JP4472735B2 - Positioning gateway device, terminal location information request processing method and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a positioning gateway device that receives a terminal position information request from a user terminal and returns position information of a designated terminal.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a technique related to a positioning gateway device for knowing the position of an individual possessing a predetermined terminal (such as a portable terminal) has been developed. FIG. 19 is a diagram for explaining a positioning gateway device according to the prior art. Referring to FIG. 19, the conventional system for knowing the position of the terminal 5 has a configuration in which the positioning gateway device 101, the positioning device 4, and user terminals 106 and 107 are connected via a network a. In FIG. 19, one positioning device and one terminal to be positioned and two user terminals are shown, but the number thereof is arbitrary.

  The user terminal 106 is a terminal installed in an application service provider (ASP) or the like, and includes a request transmission unit 1061 that transmits a terminal location information request and a response reception unit 1062 that receives a terminal location information response. The request sending means 1061 accepts input from a user (such as an ASP operator) from a keyboard, mouse, or the like, and sends a terminal location information request for requesting the location information of the designated terminal to the positioning gateway device 101 through the network a. There is a function of transmitting to the positioning gateway device 101. The response receiving unit 1062 has a function of receiving a terminal location information response transmitted from the positioning gateway device 101 and posting the location information of the terminal to the user using a display or a printer. Other user terminals 107 also have request transmission means 1071 and response reception means 1072 having the same functions as the user terminal 106.

  The positioning device 4 receives the positioning request through the network a, measures the position information of the terminal designated by the positioning request, generates a positioning response from the position information, and sends the positioning response to the source of the positioning request through the network a. There is a function to send. For example, the positioning device 4 has a function of measuring the position of the terminal 5. This function can be configured by a known technique as follows.

  GPS (Global Positioning System), which can know the geographical position on the earth by receiving radio waves from a satellite, is a known technique. The terminal 5 includes a GPS receiver and a communication device. The positioning device 4 transmits a positioning request to the terminal 5, and the terminal 5 receives the positioning request from the positioning device 4 through the communication device and is acquired by GPS. The positioning device 4 can know the position of the terminal 5 on the earth by generating a positioning response from the position and transmitting the positioning response to the positioning device 4 through the communication device.

  The positioning device 4 can also know the position of the terminal 5 by the technique described in Patent Document 1. In the above publication, in a cellular telephone service system, a mobile station reports received signal levels from three or more base stations including a communication base station to the communication base station, and the communication base station propagates each base station radio wave. A technique for obtaining current position information of a mobile station by obtaining a loss and obtaining a distance between the mobile station and each base station is disclosed, and a positioning device can be configured by this technique.

  The positioning gateway device 101 receives the terminal location information request from the user terminals 106 and 107 through the network a, generates the location information of the terminal specified in the terminal location information request as a terminal location information response, and requests it through the network a. It has a function to send to the original user terminal. The positioning gateway device 101 having such a function includes a processing unit 102 and a management table 103.

  The management table 103 is a table for managing terminal location information requests received by the positioning gateway device 101 through the network a.

  FIG. 20 is a flowchart showing the operation of the processing means 102. Referring to FIG. 20, when the processing unit 102 receives a terminal location information request via the network a (YES in step S50), the processing unit 102 stores information representing the content of the terminal location information request in the management table 103, and stores the terminal location information. A positioning request is transmitted to the positioning device 4 that can measure the position of the terminal specified in the information request (step S51). When a positioning response is received from the positioning device 4 (YES in step S52), the management table 103 is searched, the user terminal that is the source of the terminal location information request that is the source of the positioning response is searched, and the positioning is determined. A terminal location information response is generated from the response and transmitted to the user terminal (step S53), and the corresponding terminal location information request information is deleted from the management table 103 (step S54).

  The determination of the user terminal that is the origin from the positioning response in this way means that when the processing means 102 receives a terminal location information request from the user terminal, it generates a unique sequence number, and this sequence A number and information for identifying the user terminal are registered in the management table 103, the sequence number is included in the positioning request and transmitted to the positioning device 4, and the positioning device 4 sends the sequence number included in the positioning request to the positioning response. The processing means 102 can retrieve the information for identifying the corresponding user terminal by searching the management table 103 using the sequence number included in the positioning response.

  A procedure for a user terminal to acquire terminal location information using the positioning gateway device 101 will be described below.

  First, the user of the user terminal 106 designates the target terminal 5 by the request transmission means 1061. Then, the request transmission unit 1061 transmits a terminal location information request regarding the terminal 5 to the positioning gateway device 101.

