JP2014132711A - Area management server, program, and method for specifying target area from mobile terminal position information based on multiple positioning schemes - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an area management server, etc. for estimating as much exact target area possible even when a plurality of position information about a mobile terminal based on two or more different positioning schemes is obtained.SOLUTION: The present invention has: position information accumulation means in which position information about a mobile terminal is accumulated in correlation with a first or a second positioning scheme; position information classification means for classifying a plurality of position information for each of first or second positioning scheme; same positioning result exclusion means for handling a plurality of positioning results constituting the same position information as one positioning result with regard to a plurality of position information included in a second positioning scheme group; representative point calculation means for calculating a representative point with regard to a plurality of position information included in a first positioning scheme group; and area extraction means for extracting, centering around the representative point, a confidence ellipse area based on a prescribed confidence level value by using the plurality of position information included in the second positioning scheme group based on the same positioning result exclusion means and the plurality of position information included in the first positioning scheme group.

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for specifying a target area from position information of a mobile terminal.

  The wireless communication quality of a mobile terminal in a wireless communication system is greatly affected by the surrounding communication environment such as a shield with the base station. Conventionally, a researcher of a telecommunications carrier had to visit each area in order to measure the quality of wireless communication with a base station. At this time, in order for the communication carrier to manage the wireless communication quality and the position information in association with each other, the accuracy of the position information is extremely important.

  Conventionally, there are various techniques for calculating position information and determining the accuracy of position information.

  There is a technique for accurately determining the current position of a vehicle for a system for calculating the current position (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2). According to this technique, a highly reliable candidate point such as a branch point is calculated by using the traveling direction, travel distance, and road data of the vehicle. There is also a technique for calculating candidate points by further using relative displacement (see, for example, Patent Documents 3 and 4). Furthermore, there is a technique for calculating a candidate point with high reliability based on the map matching based on the determination result of whether or not the vehicle has turned a predetermined angle or more (see, for example, Patent Document 5).

  Further, there is a map matching technique for estimating the current position by measuring the electric field strength from the base station of the mobile phone system a plurality of times and identifying the moving direction of the mobile phone from the smoothed measured electric field strength (for example, patents) Reference 6). According to this technique, the current position is estimated based on electric field intensity data using electric field-coordinate conversion and a moving trace based on the moving direction.

  Furthermore, there is a technique for determining the reliability in GPS (Global Positioning System) positioning and correcting the vehicle position (see, for example, Patent Document 7). According to this technology, the travel distance of a predetermined section obtained by self-contained navigation is compared with the distance of a section corresponding to the predetermined section obtained by GPS, and the reliability of GPS positioning is calculated according to the difference value. .

  Furthermore, there is a technique for determining the reliability of positioning data for a map display device (see, for example, Patent Document 8). According to this technique, the fact that the position at the same reference voltage changes with time due to crustal movement or the like is used. The reliability of a plurality of past positioning data is determined depending on whether or not it is moving in a certain direction along with the change in the acquisition time. Further, the reliability of the newly acquired positioning data is determined depending on whether or not the measured data values in the past match a certain direction.

  Furthermore, there is a technique for displaying the current position of the vehicle on the ring road with certainty even while traveling on the ring road (see, for example, Patent Document 9). According to this technique, the current position is calculated using the link data of the link formed on the ring road and the measured values of the travel distance and traveling direction of the vehicle.

  Further, regarding the position information detection system, there is a technique for displaying the size of a point to be displayed as a size corresponding to the accuracy of the position information when displaying the position information of the mobile terminal on the map screen (for example, patents). Reference 10). According to this technology, position information obtained from a plurality of types of mobile radio communication systems such as a mobile phone network, a wireless LAN, and GPS is used. Then, a correction frequency distribution is created from the weight based on the estimation accuracy of various position information and the frequency distribution of the position information. The average position of this correction frequency distribution is determined as position information of the mobile terminal. Then, the accuracy of the position information is determined based on the correction frequency distribution.

  Furthermore, there is a technique for determining the walking behavior of a pedestrian and estimating the position of the pedestrian using a distance sensor, an orientation sensor, an altitude sensor, or the like (for example, see Patent Document 11).

  According to the techniques described in Patent Documents 1 to 11 described above, it is possible to detect a location where wireless communication quality has deteriorated by managing the positional information obtained by positioning and the wireless communication quality in association with each other. As another technique, there is a technique for estimating a significant position of a user who has a mobile terminal (see, for example, Non-Patent Documents 2 to 4). The “significant position” refers to a position range that is meaningful to the user, such as “the neighborhood of the home and the nearest station”. According to this technology, continuous / discontinuous position information in a mobile terminal is acquired, and clustering is performed based on the proximity of the acquisition times. As a result, the behavior of the user is modeled and traced, and an area range (significant position) with a relatively long stay time is extracted.

  In contrast to the technique described above, there is a technique in which a mobile terminal transmits location information to a server to measure a degradation point (dead zone) of wireless communication quality (see, for example, Patent Documents 12 and 14). According to this technique, when the mobile terminal detects that the mobile terminal is out of the service area of the base station, the mobile terminal performs positioning by the GPS function and stores the position information. Thereafter, when the mobile terminal detects again that it has entered the service area of the base station, it transmits the already stored location information to the server via the network. As a result, the telecommunications carrier that operates the server can collect the location information of the location where the wireless communication quality is degraded.

  There is also a technique for creating an area map based on wireless communication quality (see, for example, Patent Document 13). According to this technique, it is possible to reduce the number / amount of information transmission from the mobile terminal and the network load by changing the range of wireless communication quality transmitted from the mobile terminal to the server according to the type of the communication system. . For example, for a wide area system such as a cellular system, a mobile terminal acquires wireless communication quality and location information when wireless communication quality deteriorates below a predetermined quality. Also, for a narrow area system such as a wireless LAN, when the wireless communication quality exceeds a predetermined quality, the wireless communication quality and position information are acquired. The mobile terminal transmits the acquired wireless communication quality and position information to the server, and the server creates area maps in different communication systems.

