JP2008180582A - Mobile communication terminal apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a mobile communication terminal for performing guidance to destinations through the use of a GPS receiver and having low total electric power consumption. <P>SOLUTION: A control part 8 of the mobile communication terminal 101 receives incoming radio waves from base stations 201 at a base station radio wave transmission/reception part 2, measures the position of a present location on the basis of a base station present location positioning part 3 having low power consumption when incoming radio waves are received from base stations at some distance from a destination, and measures the position of a present location on the basis of a GPS present location positioning part 6 having high positioning accuracy when incoming radio waves are received from base stations in the vicinity of the destination. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal such as a mobile phone provided with a current location positioning means, and more particularly to a mobile communication terminal provided with two positioning means for positioning based on base station information and GPS information.

  Conventionally, a communication terminal equipped with a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver performs positioning of the current location by periodically receiving incoming radio waves from GPS satellites. However, positioning using GPS information has a problem that power consumption is larger than positioning using base station information.

In the mobile communication terminal and the position detection method described in Patent Document 1, the base station current position positioning unit positions the current position of the mobile communication terminal from the incoming radio wave from the base station. When the positioning error of the current position obtained by the base station current position positioning unit exceeds the reference, the GPS current position positioning unit positions the current position of the mobile communication terminal from the incoming radio wave from the GPS satellite. If the positioning error of the current location obtained by the GPS current location positioning unit exceeds the reference, the positioning accuracy analysis unit combines the current location obtained by the base station ranging positioning unit and the current location obtained by the GPS ranging positioning unit. In addition, a new position within a range where positioning errors overlap is calculated and set as an appropriate current location.

Moreover, in the mobile body position reporting device described in Patent Document 2, a positioning execution unit that measures the current location based on an incoming radio wave from a GPS satellite and a predetermined positioning interval are stored based on the work state of the positioning target. Positioning interval storage means and positioning control means for executing positioning at a predetermined positioning interval are provided, and the positioning interval is set according to the work state of the positioning target to reduce useless positioning operation.

JP 2002-320254 A (stages 0093 to 0126, FIG. 6) JP 2004-48473 A (stages 0016 to 0037, FIG. 1)

  However, in the conventional mobile communication terminal of Patent Document 1 and its position detection method, even if the distance between the current location of the mobile communication terminal and the destination is long and positioning accuracy may be low, When the positioning accuracy of the current location obtained by the station ranging and positioning unit is not good, the current location of the mobile communication terminal is measured by the GPS ranging and positioning unit, so there is a problem that power consumption is not sufficiently reduced. It was.

Further, in the mobile position reporting device of Patent Document 2, even if the positioning interval is set and the useless positioning operation is reduced, the GPS satellite can be used even when the distance between the current location of the mobile communication terminal and the destination is long. There is a problem that power consumption is not sufficiently reduced because positioning is performed by the incoming radio waves from.

    The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and is a mobile communication terminal that uses a GPS receiver to guide to a destination, and has a low total power consumption. It is intended to provide.

A mobile communication terminal according to the present invention includes a first positioning means for positioning a current position by radio waves arriving from a base station, a second positioning means for positioning a current position by radio waves arriving from a GPS satellite, When it is determined that the distance to the destination is far based on the switching information, the current position is determined by the first positioning means, and when the distance to the destination is determined to be close, the current position is determined by the second positioning means. Positioning control means for switching to perform positioning is provided.

  According to the present invention, the mobile communication terminal measures the current position based on the first positioning means with low power consumption when it is far from the destination, and the second positioning means with high positioning accuracy when approaching the destination. By measuring the current position based on the above, total power consumption can be reduced.