  When receiving the terminal location information request, the processing means 102 of the positioning gateway device 101 registers it in the management table 103 and transmits a positioning request to the positioning device 4 that can acquire the location information of the terminal 5. When the positioning device 4 receives this positioning request, it returns the position information of the designated terminal 5 to the positioning gateway device 101 as a positioning response. The processing means 102 of the positioning gateway device 101 acquires the location information of the terminal 5 from the positioning response, generates a terminal location information response, and sends it back to the user terminal 106.

  The operation of the positioning gateway device 101 when the user of the user terminal 107 transmits a terminal location information request for acquiring the same location information of the terminal 5 as that of the user of the user terminal 106 simultaneously or successively is as described above. Exactly the same.

  In this way, the positioning gateway device 101 receives the request for the terminal position information from the user terminal, acquires the terminal position information from the positioning device that can acquire the requested terminal position, and uses the acquired position. To the user terminal. Therefore, even if the user of the user terminal does not know the method for measuring the position of the target terminal and the information on the positioning apparatus capable of measuring the position, the user terminal can be notified to the positioning gateway apparatus 101. The terminal position information can be acquired simply by requesting the terminal position information using.

  The positioning gateway device 101 can determine the positioning device 4 that can acquire the position information of the terminal 5 by previously storing the terminal 5 and the positioning device 4 that can measure the position information of the terminal in association with each other. it can. When there is only one positioning device, the positioning gateway device 101 and the positioning device 4 do not have to be separate, and can be configured as a single positioning gateway device.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-179028

  The conventional technology described above has a problem that it takes positioning costs. The reason is that if there is a request for terminal location information from a user terminal such as an ASP, a positioning request is always issued from the positioning gateway device to the positioning device. Currently, a location information service in which an ASP or the like provides information related to a position of a terminal held by the individual to the individual by the ASP or the like is becoming widespread. For this service, it is necessary to frequently measure the position of the terminal that an individual possesses. If the load regarding this positioning is not small, the cost of transmitting information suitable for the position of the individual increases. Therefore, it is important to solve the problem that the positioning cost is high.

  “Object of the Invention” The present invention, which has been made in view of the above problems, aims to provide a positioning gateway device capable of reducing the positioning cost.

  The positioning gateway device of the present invention reduces the positioning cost by storing a positioning response obtained in the past and using it for generating a response to a subsequent terminal location information request for another same terminal. Hereinafter, a more specific configuration of the positioning gateway device of the present invention will be shown.

The positioning gateway apparatus of the present invention is a positioning gateway apparatus that transmits terminal position information to a user terminal, and receives a terminal position information request to which a condition including an allowable error is added from the user terminal. Storage means for storing past location information of the terminal, wherein the location information includes a location, a moving speed, and a positioning time of the terminal, and the processing means is a terminal location to which the condition is added. The terminal position, the moving speed, and the positioning included in the position information whether or not the past position information of the terminal satisfying the allowable error included in the condition is received in the storage unit is received. The discrimination is based on time.

A terminal location information request processing method according to the present invention is a terminal location information request processing method in a positioning gateway device that transmits location information of a terminal to a user terminal, and the positioning gateway device receives an allowable error from the user terminal. Processing means for receiving a terminal location information request to which a condition is included, and storage means for saving past location information of the terminal, wherein the location information includes the location, moving speed, and positioning time of the terminal. The processing means receives the terminal location information request to which the condition is added, and determines whether the past location information of the terminal that satisfies the tolerance included in the condition is stored in the storage means. The determination is made on the basis of the position of the terminal, the moving speed, and the positioning time included in the position information.

The program of the present invention includes a process of receiving a terminal location information request to which a condition including an allowable error is added from the user terminal to a computer constituting the positioning gateway device that transmits the location information of the terminal to the user terminal; A process of storing past location information of the terminal in a storage unit is executed, and the location information includes a location, a moving speed, and a positioning time of the terminal, and a terminal location information request to which the condition is added is received. Based on the position of the terminal, the moving speed, and the positioning time included in the position information, whether or not the past position information of the terminal satisfying the tolerance included in the condition is stored in the storage unit. The process to determine is executed.

  As described above, according to the present invention, unnecessary positioning requests to the positioning device can be prevented, and the positioning cost can be reduced. The reason is that a plurality of terminal location information requests for the same terminal can be obtained by storing a positioning response obtained in the past and using it for generating a response to a subsequent terminal location information request for the same terminal. This is because processing is performed with one positioning request, and a plurality of terminal location information responses for the same terminal are generated from one positioning response.