  Furthermore, there is a technique for reducing a positioning error by extracting a confidence ellipse area based on a predetermined confidence level value from a plurality of position information (see, for example, Patent Document 16). According to this technique, position information is accumulated for each terminal identifier, and the range of actual positioning points is estimated with a predetermined confidence level from a plurality of position information within the predetermined range among the position information. In addition to being within a predetermined range, position information is classified for each positioning accuracy (for example, “good” or “bad”), and the range of actual positioning points is estimated with a predetermined confidence level for each classification. This is based on the fact that the positioning accuracy is determined to some extent depending on the environment of the positioning location (for example, whether it is outdoor, underground, or in a building).

JP 08-292050 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-334336 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-334367 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-334370 JP 08-334372 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-213948 JP 2003-279362 A JP 2004-144711 A JP 2006-292928 A JP 2009-272742 A JP 2009-229204 A Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-210530 JP 2008-306240 A JP 2010-088074 A JP 2009-284495 A JP 2012-160988 A

“Hybrid Positioning In CDMA Networks, Invitational Workshop on Opportunistic RF Localization for Next Generation Wireless Devices”, [online], [Search January 6, 2011], Internet <URL: http://www.cwins.wpi.edu/ workshop08 / pres / tech_3.pdf> "A User-Centered Location Model, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 2002" Toyama Midori, Hattori Takashi, Kanno Tatsuya, "Learning Significant Positions Using Mobile Phone Positioning Functions", [online], [January 7, 2011], Internet <URL: http: //www.tom .sfc.keio.ac.jp / ~ next / papers / 2005-ipsj.pdf> Shigeki Kurokawa, Hiroyuki Yokoyama, Kazuyoshi Yoshii, Hideki Aso, “Examination of Significant Location Extraction Method from Sparse Location Information History”, 13th Information Theory Learning Theory Workshop (IBIS 2010), [online], [ January 7, 2011], Internet <http://ibisml.org/ibis2010/preview/P4-6.pdf> Introduction to statistics, "9.4 In case of multivariate", [online], [Search January 7, 2011], Internet <URL: http://www.snap-tck.com/room04/c01/stat/stat09 /stat0904.html> "Open Cell ID" http://www.opencellid.org/ Tomoaki Ohtsuki, “Location estimation technology”, [online], “Search on November 6, 2012”, Internet <URL: http://www.ohtsuki.ics.keio.ac.jp/theme/localization.pdf> J. Paek, et al., “Energy-Efficient Positioning for Smartphones using Cell-ID Sequence Matching” MobiSys '11, 2011, [online], [searched on December 17, 2012], Internet <URL: http: // enl. usc.edu/papers/cache/Paek11b.pdf> Impress Japan Co., Ltd., “Can Pocket au AQUOS PHONE IS13SH Basic & Practical Use of Smartphone 150”, Can Series Editor

  According to the techniques described in Patent Documents 12 to 14 described above, an area where radio deterioration of a predetermined threshold or more has occurred in a wide area radio communication system or an area where radio communication can be performed in a narrow area radio communication system is roughly specified. can do.

Here, there are, for example, the following two types of positioning methods implemented in the mobile terminal.
"GPS positioning system": Based on positioning radio waves from satellites,
Positioning error is relatively small “Network positioning method”: Based on communication radio waves from the base station,
Positioning error is relatively large
(Hereafter, it is assumed that position detection technology based on position fingerprint is used.)

  In the “GPS positioning method”, the positioning accuracy is relatively high, and the positioning error is about ˜100 m even in an environment where it is difficult to receive signals from GPS satellites such as indoors of wooden buildings. On the other hand, in the “network positioning”, the feature quantity of the signal at the location acquired by the mobile terminal (connected base station identifier or RSS (Received Signal Strength)) is pattern-matched with the database on the location management server. By doing so, the position is estimated (for example, refer nonpatent literature 7).

There are various techniques for constructing the database of the location management server. The database records, for example, the location information a that is obtained as a result of GPS positioning by a certain terminal A together with the connected base station identifier α (and RSS ₁ ) obtained at that time. When a terminal B that is unable to perform GPS positioning is connected to the base station A, if the positioning is requested by using the connected base station identifier α (and RSS ₁ ′) as a query, the location management server searches the database, The position information A extracted by pattern matching is returned to the terminal B. In this case, the positioning error of the network positioning greatly depends on the base station density and the degree of database enhancement. For example, according to experiments in a total of four environments (places) described in Non-Patent Document 8, the median is about 150 to about 550 m, and the 80% value is about 400 to about 900 m.

  However, according to the techniques described in Patent Documents 12 to 14, the purpose is to acquire position information of a location where wireless communication quality is deteriorated, and how much error is included in the position information. Is extremely difficult to estimate.

  Moreover, according to the technique described in Patent Document 10, for a single positioning, a plurality of pieces of position information obtained from a plurality of types of mobile radio communication systems such as a mobile phone network, a wireless LAN, and a GPS are used. Create a correction frequency distribution. Then, according to the accuracy of the position information based on the corrected frequency distribution, the size of the spot displayed on the map screen is changed to allow the user to understand the relative accuracy.

  Furthermore, according to the technique described in Patent Document 16, a confidence ellipse area based on a predetermined confidence level value is extracted from a plurality of pieces of position information, and an actual positioning location is estimated.

  FIG. 1 is a map showing location information notified from a mobile terminal when radio degradation occurs.

  For a wide area radio communication system, the mobile terminal detects radio degradation (decrease in radio communication quality) equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold. Then, the mobile terminal transmits the location information when the radio degradation has occurred to the “area management server” via the base station. Thereby, in the area management server, the position of the radio degradation of the mobile terminal can be plotted on the map.

