to the effect that the monitoring target once out of the area has returned to the area is transmitted to the monitoring terminal 20 (step D4). After sending the e-mail, the above flag setting is canceled (step D5). Thereafter, monitoring based on the registration area is performed according to the procedure described in the above embodiment.

  By adding the above procedure, the monitoring side can easily grasp that the monitoring subject has returned to the area. In addition, it is possible to grasp the behavior that the monitoring target person has left the area for a short period only for some reason.

It is a system configuration figure of a 1st embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the mobile telephone in 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement procedure of the mobile telephone in 1st Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of 1st Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of 1st Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of 1st Embodiment. It is a system configuration figure of a 2nd embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the mobile telephone and server apparatus in 2nd Embodiment. It is a sequence diagram of a 2nd embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement procedure of the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of 3rd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement procedure of other embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

100 communication network
101, 102 system
10 Mobile phone
20 Monitoring terminal
30 GPS satellites
40 Server device
11, 41: CPU, 12: I / O device, 13, 43: Storage device, 14: GPS receiver, 15, 45: Communication device
11a, 41a: Area registration means, 11b, 41b: Address registration means, 11c, 41c: Position recording means, 11d, 41d: Warning determination means, 11e, 41e: Message transmission means, 11f: Registration information transmission means, 11g: Position Information transmission means

Claims (15)

A portable information terminal equipped with a GPS receiving mechanism for obtaining location information of the current location,
Means for storing address information of a monitoring terminal capable of communicating with the own terminal in the memory of the own terminal;
Means for storing area information representing a specific coordinate range in the electronic map in the memory;
Means for determining whether or not position information supplied from the GPS receiving mechanism corresponds to the area information;
And a means for transmitting a warning message to the monitoring terminal based on the address information of the memory when the determination is negative. Wide area information representing a coordinate range having a plurality of sections and detailed area information representing a specific section of the wide area information are stored in the memory as the area information,
The mobile information according to claim 1, wherein a warning message is transmitted to the monitoring terminal when position information corresponding to the wide area information and not corresponding to the detailed area is supplied from the GPS receiving mechanism a predetermined number of times. Terminal.   When the position information supplied from the GPS receiving mechanism after transmitting a warning message to the monitoring terminal corresponds to the area information, a message indicating that the current location has returned to the coordinate range of the area information is transmitted to the monitoring terminal. The portable information terminal according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that   A program for causing a computer to function as the portable information terminal according to any one of claims 1 to 3. A portable information terminal having a GPS receiving mechanism for obtaining location information of the current location, a server device and a monitoring terminal capable of communicating with the portable information terminal,
The portable information terminal transmits address information of the monitoring terminal and area information representing a specific coordinate range in the electronic map to the server device, and position information supplied from the GPS receiving mechanism to the server device. Means for transmitting,
The server device stores address information and area information from the portable information terminal in a memory of the device, and determines whether position information from the portable information terminal corresponds to the area information; And a means for transmitting a warning message to the monitoring terminal based on the address information of the memory when the determination is negative. The portable information terminal transmits wide area information representing a coordinate range having a plurality of sections and detailed area information representing a specific section of the wide area information to the server device as the area information,
The server device transmits a warning message to the monitoring terminal when position information corresponding to the wide area information and not corresponding to the detailed area is received from the portable information terminal a predetermined number of times. The location information monitoring system described. The server device
When the position information received from the portable information terminal after transmitting a warning message to the monitoring terminal corresponds to the area information, a message that the current location of the portable information terminal has returned to the coordinate range of the area information is monitored. The position information monitoring system according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the position information monitoring system transmits the information to a terminal. The server device
The position information from the portable information terminal is accumulated in the memory in time series, and an electronic map to which history information based on the accumulated position information is added is transmitted to the monitoring terminal. The position information monitoring system according to any one of the above. A server device capable of communicating with a portable information terminal and a monitoring terminal equipped with a GPS receiving mechanism for obtaining location information of the current location,
Means for receiving address information of the monitoring terminal and area information representing a specific coordinate range in the electronic map from the portable information terminal and storing the information in a memory of the terminal;
Means for receiving the position information obtained by the GPS receiving mechanism from the portable information terminal and determining whether the position information corresponds to the area information;
And a means for transmitting a warning message to the monitoring terminal based on the address information of the memory when the determination is negative. Wide area information representing a coordinate range having a plurality of sections and detailed area information representing a specific section of the wide area information are received from the portable information terminal as the area information,
10. The server device according to claim 9, wherein a warning message is transmitted to the monitoring terminal when position information corresponding to the wide area information and not corresponding to the detailed area is received a predetermined number of times.   When the position information received from the portable information terminal after transmitting a warning message to the monitoring terminal corresponds to the area information, a message that the current location of the portable information terminal has returned to the coordinate range of the area information is monitored. The server device according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the server device is transmitted to a terminal.   12. The position information from the portable information terminal is accumulated in the memory in time series, and an electronic map to which history information based on the accumulated position information is added is transmitted to the monitoring terminal. The server device according to any one of the above.   A program for causing a computer to function as the server device according to any one of claims 9 to 12. A portable information terminal equipped with a GPS receiving mechanism for obtaining location information of the current location,
The address information of the monitoring terminal that can communicate with the own terminal is stored in the memory of the own terminal, the area information representing a specific coordinate range in the electronic map is stored in the memory, and the position information supplied from the GPS receiving mechanism is A position information monitoring method comprising: determining whether or not to correspond to area information, and transmitting a warning message to the monitoring terminal based on the address information of the memory when the determination is negative. In a system comprising a portable information terminal having a GPS receiving mechanism for obtaining location information of the current location, and a server device and a monitoring terminal capable of communicating with the portable information terminal,
The portable information terminal transmits address information of the monitoring terminal and area information representing a specific coordinate range in the electronic map to the server device,
The server device stores address information and area information from the portable information terminal in its own memory,
The portable information terminal transmits the position information supplied from the GPS receiving mechanism to the server device,
The server device determines whether position information from the portable information terminal corresponds to the area information, and transmits a warning message to the monitoring terminal based on the address information of the memory when the determination is negative. A characteristic location information monitoring method.

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