  Also, the positioning gateway device of the present invention makes the number of positioning requests the same or less than the number of terminal location information requests. Compared to the case where there is no positioning gateway device and the user terminal individually requests positioning to the positioning device, the effect of reducing the load on the network and the load on the positioning device can be expected due to the decrease in the number of positioning requests flowing through the network. .

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

  “Premise example” Before explaining this embodiment, a positioning request being requested in a positioning gateway device is used as a positioning request for a subsequent terminal location information request for another same terminal. A premise example in which the positioning cost is reduced to reduce the positioning cost will be described.

  [First Premise Example] Referring to FIG. 1, in this premise example, a positioning gateway device 1 is connected to a positioning device 4 and user terminals 6 and 7 through a network a. The terminal 5 is a terminal to be positioned, for example, a mobile phone possessed by an individual. In FIG. 1, one positioning device 4 and terminal 5 and two user terminals 6 and 7 are shown. However, any number of terminals and user terminals to be positioned may be used, and positioning devices are also provided. Any number is fine. The network a may be anything that can exchange information, such as optical communication, infrared communication, telephone exchange network, and the Internet.

  The user terminal 6 is a terminal installed in an ASP or the like, and includes a request transmission unit 61 that transmits a terminal location information request and a response reception unit 62 that receives a terminal location information response. The request sending means 61 accepts designation of a terminal as a positioning target from a user from a keyboard, a mouse or the like, and sends a terminal location information request for requesting location information of the designated terminal to the positioning gateway device 1 through the network a. It has the function to do. The response receiving unit 62 has a function of receiving a terminal location information response transmitted from the positioning gateway device 1 and posting the location information of the terminal to the user using a display or a printer. The user terminal 7 also includes request transmission means 71 and response reception means 72 having the same functions as the request transmission means 61 and response reception means 62 of the user terminal 6.

  The positioning device 4 receives the positioning request from the positioning gateway device 1 through the network a, measures the position information of the terminal designated by the positioning request, generates a positioning response from the position information, and receives the positioning request through the network a. It has the function to transmit to the positioning gateway device 1 which is the transmission source. In this example, the positioning device 4 has a function of measuring the position of the terminal 5.

  The positioning gateway device 1 receives the terminal location information request from the user terminals 6 and 7 through the network a, generates the location information of the terminal specified in the terminal location information request as a terminal location information response, and this terminal location information It has a function of transmitting a response to the requesting user terminals 6 and 7 through the network a. The positioning gateway device 1 having such a function includes a processing means 2 and a management table 3.

  The management table 3 is a table for storing the terminal identifier requested by the terminal location information request and the information of the user terminal of the transmission source in order to manage the terminal location information request received by the processing means 2. Consists of memory.

  The processing means 2 makes a positioning request designating a terminal to the positioning device 4, and based on the positioning response returned from the positioning device 4 as a response to this positioning request, the terminal location information request received from the user terminals 6 and 7 Is transmitted to the requesting user terminals 6 and 7 as a terminal position information response. In the case of this premise example, the processing means 2 includes a request processing unit 8 that processes a terminal location information request and a positioning request, and a response processing unit 9 that processes a positioning response and a terminal location information response.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the processing means 2. When the processing means 2 receives the terminal location information request through the network a (YES in step S1), the request processing unit 8 refers to the management table 3 to determine the positioning request for the terminal currently specified by the request. It is determined whether or not it is performed on the device 4. If a positioning request is not made (NO in step S2), information related to the terminal location information request is registered in the management table 3, and a positioning request for the terminal is transmitted to the positioning device 4 through the network a. (Step S3). If a positioning request is being made (YES in step S2), the terminal location information request is registered in the management table 3 (step S4), and the process is terminated (without sending a positioning request).

  On the other hand, when a positioning response is received from the positioning device 4 through the network a (NO in step S1, YES in step S5), the response processing unit 9 refers to the management table 3 and refers to the terminal indicated by the received positioning response. All the user terminals that have requested positioning are determined, and a terminal location information response generated from the received positioning response is transmitted to the determined user terminal (step S6). Information related to the terminal location information request for the terminal is deleted (step S7).

  Next, the operation of this premise example will be described. Here, a case where the user of the user terminal 6 tries to acquire the position of the terminal 5 while the user of the user terminal 6 tries to acquire the position of the terminal 5 will be described as an example. .

  In the initial state, nothing is stored in the management table 3. First, the user of the user terminal 6 designates the terminal 5 using the request transmission means 61. Then, the request transmission means 61 transmits a terminal location information request regarding the terminal 5 to the positioning gateway device 1 through the network a. FIG. 3 is an example of the terminal location information request at this time. A terminal requesting positioning is designated as “terminal 5”. The terminal designation method may be anything as long as a specific terminal can be identified.