  According to FIG. 1, the position of the radio degradation of the mobile terminal that has been positioned is represented by ●. In addition, the number in the ● means an identifier for identifying a positioning result (however, the positioning is not necessarily performed in the order of the number of the identifier). The numbers “x to y” indicate that the positioning results indicated by these identifiers have the same latitude / longitude (.altitude). Moreover, according to FIG. 1, the position of the base station that communicates with the mobile terminal is also represented as base station identifiers A, B, and C.

  According to network positioning, good accuracy cannot be obtained unless a detailed database is constructed (see Non-Patent Document 7, for example). For example, there may be a case where only one piece of position information related to the base station A is registered in the positioning database based on the connection destination base station and the RSS value. The result in this case is one of registered location information regardless of the RSS value.

  Further, according to the experimental results described in Non-Patent Document 8, the network positioning results are quite discrete and the density thereof, although the mobile terminal is positioning while moving along a certain route. Even different places. As described above, in the network positioning, when positioning is performed in the same environment, the same positioning result may occur many times (see FIG. 1).

The following information is associated with the position information notified from the mobile terminal.
Positioning method (GPS positioning method or network positioning method)
Connected base station identifier RSS
Moreover, each positioning result in FIG. 1 is as follows, for example.
Positioning results 1 to 5 (5): GPS positioning method Positioning results 6 to 40 (35): Network positioning

  The reason why the positioning method becomes the network positioning method instead of the GPS positioning method is that the mobile terminal is used in an environment where the radio wave of a GPS satellite such as the inside of a building or an underground mall cannot be sufficiently received. In some cases, the user disables the GPS positioning function (turns off GPS) in the setting menu of the mobile terminal. In particular, in order to reduce the power consumption of the battery of the mobile terminal, it is usually recommended to turn off the GPS (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 9). For example, when using a location search service or a map service, it is considered that there are not a few cases where GPS is turned on only when accurate positioning is required for the user, and GPS is turned off again after the use of the service is completed. In this case, the positioning method is the network positioning method regardless of the use in an environment where the GPS satellite radio wave is received and positioning is possible.

  According to FIG. 1, the position where the radio deterioration exceeding the predetermined threshold is further indicated by ★. Of the total 40 occurrences of radio deterioration above the predetermined threshold, 5 were the cases where GPS was on.

  Here, in order to find a true wireless degradation place, it is ideal that all the positioning results 1 to 40 become places of ★. However, in reality, as shown in FIG. 1, the position information measured is not the same location as the wireless degradation location (★). This is because the positioning error is a factor.

  According to the above-described prior art, it is difficult to specify an actual wireless deterioration area even if wireless deterioration exceeding a predetermined threshold occurs in one area due to the influence of positioning errors.

  In addition, even the techniques described in Patent Documents 1 to 11 and Non-Patent Documents 2 to 3 described above require a plurality of pieces of position information that are continuous in one mobile terminal, and one piece of position information in one positioning. It is not supposed to collect only. According to the technique described in Patent Document 10, a correction frequency distribution cannot be created unless only one position information can be obtained by one positioning. In addition, it is difficult to obtain the weight of each position information calculated based on the estimation accuracy associated with a plurality of pieces of position information obtained from a plurality of types of mobile radio communication systems from the network positioning method. This is because, in the case of network positioning, the estimation accuracy is about 150 to about 550 m as a median value and about 400 to about 900 m as an 80% value, and the deviation is very large.

  FIG. 2 is a map showing a confidence ellipse area based on a predetermined confidence level value from a plurality of pieces of position information of FIG.

  According to the technique described in Patent Document 16, a target area is estimated by collecting and collecting a large number of pieces of position information. However, according to the example of the plurality of position information in FIG. 1 described above, the result of network positioning is greatly affected. That is, the confidence ellipse area is determined at a position as shown in FIG. The confidence ellipse area where the positioning plots are aggregated has deviated from the actual wireless degradation location.

  FIG. 3 is a map showing two areas in which the GPS positioning method and the network positioning method are estimated separately.

  According to FIG. 3, the group of the first position information of the GPS positioning method with good positioning accuracy and the group of the second position information of the network positioning method with poor positioning accuracy are classified, and the area is determined from each position information. Estimated. In this case, the estimated area based on the group of the first position information is quite close to the actual wireless deteriorated place even though the actual wireless deteriorated place is one place. The estimated area based on the group deviates from the actual wireless degradation location. According to the technique described in Patent Document 16, it is assumed that the positioning accuracy is determined based on the environment of the positioning location. That is, it is not assumed that the positioning accuracy changes greatly even at the same place by executing different GPS positioning or network positioning depending on the user's operation.

  Therefore, according to the present invention, even when a plurality of pieces of position information based on two or more different positioning methods are acquired from at least one or more mobile terminals, the target area can be estimated as accurately as possible. An object of the present invention is to provide an area management server, program and method.

According to the present invention, an area management server that identifies a target area based on location information of a mobile terminal,
Position information storage means for storing the first positioning method or the second positioning method in association with the position information of the mobile terminal,
Position information classification means for classifying a plurality of pieces of position information into groups for each of the first or second positioning methods;
For the plurality of position information included in the second positioning method group, the same positioning result exclusion means that handles a plurality of positioning results that are the same position information as one positioning result;
Representative point calculating means for calculating representative points for a plurality of pieces of position information included in the first positioning method group;
Centering on the representative point, a plurality of position information included in the second positioning method group based on the same positioning result exclusion means and a plurality of position information included in the first positioning method group And an area extracting means for extracting a confidence ellipse area based on the confidence level value.

  According to another embodiment of the area management server of the present invention, it is also preferable that the second positioning method has a positioning error larger than that of the first positioning method.

According to another embodiment of the area management server of the present invention,
The first positioning method is a GPS (Global Positioning System) positioning method based on positioning radio waves from satellites,
The second positioning method is also preferably a network positioning method based on communication radio waves from the base station.