Hereinafter, various embodiments of a mobile communication terminal according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of mobile communication terminal 101 in the first embodiment. In FIG. 1, a mobile communication terminal 101 includes a base station radio wave transmitting / receiving antenna 1 that receives an incoming radio wave from a base station 201 and a base station radio wave that communicates with the base station via the base station radio wave transmitting / receiving antenna 1. The transmitter / receiver 2 and the base station current location positioning unit 3 as a first positioning means for calculating the current location of the mobile communication terminal 101 from the base station data obtained from the base station radio wave transmitter / receiver 2 are provided.

The mobile communication terminal 101 includes a GPS radio wave receiving antenna 4 that receives incoming radio waves from the GPS satellite 301, a GPS radio wave receiving unit 5 that communicates with the GPS satellites via the GPS radio wave receiving antenna 4, A GPS current location positioning unit 6 as second positioning means for calculating the current location of the mobile communication terminal 101 from GPS data obtained from the GPS radio wave receiving unit 5;

Furthermore, the mobile communication terminal 101 includes a display 7 that displays various information to the user, a control unit 8 that controls the entire mobile communication terminal 101, a storage unit 9 that includes a semiconductor memory, an alarm, and the like. A speaker 10 for outputting a sound, an operation unit 11 operated by a user, a destination setting processing unit 12 for providing a function related to destination setting, a timer processing unit 13 for measuring time, a destination and a moving body A distance calculation unit 14 for calculating the distance from the current location of the communication terminal 101 and an alarm notification processing unit 15 for notifying by an alarm when arriving at the destination are provided.

  Further, the control unit 8 serves as a positioning control unit when positioning the current position, based on the positioning unit switching information preset by the destination setting processing unit 12 via the operation unit 11, based on the base station current location positioning unit. 3 or the GPS current position positioning unit 6 is used to control which position positioning means is used for positioning.

On the other hand, the base station 201 is provided with a server wireless unit 16 that communicates with the mobile communication terminal 101, a server control unit 17 that controls the entire server, and a server storage unit 18 that includes a semiconductor memory or the like. The server storage unit 18 stores base station location information including information on the position of the base station, the range where radio waves reach, and the like.

  Next, the operation of mobile communication terminal 101 in the first embodiment will be described according to the flowchart of FIG. First, in the mobile communication terminal 101, the control unit 8 causes the destination setting processing unit 12 to display information necessary for destination setting on the display 7. Based on the displayed information, the user operates the operation unit 11 to set the destination A (step 201).

When the destination is set, the control unit 8 downloads and acquires the base station location information stored in the server storage unit 18 from the base station 201 via the base station radio wave transmission / reception unit 2 (step 202). . The base station location information includes information regarding the position of the base station, the range of radio waves, and the like.

From the base station location information, the control unit 8 uses the destination setting processing unit 12 to extract one or more base stations (referred to as a target base station group) that cover an area around the destination. The area around the destination at this time is, for example, an area inside a circle drawn with a defined radius centered on the destination. After the extraction, the control unit 8 stores information on the target base station group in the storage unit 9 (step 203).

  Next, the control unit 8 receives the incoming radio wave from the base station by the base station radio wave transmission / reception unit 2 via the base station radio wave transmission / reception antenna 1 (step 204). The control unit 8 determines whether or not the received incoming radio wave is an incoming radio wave from the target base station group stored in the storage unit 9 by the base station radio wave transmitting / receiving unit 2 (step 205).

  When the determination result in step 205 is “No”, as shown in FIG. 3, the mobile communication terminal 101 receives incoming radio waves from a plurality (three or more) of base stations 201, 202, 203,. Then, the control unit 8 calculates the current location of the mobile communication terminal 101 from each propagation time of the incoming radio wave by the base station current location positioning unit 3 (step 206). When incoming radio waves from a plurality of base stations cannot be received, the location of the base station having the strongest electric field is set as the current location of the mobile communication terminal 101.

Subsequently, the control unit 8 calculates a linear distance between the current location and the destination of the mobile communication terminal 101 by the distance calculation unit 14 and displays the calculation result on the display 7 (step 207).