  The request processing unit 8 of the processing unit 2 receives the terminal location information request (YES in step S1), and refers to the management table 3 to determine whether a terminal location information request for the terminal 5 has been made. Since nothing is stored in the management table 3 at this time, it is determined that no terminal location information request has been made to the terminal 5 (NO in step S2), and the information and use of the terminal location information request are stored in the management table 3. The information on the user terminal is stored, and a positioning request regarding the terminal 5 is transmitted to the positioning device 4 (step S3). The state of the management table 3 at this time is shown in FIG. This content means that the user terminal 6 is currently requesting the location information of the terminal 5.

  Next, the user of the user terminal 7 designates the terminal 5 using the request transmission means 71. Then, the request transmission means 71 transmits a terminal location information request regarding the terminal 5 to the positioning gateway device 1 through the network a. The terminal location information request at this time is the same as the example shown in FIG. The request processing unit 8 of the processing unit 2 receives the terminal location information request (YES in step S1), and refers to the management table 3 to determine whether a terminal location information request for the terminal 5 has been made. The contents of the management table 3 at this point are as shown in FIG. 4 as described above, and the user terminal 6 makes a terminal location information request to the terminal 5 (YES in step S2). Information on the terminal location information request received from the user terminal 7 is stored in the management table 3 (step S4). The state of the management table 3 at this time is shown in FIG. This content means that the user terminal 6 and the user terminal 7 are currently requesting the location information of the terminal 5.

  Now, it is assumed that the positioning device 4 measures the position of the terminal 5 and transmits a positioning response to the positioning gateway device 1. FIG. 7 is a configuration example of the positioning response of the positioning device 4 at this time. This means that “the position of the terminal 5 was measured at 07:40:50 on November 30, 2001 as 135 degrees 20 minutes east 35 degrees 10 minutes north latitude”. Of course, this positioning response may be in any format as long as the positioning gateway device 1 can interpret it.

  When receiving the positioning response (NO in step S1, YES in step S5), the response processing unit 9 of the processing means 2 refers to the management table 3 to determine the user terminal that has requested the location information of the terminal 5. The terminal position information response is generated from the positioning response and transmitted to the identified user terminal (step S6). The state of the management table 3 in this case is as shown in FIG. 6, and it is shown that the user terminal 6 and the user terminal 7 are requesting the location information of the terminal 5. The terminal location information response is transmitted to the person terminal 7. FIG. 8 is a configuration example of a terminal location information response. This means that “the position of the terminal 5 was measured at 07:40:50 on November 30, 2001 as 135 degrees 20 minutes east and 3 degrees 10 minutes north latitude”. Of course, this positioning response may be in any format that can be interpreted by the user terminal. Further, the response processing unit 9 deletes information related to the terminal location information request for the two terminals 5 stored in the management table 3 (step S7). As a result, there is no information stored in the management table 3, and the initial state is restored.

  The response receiving means 62 and 72 of the user terminals 6 and 7 that have received the terminal position information response from the positioning gateway device 1 post the position information of the terminal 5 to the users of the respective terminals.

  As described above, in the premise example, the positioning gateway device 1 receives the second terminal location information request for the terminal during the processing of the first terminal location information request for the certain terminal. When the positioning response of the corresponding terminal is received from the positioning device 4, the terminal location information response to the first and second terminal location information requests is created from the positioning response without issuing the positioning request of the terminal again. To do. This makes it possible to respond to terminal location information requests that arrive almost simultaneously or in succession while preventing an increase in positioning cost due to an unnecessary positioning request issued to the positioning device. Yes.

  In this premise example, whether or not the positioning gateway device 1 is in a positioning request to a certain terminal is determined by storing information regarding this request in the management table 3 when the terminal position information request is received, If a terminal location information response corresponding to the request is returned, information on the terminal location information request is deleted from the management table 3, and if a terminal location information request for a certain terminal is stored in the management table 3, the positioning request of the terminal Although it is judged that it is in, other methods may be used. For example, when a terminal location information response corresponding to the terminal location information request is returned, a flag indicating that the response has been completed is added to the terminal location information request stored in the management table 3, and the already processed terminal location information request becomes clear. If there is a terminal location information request that has not been returned to a certain terminal in the management table 3, a method may be used in which it is determined that a positioning request is being issued to the terminal. Also, another management table for managing the information of the terminal that is currently requesting positioning is provided, and when a positioning request is made to a certain terminal, the terminal identifier of the terminal is stored in the management table, and a positioning response is received. A method may be used in which the terminal identifier of the terminal indicated by the positioning response is deleted from the management table, so that the terminal whose terminal identifier is stored in the table is determined to be in a positioning request. In short, it may be one or more management tables for managing the user terminal that issued the terminal location information request, the terminal specified in the terminal location information request, and the terminal that is requesting positioning.