  According to another embodiment of the area management server of the present invention, it is also preferable that the position information classification unit classifies a plurality of pieces of position information based on a predetermined position range designated for each positioning method.

According to another embodiment of the area management server of the present invention, the location information storage means further stores the location information in association with the connection destination base station identifier and / or radio quality information of the mobile terminal,
It is also preferable that the location information classifying unit further classifies a plurality of location information for each set (feature amount) of the connected base station identifier and / or the radio quality information.

  According to another embodiment of the area management server of the present invention, it is also preferable that the location information classification means further classifies a plurality of location information for each identifier of the mobile terminal.

  According to another embodiment of the area management server of the present invention, the area extracting means estimates the confidence ellipse area within a range of representative values of a population based on a two-dimensional normal distribution, and the confidence level value is It is also preferable that the probability is that the representative value of the population is included inside the ellipse.

According to another embodiment of the area management server of the present invention,
The area extraction means corrects a plurality of pieces of position information included in the first and second positioning method groups so as to be within the confidence ellipse area,
It is also preferable to further include a map output means for outputting the corrected position information or the heat map based on the position information on the map so as to be clearly shown.

  According to another embodiment of the area management server of the present invention, the location information storage means preferably stores location information of a mobile terminal that has reached a predetermined condition.

According to another embodiment of the area management server of the present invention,
The location information storage means
The connected base station identifier and / or radio quality information of the mobile terminal when the predetermined condition is reached,
The connected base station identifier and / or radio quality information of the mobile terminal at the time of positioning, or
It is also preferable that both of them are accumulated.

According to another embodiment of the area management server of the present invention,
The position information accumulating means is a predetermined condition:
(Trigger 1) When the wireless communication quality falls below a predetermined threshold,
(Trigger 2) When predetermined data communication is executed, or
(Trigger 3) It is also preferable that the location information related to the mobile terminal when the data communication amount in a predetermined period is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold is accumulated.

According to the present invention, an area management program that causes a computer installed in an apparatus to function to identify a target area based on position information of a mobile terminal,
Position information storage means for storing the first positioning method or the second positioning method in association with the position information of the mobile terminal,
Position information classification means for classifying a plurality of pieces of position information into groups for each of the first or second positioning methods;
For the plurality of position information included in the second positioning method group, the same positioning result exclusion means that handles a plurality of positioning results that are the same position information as one positioning result;
Representative point calculating means for calculating representative points for a plurality of pieces of position information included in the first positioning method group;
Centering on the representative point, a plurality of position information included in the second positioning method group based on the same positioning result exclusion means and a plurality of position information included in the first positioning method group The computer is made to function as an area extraction means for extracting a confidence ellipse area based on the confidence level value.

According to the present invention, an area management method for specifying a target area based on position information of a mobile terminal using an apparatus,
The apparatus has a location information storage unit that stores the location information of the mobile terminal in association with the first positioning method or the second positioning method,
A first step of classifying the plurality of pieces of position information into groups for each of the first or second positioning methods;
A second step of handling a plurality of positioning results as the same position information as one positioning result for a plurality of position information included in the second positioning method group;
A third step of calculating representative points for a plurality of pieces of position information included in the first positioning method group;
Centering on the representative point, a plurality of position information included in the second positioning method group based on the same positioning result exclusion means and a plurality of position information included in the first positioning method group And a fourth step of extracting a confidence ellipse area based on the confidence level value.

  According to the area management server, the program and the method of the present invention, even when a plurality of pieces of position information based on two or more different positioning methods are acquired from at least one or more mobile terminals, the target is as accurate as possible. The area can be estimated. In other words, even if the bias of the positioning error in each positioning method is large, the target area as accurate as possible can be estimated by analyzing according to the positioning method.

It is a map showing the positional information notified from the mobile terminal when radio | wireless communication degradation generate | occur | produced. 2 is a map representing a confidence ellipse area based on a predetermined confidence level value from a plurality of pieces of position information of FIG. It is a map showing two areas which estimated the GPS positioning system and the network positioning system separately. It is a system configuration diagram in the present invention. It is a sequence diagram in the present invention. It is a table of the positional information accumulate | stored in the area management server. 7 is a table in which the same position information is excluded from the table of FIG. It is explanatory drawing showing a 2-dimensional normal distribution and the 95% confidence ellipse area of the representative (average) value of a population. It is the map image which superimposed the reliability ellipse area in this invention. It is a functional block diagram of the mobile terminal and area management server of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 4 is a system configuration diagram according to the present invention.

  According to FIG. 4, a plurality of base stations 3 are arranged, and each base station 3 communicates with a mobile terminal 1 located in the service area. All the base stations 3 are connected to the mobile communication network of the communication carrier. The mobile communication network is, for example, a mobile phone network (3G (3rd Generation) or LTE (Long Term Revolution)) that covers a wide area, and the mobile terminal 1 may be, for example, a smartphone or a tablet terminal.

  The communication carrier arranges a plurality of base stations 3 so that their service areas are overlapped so that a dead zone does not occur. However, when a building such as a building is interposed between the mobile terminal and the base station, radio waves are blocked and a dead zone is generated in some areas. As a carrier, we want to detect such dead zones as much as possible.

  In the following description, the “target area” to be specified by the present invention will be described as the “wireless degradation” area in the communication carrier, but it is of course not limited thereto. For example, it can be used to specify various target areas such as a place where a lot of specific applications are used, a place where there is a large amount of data communication, and a place where there is a lot of camera shooting.

  According to FIG. 4, wireless communication quality is represented on a two-dimensional map (area map). The higher the value of the z-axis representing the wireless communication quality, the better the wireless communication quality. According to FIG. 4, the wireless communication quality is represented hierarchically in a pyramid shape with the base station 3 as the center. This indicates that the closer the position of the mobile terminal 1 is to the base station 3, the better the wireless communication quality.