After the distance to the destination is displayed, the control unit 8 starts measuring a predetermined time by the timer processing unit 13 in order to wait for the time until the next positioning is performed (step 208). When a predetermined time set in advance and stored in the storage unit has elapsed, the control unit 8 ends the measurement by the timer processing unit 13 (step 209) and returns to step 204. The operation from step 204 to step 209 is repeated until the mobile communication terminal 101 enters the area where the radio waves of the target base station groups 401, 402, 403,.

As shown in FIG. 4, when the mobile communication terminal 101 enters the area where the target base station group 401, 402, 403,... Reaches, and the determination result in step 205 is “Yes”, the control unit 8 switches the current location positioning means from the base station current location positioning unit 3 to the GPS current location positioning unit 6, receives the incoming radio wave from the GPS satellite by the GPS radio wave receiving unit 5 via the GPS radio wave receiving antenna 4 (step 210), The current location is calculated by the GPS current location measurement unit 5 (step 211).

Next, the control unit 8 uses the distance calculation unit 14 to calculate the distance between the current location and the destination of the mobile communication terminal 101 calculated by the GPS current location measurement unit 5 (step 212). The control unit 8 determines whether or not the distance calculated by the distance calculation unit 14 is equal to or less than a predetermined value that is set in advance and stored in the storage unit (step 213).

  When the determination result in step 213 is “No”, the control unit 8 displays the result calculated by the distance calculation unit 14 on the display 7 (step 214). After the distance to the destination is displayed, the timer processing unit 13 starts measuring a predetermined time in order to wait for the time until the next positioning is performed (step 215). When a predetermined time set in advance and stored in the storage unit has elapsed, the control unit 8 ends the measurement by the timer processing unit 13 (step 216) and returns to step 210. The operations from step 210 to step 216 are repeated until the distance calculated by the distance calculation unit 14 is equal to or less than the specified value.

On the other hand, when the determination result in step 213 is “Yes”, the control unit 8 determines that the mobile communication terminal 101 has arrived at the destination, and notifies the alarm notification processing unit 15 with an alarm through the speaker 10. (Step 217).

  As described above, in the first embodiment, the mobile communication terminal 101 enters the area where the radio waves of the target base station groups 401, 402, 403,... Reach and the incoming radio waves received by the base station radio wave transmitting / receiving unit 2 are received. When receiving an incoming radio wave from any one of the target base station groups 401, 402, 403,..., The control unit 8 switches the current location positioning means from the base station current location positioning unit 3 to the GPS current location positioning unit 6. Therefore, when the distance is far from the destination, the current position is determined based on the base station current position positioning means with low power consumption, and the current position is determined based on the GPS current position positioning means with high positioning accuracy when approaching the destination. As a result, the total power consumption can be reduced.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
In the mobile communication terminal 101 of the first embodiment, the case where the current location positioning means is switched based on the radio wave information arriving from the target base station group 401, 402, 403,... Is shown in the second embodiment. The case of switching based on the distance information to the destination will be described.

  The configuration in the second embodiment is the same as that in FIG. 1 of the first embodiment, and the description thereof is omitted. The operation of the mobile terminal device 101 according to the second embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, in the mobile communication terminal 101, the control unit 8 causes the destination setting processing unit 12 to display information necessary for destination setting on the display 7. Based on the displayed information, the user operates the operation unit 11 to set the destination A (step 501), and subsequently, a reference for switching the current position positioning means from the base station current position positioning unit 3 to the GPS current position positioning unit 6. A set distance R is set (step 502).

  When the setting is completed, the control unit 8 receives the incoming radio wave from the base station by the base station radio wave transmission / reception unit 2 via the base station radio wave transmission / reception antenna 1 (step 503). The mobile communication terminal 101 receives incoming radio waves from a plurality of (three or more) base stations 201, 202, 203,..., And the control unit 8 moves from each propagation time by the base station current location positioning unit 3. The current location of the body communication terminal 101 is calculated (step 504). When incoming radio waves from a plurality of base stations cannot be received, the location of the base station having the strongest electric field is set as the current location of the mobile communication terminal 101.