  “Other Premise Examples” In the above premise examples, the positioning response of the terminal 5 obtained by the positioning device 4 and the terminal location information response notified from the positioning gateway device 1 to the user terminals 6 and 7 are the location information of the terminal 5. However, the positioning time does not have to be included.

  Moreover, as long as it is the information of the terminal 5 acquirable by the positioning apparatus 4, arbitrary information other than position information may be included. Information other than the position information includes, for example, the moving speed, moving direction, acceleration of the terminal 5, temperature (air temperature) of the place where the terminal 5 exists, humidity, and the like. When the terminal 5 is a car navigation device itself mounted on a vehicle or a terminal connected to the device, the moving speed, the moving direction, and the acceleration can be acquired from the car navigation and transmitted to the positioning device 4 together with the position information. Thus, acquisition by the positioning device 4 is possible. In addition, a semiconductor acceleration sensor can be incorporated in the terminal 5 without using car navigation, and the acceleration and the speed can be obtained from the acceleration. Similarly, a geomagnetic sensor, a temperature sensor, and a humidity sensor are incorporated in the terminal 5 to move the terminal 5 It is also possible to detect temperature and humidity.

  “Embodiment” In this embodiment, a positioning response obtained in the past is stored in a positioning gateway device, and is used to generate a response to a subsequent terminal location information request for another same terminal. It is intended to reduce positioning costs by reducing unnecessary positioning requests. Hereinafter, examples of the present embodiment will be described.

  First Embodiment Referring to FIG. 9, in this embodiment, a positioning gateway device 10 is connected to a positioning device 4 and user terminals 14 and 15 through a network a. The terminal 5 is a terminal that is a positioning target. In FIG. 9, one positioning device 4 and terminal 5 and two user terminals 14 and 15 are shown. However, the number of positioning target terminals and user terminals may be any number, and the positioning device is not limited. Any number is fine. The positioning device 4, the terminal 5 and the network a are the same as those in the premise example.

  The user terminal 14 includes a request transmitting unit 141 that transmits a terminal location information request and a response receiving unit 142 that receives a terminal location information response. The request sending unit 141 receives a terminal designation and condition from the user from a keyboard, a mouse, etc., generates a terminal location information request based on the designated terminal and condition, and sends it to the positioning gateway device 10 through the network a. It has the function to do. The response receiving means 142 is the same as that in the premise example. The user terminal 15 includes a request transmission unit 151 and a response reception unit 152 having the same functions as the request transmission unit 141 and the response reception unit 142 of the user terminal 14.

  The positioning gateway device 10 includes a processing means 11, a management table 12, and a storage table 13.

  The management table 12 is a table for storing the terminal identifier requested by the terminal location information request and the information on the user terminal of the transmission source in order to manage the terminal location information request received by the processing means 11. Consists of memory.

  The storage table 13 is a table for storing terminal position information indicated by positioning responses received in the past from the positioning device 4, and is configured by a magnetic disk or a memory.

  The processing means 11 makes a positioning request specifying a terminal to the positioning device 4, and stores the terminal location information indicated by the positioning response returned from the positioning device 4 as a response to this positioning request in the storage table 13. A function of transmitting the position information of the terminal designated by the terminal position information request received from the user terminals 14 and 15 to the requesting user terminals 14 and 15 as a terminal position information response by utilizing the terminal position information Have. The processing means 11 includes a request processing unit 111 that processes a terminal location information request and a positioning request, and a response processing unit 112 that processes a positioning response and a terminal location information response.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the operation of the processing means 11. When the terminal location information request is received through the network a (YES in step S11), the request processing unit 111 determines whether a condition is added to the terminal location information request. If a condition is added (YES in step S12), the storage table 13 is searched, and the terminal position information for the same terminal as the received terminal position information request, the terminal position information satisfying the condition To determine if the file has been saved. If there is terminal location information that satisfies the condition (YES in step S13), the response processing unit 112 acquires the terminal location information that satisfies the condition from the storage table 13 and receives the terminal location information request received this time. A terminal position information response to is generated and responded to the user terminal (step S14). If a condition is not added to the received terminal location information request (NO in step S12), or if there is no terminal location information satisfying the above condition in the storage table 13 (NO in step S13), the request The processing unit 111 registers the received information related to the terminal location information request and the information related to the user terminal that is the source of the terminal location information request in the management table 12, and sends the positioning request of the terminal to the positioning device 4. (Step S15).