  Further, according to FIG. 4, an area management server (LAS-DB (Location Information and Available System Information DataBase)) 2 storing location information of mobile terminals is connected to the mobile communication network. The area management server 2 can create an area map specifying the target area by receiving position information and wireless communication quality from the mobile terminal 1.

  The mobile terminal 1 such as a smartphone is equipped with a positioning unit and can measure the current position. The positioning unit can use a plurality of different positioning methods, for example, a GPS (Global Positioning System) positioning method and a network positioning method. The positioning unit associates the positioning method with the positioned position information.

  One reason for the different positioning methods is user operation. In many cases, the user usually turns off the power of the GPS positioning unit in order to reduce the power consumption of the battery of the mobile terminal. The position information acquired in this case is a “network positioning method” with low positioning accuracy (large positioning error). On the other hand, when the user uses, for example, a location search service or a map service, the power of the GPS positioning unit is turned on to use the “GPS positioning method” with high positioning accuracy (small positioning error). The position information acquired in this case is “GPS positioning method”.

  Further, the mobile terminal 1 measures the radio communication quality by the radio communication unit for the base station 3. Examples of the wireless communication quality include reception quality, number of retransmissions or data error rate, throughput, and delay time. The reception quality includes, for example, RSS (Received Signal Strength), C / I (carrier to interference wave ratio), and Ec / Io (average energy per PN chip versus total received power spectral density).

  “Good wireless communication quality” is when the received signal strength is high, the signal-to-interference noise ratio is large, the number of retransmissions is small, the data error rate is low, the throughput is high, or the delay time is short.

  “Poor wireless communication quality” is when the received signal strength is low, the signal-to-interference noise ratio is small, the number of retransmissions is large, the data error rate is high, the throughput is low, or the delay time is large.

According to FIG. 4, the mobile terminal 1 activates the positioning unit and stores the position information when the wireless communication quality deteriorates below a predetermined threshold value. Then, the mobile terminal 1 transmits the following information to the area management server 2 at a predetermined timing (for example, when the wireless communication quality returns to a good state or a predetermined time zone).
[Location information, positioning method, wireless communication quality information, supplementary base station information]

  As a communication carrier, by creating an area map as shown in FIG. 4, the wireless communication quality corresponding to the position of the mobile terminal can be grasped, which can be used for facility design and service quality improvement.

  FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram in the present invention.

  According to FIG. 5, it is assumed that the mobile terminal 1 has moved from the service area of the base station 3 to the dead zone.

[S11] The mobile terminal 1 acquires the current position information with a trigger as reaching a predetermined condition. Here, the predetermined conditions include, for example, the following depending on the use of the target area to be extracted.
(Trigger 1) The wireless communication quality is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold (Trigger 2) The predetermined data communication is executed (Trigger 3) The data communication amount in the predetermined period is equal to or higher than the predetermined threshold (Trigger 4) The specified user operation was executed

  According to FIG. 5, the trigger 1 is applied because it is intended to extract a deteriorated portion of the wireless communication quality. The mobile terminal 1 activates the positioning unit and measures the current position when the wireless communication quality becomes a predetermined threshold value or less by entering the dead zone.

  As another use of the target area to be extracted, (trigger 2) is applied when trying to extract a place where a lot of “passing communication” is performed by the mobile game terminal. “Passing communication” refers to a function in which a portable game machine automatically and instantaneously communicates with a game machine of another player that affects the progress of the game using a wireless LAN. When the passing communication is executed, the mobile terminal 1 activates the positioning unit and measures the current position. Also, (trigger 2) is applied when trying to extract a place where a predetermined application is used.

  Furthermore, when trying to extract an area with a large amount of data communication, (trigger 3) is applied.

  Further, as another application of the target area to be extracted, (trigger 4) is applied when trying to extract a place where a lot of specific photographs are taken. The mobile terminal 1 activates the positioning unit and measures the current position when a specific photograph is taken by the camera using the application.

  Here, the mobile terminal 1 further acquires a positioning method (for example, a GPS positioning method / a network positioning method) used for acquiring the position information.

[S12] After that, the mobile terminal 1 further moves and transmits the following information to the area management server 2 at a predetermined timing (for example, when communication with the base station 3 is restored or at a predetermined time zone).
[Location information, positioning method, wireless communication quality information, supplementary base station information]
The wireless communication quality information and the supplementary base station information are either acquired at the occurrence of a trigger, acquired at the time of positioning, or both. In the following, it is assumed that it was acquired at the time of positioning.

[S20] The area management server 2 stores the location information of the mobile terminal in association with the first positioning method or the second positioning method. For example, the following information is stored in the position information storage unit.
[Location information, positioning method, wireless communication quality information, supplementary base station information]
Location information: Latitude / longitude (altitude)
Positioning method: For example, GPS positioning method / network positioning method
Wireless communication quality information: for example, reception strength
Supplementary base station information: Base station identifier of connected base station and adjacent base station
Of course, the positioning method is not limited to two, and may be three or more.

  Here, according to the embodiment of FIG. 5, the location information and the like of the mobile terminal is measured and detected by the mobile terminal and transmitted to the area management server 2. However, the area management server 2 of the present invention is not limited to receiving location information and the like from the mobile terminal 1. That is, the location information of the mobile terminal may be obtained in advance by the communication carrier network.

  Moreover, according to S11 mentioned above, the positioning part of the mobile terminal 1 has acquired the positional information using "GPS positioning system" or "network positioning system". On the other hand, according to another embodiment, the radio base station measures the arrival time and arrival direction information of the radio wave from the mobile phone, and using these information, the service node in the communication carrier network There is also a technique for measuring the position of 1 (see, for example, Patent Document 15). Therefore, the position information of the mobile terminal in the present invention is not limited to that measured by the mobile terminal itself, and the position information measured in the communication carrier network can also be used. In this case, it is not necessary for the mobile terminal 1 to have a positioning unit. In this case, it is also preferable that the positioning trigger is issued from the telecommunications carrier network side, for example, a service node. For this purpose, the service node monitors the communication quality between the base station and the mobile terminal, and triggers that the quality deteriorates below a predetermined threshold. Also in this case, the area management server records the positioning method together with the position information.