  Next, the control unit 8 calculates the linear distance between the current location and the destination of the mobile communication terminal 101 by the distance calculation unit 14 (step 505), and displays the calculation result on the display 7 (step 506). When the distance to the destination is calculated, the control unit 8 determines whether or not the calculation result is equal to or less than the set distance R (step 507).

  If the determination result in step 507 is “No”, as shown in FIG. 6, the mobile communication terminal 101 is outside the destination peripheral area inside the circle with the set distance R as the radius, and the next positioning is performed. In order to wait for the time until implementation, the control unit 8 starts measuring a predetermined time by the timer processing unit 13 (step 508). When a predetermined time set in advance and stored in the storage unit has elapsed, the control unit 8 ends the measurement by the timer processing unit 13 (step 509) and returns to step 503. The operation from step 503 to step 509 is repeated until the distance to the destination becomes equal to or less than the set distance R.

  As shown in FIG. 7, when the distance to the destination of the mobile communication terminal 101 is equal to or less than the set distance R and the determination result in step 507 is “Yes”, the control unit 8 The station current location unit 3 switches to the GPS current location unit 6 and the GPS radio wave receiving unit 5 receives the incoming radio wave from the GPS satellite via the GPS radio wave receiving antenna 4 (step 510). Is calculated (step 511).

  The operations after step 512 are the same as the operations after step 212 of the first embodiment, and the description thereof is omitted.

As described above, in the second embodiment, when the distance to the destination of the mobile communication terminal 101 is equal to or less than the predetermined distance R set in advance, the control unit 8 sets the current position positioning means as the base station current position positioning unit. Since the GPS current location positioning unit 6 is switched from 3 to the GPS current location positioning unit, the current location is determined based on the base station current location positioning unit with low power consumption when it is far from the destination, and a high-precision positioning is required. Then, it is possible to select an arbitrary distance and measure the current position based on the GPS current position measuring unit with high positioning accuracy, and control the reduction of the total power consumption.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of Embodiment 1 of the mobile communication terminal which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart figure which shows the operation | movement procedure of Embodiment 1 of the mobile communication terminal which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows the reception state before the switching of the present location positioning means in Embodiment 1 of the mobile communication terminal which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows the receiving state after the switching of the present location positioning means in Embodiment 1 of the mobile communication terminal which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart figure which shows the operation | movement procedure of Embodiment 2 of the mobile communication terminal which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows the reception state before the switching of the present location positioning means in Embodiment 2 of the mobile communication terminal which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows the receiving state after the switching of the present location positioning means in Embodiment 2 of the mobile communication terminal which concerns on this invention.

Explanation of symbols

3 base station current location positioning unit 6 GPS current location positioning unit 8 control means 15 alarm notification processing unit

Claims (4)

A first positioning means for positioning the current position by radio waves coming from the base station;
A second positioning means for positioning the current position by radio waves coming from GPS satellites;
When it is determined that the distance to the destination is long based on the predetermined switching information, the current position is determined by the first positioning means, and when the distance to the destination is determined to be short, the second positioning is performed. A mobile communication terminal device comprising positioning control means for switching so as to position the current location by means.   The switching information is radio wave information arriving from a base station near the destination, and if the radio wave coming from the base station is not from the base station near the predetermined destination, the switching information is sent to the first positioning means. 2. The movement according to claim 1, wherein the current position is measured based on the position, and if the radio wave is from a base station near the predetermined destination, the current position is determined based on the second positioning means. Communication terminal device.   The switching information is the distance information to the destination, and when the distance to the destination is farther than the predetermined distance to the destination, the current position is determined based on the first positioning means, The mobile communication terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the current position is measured based on second positioning means when approaching within a distance to the destination.   The mobile communication terminal apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising alarm notification means for notifying by an alarm when arriving at a destination.

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