  On the other hand, when a positioning response is received from the positioning device 4 through the network a (NO in step S11, YES in step S16), the response processing unit 112 stores the terminal location information obtained by this positioning response in the storage table 13 ( Step S17), referring to the management table 12, identifies the user terminal that made the terminal location information request corresponding to the current positioning response, generates a terminal location information response from the current positioning response, and generates the terminal location information response. The information is transmitted to the terminal (step S18), and the processed information on the terminal location information request is deleted from the management table 12 (step S19)

  Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. Here, a case where the user of the user terminal 14 has already acquired the position information for the terminal 5 and then the user of the user terminal 15 makes a request for the position information to the terminal 5 with a condition as an example will be described. To do.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an initial state of the storage table 13, and the terminal 5 has a position of “07:40:50 on Nov. 30, 2001” at “135 degrees 20 minutes east 35 degrees 10 minutes north latitude”. The terminal location information that there is is stored. This is obtained by making a positioning request to the positioning device 4 in order for the positioning gateway device 10 to process the terminal location information request when the user of the user terminal 14 requests the location information for the terminal 5. The terminal position information indicated by the positioning response is stored in the storage table 13 (see step S17).

  Assume that the user of the user terminal 15 requests the location information of the terminal 5 at “07:41 on November 30, 2001”. However, here, it is assumed that a condition that “the past position information from the current time to 5 minutes before may be used as a response” is added.

  The request sending unit 151 receives the designation of the terminal 5 and the condition from a keyboard, a mouse, or the like, generates a terminal location information request based on the designated terminal and condition, and sends it to the positioning gateway device 10 through the network a. An example of the terminal location information request at this time is shown in FIG.

  The request processing unit 111 in the processing means 11 of the positioning gateway device 10 receives the terminal location information request (YES in step S11), and a condition is added to the request (YES in step S12). It is determined whether or not terminal location information satisfying the above condition is stored in the same terminal. In this case, the terminal position information that the position of the terminal 5 “November 30, 2001 07:40:50” is “135 degrees 20 minutes north latitude 35 degrees 10 minutes north” is “positions up to 5 minutes ago” The condition of “information” is satisfied (YES in step S13). For this reason, the request processing unit 111 requests the response processing unit 112 to process the received terminal location information request with the stored positioning response, and the response processing unit 112 asks the user terminal 15 to A terminal location information response is sent and notified as a position of 5, which notifies "November 30, 2001 07:40:50 at 135 degrees 20 minutes east 35 degrees 10 minutes north latitude" (step S14). FIG. 13 shows a configuration example of the terminal location information response at this time.

  As described above, according to the positioning gateway device 10 of the present embodiment, the terminal location information obtained in the past is stored in the storage table 13 and the period of the past positioning response that can be used as a response is specified as a condition to the user. As a result, the number of positioning requests to the positioning device 4 is reduced, and the positioning cost is reduced.

  [An Example of Another Operation] Here, as another example of the operation of the present embodiment, a case will be described in which a condition regarding a terminal position tolerance is specified in the terminal position information request.

  For example, it is assumed that the terminal position information of the terminal 5 is stored in the storage table 13 as shown in FIG. This is because the position of the terminal 5 is “135 degrees 20 minutes north latitude 35 degrees 10 minutes north latitude 35th 10 minutes November 07, 2001, 07:40:50”. Means 5m ". In this state, for example, it is assumed that the user of the user terminal 14 requests the position of the terminal 5 on “Nov. 30, 2001, 07:41” under the condition that the “positional tolerance is 500 m”. The terminal location information request sending means 141 of the user terminal 14 that has received the user designation generates a terminal location information request and sends it to the positioning gateway device 10. FIG. 15 shows a configuration example of this terminal location information request.

  When the request processing unit 111 in the processing means 11 of the positioning gateway device 10 receives the terminal location information request (YES in step S11), a condition is added to the request (YES in step S12). It is determined whether there is position information that satisfies the request. The contents of the storage table 13 at this time are as shown in FIG. 14 as described above, and the positioning response for the same terminal 5 is stored. Therefore, it is further determined whether or not the stored response of the terminal 5 satisfies the condition specified in the request. Examples of this determination method include the following methods.