If the location information of the mobile terminal is acquired and accumulated by the telecommunications carrier network, the trigger based on the use of the target area is, for example, the following three, except for (Trigger 4) described above: Become.
(Trigger 1) The wireless communication quality has become a predetermined threshold value or less (Trigger 2) The predetermined data communication has been executed (Trigger 3) The data communication amount in the predetermined period has become the predetermined threshold value or more

  FIG. 6 is a table of position information stored in the area management server.

  According to FIG. 6, 40 position information logs are stored together with the used positioning method. For example, for log number 1, latitude / longitude (· altitude) 1 is acquired by “GPS positioning method”, and at the time of positioning, “connect to connected base station A with reception strength 20” and “adjacent base with reception strength 11” Station C "and" adjacent base station B with reception strength 7 "are visible.

  The accumulated location information logs may be collected for each mobile terminal or for each predetermined range. The location information accumulation log shown in FIG. 6 is classified for each mobile terminal.

[S21] The area management server 2 creates groups of a plurality of position information for each predetermined range. Here, the “predetermined range” indicates a four-sided range of several hundred meters to several kilometers. For example, according to FIGS. 1-3, the whole map represents one predetermined range, and represents that 40 positional information is accumulate | stored in it.

In addition, the area management server 2 further classifies the plurality of pieces of position information included in the group into groups for each first or second positioning method. Of course, three or more positioning methods may be classified into three or more groups. Specifically, it is classified into a “GPS positioning method” group and a “network positioning method” group. According to FIG. 6, the classification is as follows.
GPS positioning method group: log number 1-5
Network positioning method group: log number 6-40

Here, as another embodiment, it is also preferable to set different “predetermined ranges” for each positioning method, for example, as follows.
In the case of “GPS positioning”: range from several tens to several hundreds of meters In the case of “network positioning”: range from several hundreds of meters to several kilometers

  According to FIG. 6, the location information is stored in association with the connection destination base station identifier and / or radio quality information of the mobile terminal. In this case, it is also possible to classify a plurality of pieces of position information for each set of connection destination base station identifiers and / or radio quality information (feature quantities). This set (feature amount) may be classified based on the similarity. The position information (40 pieces) included in each predetermined range in FIG. 6 can be classified according to the similarity between the connected base station / adjacent base station and the radio quality information (for example, reception strength). According to FIG. 6, for example, log numbers 1 to 35 and log numbers 36 to 40 are classified into two groups. The log numbers 1 to 35 are classified into log numbers 1 to 5 and log numbers 6 to 35 for each positioning method.

  Furthermore, it is also preferable to classify a plurality of pieces of position information for each mobile terminal identifier. According to FIG. 6, for example, the mobile terminals having the identifier abc012 are collected.

[S22] Next, the area management server 2 handles a plurality of positioning results that are the same position information as a single positioning result for a plurality of pieces of position information included in the second positioning method group. Here, the second positioning method has a positioning error larger than that of the first positioning method. That is, in the case of the GPS positioning method and the network positioning method, the GPS positioning method with a small positioning error corresponds to the first positioning method, and the network positioning method with a large positioning error corresponds to the second positioning method.

  FIG. 7 is a table in which the same position information is excluded from the table of FIG.

  The same position information means that the latitude and longitude (and altitude) are the same between logs. In the case of the network positioning method, since it is based on the positions of a plurality of base stations, the same position information is often obtained. In this case, leave one and exclude the rest. Here, “excluded” means not used in S24. That is, the log itself is not excluded. According to FIG. 7, “exclusion” is designated by deleting latitude / longitude (altitude) information, for example. Of course, an exclusion flag may be set for each log.

[S23] The area management server 2 calculates representative points for a plurality of pieces of position information included in the first positioning method group. Specifically, according to FIG. 5, the representative points are calculated from the logs included in the GPS positioning method group. The “representative point” is an average value in the latitude direction and an average value in the longitude direction for a plurality of logs of the GPS positioning method.

[S24] Subsequently, the area management server 2 includes a plurality of pieces of position information included in the second positioning method group from which the same positioning result is excluded with the representative point as the center, and is included in the first positioning method group. A plurality of position information is used to extract a confidence ellipse area based on a predetermined confidence level value. A range (dispersion value) in which the mother representative position (average) position is the center and the mother representative position exists with a predetermined probability is calculated as an ellipse.

(Estimation of center of mother representative position)
Since the positioning error of the position information of the network positioning method is large, the center point of the mother representative position is estimated using a representative point calculated only from the GPS positioning method log. That is, the network positioning method log is not used for estimating the center of the mother representative position.

(Estimation of mother representative position range)
The estimation of the range of the mother representative position uses all the positioning results for both the GPS positioning method log and the network positioning method log that is not excluded by the same positioning result exclusion process of S22. The reason for not using GPS positioning as a reason for using the network positioning system log is not due to user operation, but it is sufficient to receive positioning radio waves from GPS satellites even though the GPS positioning unit is turned on. This is because there were cases where it was not possible. In other words, if the GPS positioning method log and the network positioning method log are in different locations even if they are close to each other, if the range of the mother representative position is estimated using only the GPS positioning method log, the network This is because the dead zone (area) where the positioning method is executed is likely to be out of range. On the other hand, as the reason for using only the log that has not been excluded by the exclusion processing of the same positioning result in S22, the weight related to the position information is large due to the network positioning method log having a plurality of the same position information. Therefore, there is an object to prevent the estimated range of the mother representative position from becoming very large.

Here, a method for calculating the confidence ellipse area will be described.
[Calculation method of trusted ellipse area]
The position information measured by the mobile terminal is represented by two dimensions. Since positioning information includes positioning errors, GPS positioning data is based on the observation that it can be approximated to a two-dimensional normal distribution (multivariate normal distribution). Here, the confidence ellipse area of the representative (average) value of the population is estimated at the confidence level 1-β. It is referred to as “100 · (1-β))% confidence ellipse area”. The reliability “100 · (1-β)%” is a probability that the representative value of the population is included in the ellipse. Here, since the position information is also unique among the network positioning results as described above, the calculated ellipse is not a border of the reliability range. For example, the network positioning with unique position information for the GPS positioning number It is also preferable to determine the β value to be used according to the number of logs. For example, a relatively small β value is used when the ratio of GPS positioning numbers is large, and a relatively large β value is used when the ratio of network positioning numbers is large.

  FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a two-dimensional normal distribution and a 95% confidence ellipse area of the representative (average) value of the population.

The trust ellipse is calculated by the following equation.
(1 / n) * F (2, φ, β) = (V (ly) * X ^ 2-2 * C (lx, ly) * X * Y + V (lx) * Y ^ 2) /
2 * (V (lx) * V (ly) -C (lx, ly) ^ 2)
lx: Average value in the longitude direction calculated in S24
ly: Average value in latitude direction calculated in S24
X = x−lx
Y = y-ly
V (lx): Log in the group (in the case of FIG. 7, among log numbers 1 to 35)
9) dispersion in longitude direction not excluded
V (ly): Log in the group (in the case of FIG. 7, among log numbers 1 to 35)
9) (not excluded) dispersion in latitude direction
C (lx, ly): Logs in the group (in the case of FIG. 7, among log numbers 1 to 35)
9) longitude and longitude covariance not excluded
n: Total number of logs not excluded in the group (in the case of FIG. 7, log numbers)
Since there are 9 logs that are not excluded from 1 to 35, n = 9)
F (2, φ, β): According to the first degree of freedom 2 and the second degree of freedom φ (the degree of freedom of the residual)
Value of 100 * β% point in F distribution

[S25] Then, the area management server 2 outputs a map image in which the confidence ellipse area is superimposed. Alternatively, based on the rewritten position information, an image may be output as a heat map composed of a predetermined rectangle (the quality deterioration number displayed in color).

  FIG. 9 is a map image in which the confidence ellipse area in the present invention is superimposed.

  According to FIG. 9, the position information is extracted randomly in the elliptic area or according to some landmark so that all the logs in the group (including logs excluded in S22) fit in the trust elliptic area. Rewrite the location information of all logs in the group.

  Thereby, the supervisor can understand the area where the wireless communication quality is deteriorated without looking at the positioning error due to the network positioning simply by looking at the map.

  FIG. 10 is a functional configuration diagram of the mobile terminal and the area management server of the present invention.

[Mobile terminal 1]
According to FIG. 10, the mobile terminal 1 includes a wireless communication unit 101 that communicates with the base station 3 via the air, and a GPS positioning unit 102 that calculates a current position based on a positioning radio wave received from the GPS satellite 4. Here, the wireless communication unit 101 also has a network positioning function. In addition, the mobile terminal 1 further includes a positioning activation unit 11 and a position information transmission unit 12. These functional components are realized by executing a program that causes a computer mounted on the mobile terminal to function.

  The positioning starter 11 starts positioning with a trigger as reaching a predetermined condition. For example, the trigger may be that the radio quality has deteriorated to a predetermined threshold value or less. The positioning activation unit 11 acquires current position information using the GPS positioning unit 102 when the power of the GPS positioning unit 102 is on. Conversely, if the GPS positioning unit 102 is not turned on, or if positioning is not possible even though the GPS positioning unit 102 has attempted to perform positioning, current position information is acquired using the wireless communication unit 101 (described above) (See S11 in FIG. 5).

The position information transmitting unit 12 transmits the following position information to the area management server 2 (see S12 in FIG. 5 described above).
[Location information, positioning method, wireless communication quality information, supplementary base station information]
According to the present invention, at least “position information + positioning method” is essential.

[Area management server 2]
The area management server 2 includes a communication interface unit 201 connected to a network (a mobile communication network according to FIG. 4) and a display unit 202 that displays a map to a supervisor. Of course, these are not indispensable components, and it is sufficient to simply accumulate a plurality of pieces of position information without having the communication interface unit 201. In addition, the map image may be simply generated without the display unit 202.

  In addition, the area management server 2 includes a position information storage unit 20, a position information classification unit 21, an identical positioning result exclusion unit 22, a representative point extraction unit 23, an area extraction unit 24, and a map output unit 25. . These functional components are realized by executing a program that causes a computer installed in the apparatus to function.

  The location information storage unit 20 stores the location information of the mobile terminal in association with the first positioning method or the second positioning method (see S20 in FIG. 5 described above). Here, it is assumed that the second positioning method has a positioning error larger than that of the first positioning method. Specifically, the first positioning method may be a GPS positioning method, and the second positioning method may be a network positioning method.

  The position information classifying unit 21 classifies the plurality of position information into groups for each first or second positioning method (see S21 in FIG. 5). The position information of the first positioning method is output to the representative point extraction unit 24, and the position information of the second positioning method is output to the same positioning result exclusion unit 22.

  The same positioning result exclusion unit 22 treats a plurality of positioning results that are the same position information as a single positioning result for a plurality of pieces of position information included in the second positioning method group (see S22 in FIG. 5).

  The representative point extraction unit 23 calculates representative points for a plurality of pieces of position information included in the first positioning method group (see S23 in FIG. 5 described above).

  The area extraction unit 24 centered on the representative point, a plurality of position information included in the second positioning method group based on the same positioning result exclusion unit 22, and a plurality of position information included in the first positioning method group Are used to extract a confidence ellipse area based on a predetermined confidence level value (see S24 in FIG. 5 described above).

  The map output unit 25 outputs a map image on which the confidence ellipse area is superimposed (see S25 in FIG. 5).