  For the terminal 5 specified in the terminal position information request, the time included in the terminal position information stored in the storage table 13 is the positioning time, the speed is the moving speed, and the time included in the terminal position information request is the current time. Then, the movement distance moved from the position in the positioning time of the terminal 5 to the present can be found by the equation of movement distance = movement speed × (current time−positioning time). In this case, since the moving speed of the terminal is 10 m / sec, it means that the terminal has moved 100 m from the position “07:40:50 on Nov. 30, 2001”. Next, since the error of the position of “November 30, 2001 07:40:50” is 5 m, the position of “November 30, 2001 07:41” is “November 30, 2001”. The radius is within 5 + 100 = 105 m from the position of “40 minutes 50 seconds”, and the position of “07:40:50 on November 30, 2001” is the condition indicated by the terminal position information request “within an allowable error of 500 m”. It can be determined that

  In other words, if the allowable error specified in the terminal position information request> the error in the past positioning result + the moving distance from the past to the present, it can be determined that the error condition specified in the position information request is satisfied. Therefore, the request processing unit 111 determines that there is a positioning response that satisfies the condition (YES in step S13), requests the response processing unit 112 to process the received terminal location information request with the stored positioning response, and The processing unit 112 acquires the positioning response of the terminal 5 from the storage table 13, generates a terminal location information response, and transmits the response to the user terminal (step S18). FIG. 16 shows a configuration example of the terminal location information response at this time.

  By configuring the positioning gateway device 10 in this manner and using an error as a condition, the number of positioning requests to the positioning device 4 is reduced, and the positioning cost is reduced.

  It should be noted that, as conditions, both a position information error that can be used for a response and a condition related to positioning time may be specified. In this case, whether or not the position information of the same terminal stored in the storage table 13 satisfies the error condition is determined by “error specified in condition> error in stored position information” or “specified in condition. It can be determined by satisfying the condition when “error ≧ stored position information error” is satisfied.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the terminal location information indicated by the past positioning response obtained by the positioning device 4 is saved, and saved when the user requests the location information of the terminal with conditions. If there is a positioning response satisfying the above condition in the terminal location information, the terminal location information response is generated using the positioning response, thereby reducing the positioning cost.

  When there are a plurality of terminal location information satisfying the condition in the storage table 13, the terminal location information that satisfies the best condition may be used as a response. For example, if the condition is a condition related to the positioning time of the position information, the terminal position information response is performed using the most recent position information. If the condition is related to an error, the terminal is used using the position information with the smallest error. There is a case where a position information response is performed. In this operation, there is an effect that the user can acquire the location information of the terminal that best satisfies the condition.

  “Second Embodiment” In the first embodiment described above, when a condition is not added to the terminal location information request, a positioning request is made to the terminal specified in the terminal location information request (FIG. 10). In step S12, NO, step S15). On the other hand, in this embodiment, the positioning gateway device is provided with a default condition storage unit for storing a default condition, and when the condition is not added to the terminal location information request, the specified condition is added. This is handled in the same manner as the terminal location information request to which conditions are originally added.

  FIG. 17 is a diagram showing the configuration of the present embodiment, where the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 9 indicate the same parts, 16 is a default condition storage table, and 111A is a request processing unit. As an example of default conditions stored in the prescribed condition storage table 16, "all past positioning responses for the same terminal satisfy all conditions", "for the same terminal, positioning responses up to 10 minutes before the current condition satisfy the conditions And “for the same terminal, the positioning response within an error of 1 km satisfies the condition”. The default condition stored in the prescribed condition storage table 16 may be that the positioning gateway device 10 stores a single default condition, or for each user terminal, for each group of user terminals, or for each user. Individual default conditions may be stored and applied.

  FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing the operation of the processing means 11 in the positioning gateway device 10 according to this embodiment, and the step S20 is different from the flowchart shown in FIG. That is, when no condition is added to the received terminal location information request (NO in step S12), the request processing unit 111A acquires a default condition from the default condition storage table 16 (step S20), and the default condition is set. It is determined whether there is any terminal location information that satisfies the condition in the storage table 13 (step S13). For example, when the user of the user terminal 14 requests the position of the terminal 5 without conditions at “07:41 on November 30, 2001”, the default condition storage table 14 reads “10 minutes from the present for the same terminal. Assuming that a predetermined condition that “the previous positioning response satisfies the condition” is set, the request processing unit 111A stores the location information of the terminal 5 in the storage table 13 and the positioning time is November 30, 2001. Search for terminal location information after 07:31. Therefore, when the terminal position information as shown in FIG. 11 is stored in the storage table 13, for example, the stored terminal position information is determined as the terminal position information that satisfies the condition.

  Other configurations and operations are the same as those in the first embodiment.