  As described above in detail, according to the area management server, program, and method of the present invention, a plurality of pieces of position information based on two or more different positioning methods are acquired from at least one mobile terminal. Even if it exists, the target area as accurate as possible can be estimated. In other words, even if the bias of the positioning error in each positioning method is large, the target area as accurate as possible can be estimated by analyzing according to the positioning method.

  According to the present invention, a target area can be specified for an event that occurs in a specific area. For example, this is not limited to the investigation of the degradation area of the wireless communication quality, and can be used for marketing. For example, a place where a lot of “passing communication” is performed by the mobile game terminal can be extracted. In this case, it is preferable to process each game title. Similarly, it can also be used for extracting a place where a predetermined application is used. Furthermore, it can also be used for extracting an area where data communication exceeding a predetermined amount of data is performed within a predetermined time. Furthermore, as another application of the target area to be extracted, a place where a lot of specific photographs are taken can be extracted. In this case, it is preferable to process each specific photograph analyzed as “Tokyo Tower” or “Rainbow Bridge” by the image recognition process. Thereby, the supervisor can understand the size of the essential target area based on the positioning error.

  Various changes, modifications, and omissions of the above-described various embodiments of the present invention can be easily made by those skilled in the art. The above description is merely an example, and is not intended to be restrictive. The invention is limited only as defined in the following claims and the equivalents thereto.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Mobile terminal 101 Wireless communication part 102 GPS positioning part 11 Positioning start part 12 Position information transmission part 2 Area management server 201 Communication interface part 202 Display part 20 Position information storage part 21 Position information classification part 22 Same positioning result exclusion part 23 Representative point Extraction unit 24 Area extraction unit 25 Map output unit 3 Base station 4 GPS satellite

Claims (13)

An area management server that identifies a target area based on location information of a mobile terminal,
Location information storage means that stores the location information of the mobile terminal in association with the first positioning method or the second positioning method,
Position information classification means for classifying a plurality of pieces of position information into groups for each of the first or second positioning methods;
For the plurality of position information included in the second positioning method group, the same positioning result exclusion means that handles a plurality of positioning results that are the same position information as one positioning result;
Representative point calculating means for calculating representative points for a plurality of pieces of position information included in the first positioning method group;
Centering on the representative point, using a plurality of position information included in the second positioning method group based on the same positioning result exclusion means, and a plurality of position information included in the first positioning method group, An area management server comprising area extraction means for extracting a confidence ellipse area based on a predetermined confidence level value.   The area management server according to claim 1, wherein the second positioning method has a positioning error larger than that of the first positioning method. The first positioning method is a GPS (Global Positioning System) positioning method based on positioning radio waves from satellites,
The area management server according to claim 2, wherein the second positioning method is a network positioning method based on communication radio waves from a base station.   The area management server according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the position information classification unit classifies a plurality of pieces of position information based on a predetermined position range designated for each positioning method. . The location information storage means stores the location information in association with a connection destination base station identifier and / or radio quality information of the mobile terminal,
5. The position information classification means further classifies a plurality of pieces of position information for each set (feature amount) of a connection destination base station identifier and / or radio quality information. The area management server described in the section.   The area management server according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the location information classifying unit further classifies a plurality of location information for each identifier of the mobile terminal.   The area extraction means estimates a confidence ellipse area within a range of representative values of a population based on a two-dimensional normal distribution, and the confidence level value is a probability that a representative value of the population is included inside the ellipse. The area management server according to claim 1, wherein the area management server is provided. The area extraction unit corrects a plurality of pieces of position information included in the first and second positioning method groups so as to be within the confidence ellipse area,
8. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising map output means for outputting the corrected position information or the heat map based on the position information on the map so as to be visually specified. The area management server described in 1.   The area management server according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the location information storage means stores location information of a mobile terminal that has reached a predetermined condition. The position information storage means includes
The connected base station identifier and / or radio quality information of the mobile terminal when the predetermined condition is reached,
The connected base station identifier and / or radio quality information of the mobile terminal at the time of positioning, or
The area management server according to claim 9, wherein both of them are accumulated. The position information accumulating means has a predetermined condition as follows:
(Trigger 1) When the wireless communication quality falls below a predetermined threshold,
(Trigger 2) When predetermined data communication is executed, or
(Trigger 3) The area management server according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that the location information relating to the mobile terminal when the data communication amount in a predetermined period becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold is accumulated. A program for area management that causes a computer installed in a device to function to identify a target area based on position information of a mobile terminal,
Location information storage means that stores the location information of the mobile terminal in association with the first positioning method or the second positioning method,
Position information classification means for classifying a plurality of pieces of position information into groups for each of the first or second positioning methods;
For the plurality of position information included in the second positioning method group, the same positioning result exclusion means that handles a plurality of positioning results that are the same position information as one positioning result;
Representative point calculating means for calculating representative points for a plurality of pieces of position information included in the first positioning method group;
Centering on the representative point, using a plurality of position information included in the second positioning method group based on the same positioning result exclusion means, and a plurality of position information included in the first positioning method group, An area management program for causing a computer to function as an area extraction means for extracting a confidence ellipse area based on a predetermined confidence level value. An area management method for specifying a target area based on location information of a mobile terminal using an apparatus,
The apparatus includes a position information storage unit that stores the position information of the mobile terminal in association with the first positioning method or the second positioning method,
A first step of classifying the plurality of pieces of position information into groups for each of the first or second positioning methods;
A second step of handling a plurality of positioning results as the same position information as one positioning result for a plurality of position information included in the second positioning method group;
A third step of calculating representative points for a plurality of pieces of position information included in the first positioning method group;
Centering on the representative point, using a plurality of position information included in the second positioning method group based on the same positioning result exclusion means, and a plurality of position information included in the first positioning method group, And a fourth step of extracting a confidence ellipse area based on a predetermined confidence level value.

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