  According to the second embodiment, the number of positioning requests to the positioning device 4 is further reduced compared to the first embodiment, and the positioning cost can be further reduced.

  The embodiments and examples of the present invention have been described above, but the present invention is not limited to the above examples, and various other additions and modifications can be made. For example, in each of the above-described embodiments, the position of the terminal is used as an example of the position information. However, any terminal information that can be acquired by the positioning device, such as speed, moving direction, acceleration, temperature, and humidity, may be used. The management method of the terminal location information request using the management table is a method that can grasp the relationship between the terminal location information request and the conditions applied thereto, the terminal identifier, the requesting user terminal, the processing status of the terminal location information request, and the like. For example, another method may be used.

  The positioning gateway device of the present invention can be realized by a computer and a positioning gateway device program, as well as hardware functions. The positioning gateway device program is provided by being recorded on a computer-readable recording medium such as a magnetic disk or a semiconductor memory, read by the computer when the computer is started up, and the computer is controlled by controlling the operation of the computer. It is made to function as a positioning gateway device of each example in each embodiment mentioned above.

It is a block diagram of a premise example of the present invention. It is a flowchart showing operation | movement of the processing means of the example of a premise of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the terminal location information request | requirement used by the premise example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the state of the management table used by the premise example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the positioning request | requirement used with the premise example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the state of the management table used by the premise example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the positioning response used by the premise example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the terminal location information response used by the premise example of this invention. It is a block diagram of the 1st example in an embodiment of the invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the process means of the 1st Example in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the state of the preservation | save table used in the 1st Example in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the terminal location information request | requirement used in the 1st Example in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the terminal location information response used in the 1st Example in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the state of the terminal location information management table used in the 1st Example in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the terminal location information request | requirement used in the 1st Example in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the terminal location information response used in the 1st Example in embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram of the 2nd example in an embodiment of the invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the process means of the 2nd Example in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the structure of the positioning gateway apparatus by a prior art. It is a flowchart showing operation | movement of the positioning gateway apparatus by a prior art.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Positioning gateway apparatus 2 ... Processing means 3 ... Management table 4 ... Positioning apparatus 5 ... Terminal 6 ... User terminal 7 ... User terminal 8 ... Request processing part 9 ... Response processing part 10 ... Positioning gateway apparatus 11 ... Processing means 12 ... management table 13 ... storage table 14 ... user terminal 15 ... user terminal 16 ... default condition storage table 61 ... request sending means 62 ... response receiving means 71 ... request sending means 72 ... response receiving means 101 ... positioning gateway device 102 ... Processing unit 103 ... management table 106 ... user terminal 107 ... user terminal 111 ... request processing unit 111A ... request processing unit 112 ... response processing unit 141 ... request transmission unit 142 ... response reception unit 151 ... request transmission unit 152 ... response reception Means 1061 ... Request sending means 1062 ... Response receiving means 1071 ... Request sending means 1072 ... Response receiving means a ... Work

Claims (3)

A positioning gateway device that transmits terminal location information to a user terminal,
Processing means for receiving the terminal location information request condition is added that includes the user terminal or al tolerances,
And a storage means for storing past position information of the terminal,
The location information includes a location of the terminal, a moving speed, and a positioning time,
Said processing means receives the terminal location information request which the condition is added, the past position information is the position information whether stored in said storage means of said terminal satisfies a permissible error included in the condition A positioning gateway device , wherein the determination is made based on the position, moving speed, and positioning time of the terminal included in the terminal . A terminal location information request processing method in a positioning gateway device that transmits location information of a terminal to a user terminal,
The positioning gateway device includes a processing means for receiving the terminal location information request condition is added that includes the user terminal or al tolerances, a storage means for storing the past position information of the terminal, the position information Includes the position of the terminal, the moving speed, and the positioning time,
The processing means receives the terminal location information request to which the condition is added, and determines whether or not past location information of the terminal that satisfies the tolerance included in the condition is saved in the saving means. A terminal location information request processing method comprising: determining based on a position, a moving speed, and a positioning time of the terminal included in the terminal . In the computer constituting the positioning gateway device that transmits the location information of the terminal to the user terminal,
A process of receiving a terminal location information request to which a condition including an allowable error is added from the user terminal and a process of storing past location information of the terminal in a storage unit are executed. Including position, moving speed, and positioning time,
Receiving the terminal location information request to which the condition is added, and including in the location information whether or not past location information of the terminal that satisfies the tolerance included in the condition is stored in the storage unit; A program for executing a process of determining based on the terminal position, the moving speed, and the positioning time .

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