JPH1038603A - Data carrier and method for detecting its position - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To precisely recognize the position of the holder of a data carrier by registering the position of the data carrier in a specific area in the base station covering the area and informing the movement tracing information of the holder in the area to the base station from the data carrier. SOLUTION: A system 500 is constituted of a data carrier 100, a base station 200, a host computer 300, etc. The data carrier 100 is mounted with a position detecting circuit using a high-frequency transmission circuit, a reception circuit, and an acceleration sensor. The base station 200 registers the ID number of a data carrier 100 entering its territory 400 and informs the host computer 300 of the ID number. The base station 200 also transmits a data request command in its territory 400 and the data carrier 100 having the coincident ID sends its own positional coordinates to the base station 200 in response to the command. Since the position of the data carrier 100 is registered and the movement tracing information of the holder of the data carrier is informed to the base station 200 through wireless communication in the above-mentioned way, the position of the holder of the data carrier can be recognized precisely.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a data carrier structure and a position detecting method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the recent development of multimedia, information communication has been further advanced, diversified, and increased in capacity. Among them, wireless communication has attracted attention as a communication medium for information terminals from the viewpoint of human interfaces. Therefore, various types of information for connecting wireless communication between various forms of base stations such as outdoor mobile telephone base stations and on-premises LAN base stations and various forms of information communication terminals such as telephones and information terminals. Communication systems, such as mobile phones and PHS (Personal Handyphone System)
m) is rapidly spreading. Also, with the personalization of information and communication, the spread of mobile phones has been greatly spread,
A personal telephone system using a C card and a fixed telephone is under study. In addition, FA (Factor
y Automation) system or distribution POS (Poin
t of Sale) A data carrier system based on wireless communication is being actively introduced into the system.

[0003] Data carriers are currently most frequently used for access control. This is because when a data carrier enters the management area, the base station corresponding to the specific area receives the I
The D number is registered (location registration), and based on the location registration information, entry / exit management of each data carrier, and a system located above the base station provides various information to each individual holding the data carrier. Providing personal services. However, the current entry / exit management system only manages the presence / absence of a data carrier in a specific area, and does not know where the data carrier is in the specific area. In the “activity setting,” where offices will become large open spaces and individual desks will not be designated in the future, the system will grasp the detailed location information of each data carrier, and based on that, the electronic environment and It is thought that personal services will be provided, and the current entry / exit management system cannot handle such a case.

[0004] Guidance services may be provided to individual customers as seen in theaters, museums, theme parks, and the like. If the system knows detailed location information of each person, it is extremely difficult. We can provide detailed guidance services. Furthermore, it is expected that the number of silver generations will increase rapidly in the future, but it is considered that such silver generations require some degree of location management in order to lead a safe and enjoyable life. For example, although an open area is usually free to enter and exit, it may be necessary to perform operations such as locking gates and doors into an area that is considered dangerous to a specific individual.
In normal entry / exit management, it is possible to recognize whether or not a person is in a specific area, but it is not possible to confirm whether a specific individual is in front of a dangerous door in the management area. Even in such a case, if the system knows the detailed position information of the individual data carrier holder, it is possible to provide a "free of discomfort" security management service.

[0005]

To manage detailed location information in a system using a data carrier, a plurality of base stations are set in a management area, and each base station determines the distance to the data carrier. There is a method of estimating and estimating the position of a data carrier based on distance information between a plurality of base stations. In this case, a plurality of base stations are required. Although it depends on the frequency of radio waves, it is difficult to manage the position with an accuracy of several tens of cm while guaranteeing a communication distance of several meters. Device. Further, since multiple reflections of radio waves frequently occur in indoor areas, it is difficult to estimate position information with high accuracy. On the other hand, if the base station does not acquire detailed location information, but the data carrier itself can generate its own location coordinates and notify it to the only base station existing in the management area, the system is inexpensive and tens of High-precision position management in cm units is facilitated.
However, such a data carrier and a system using the same are not presently available, and even if a plurality of base stations are used, there is a technical difficulty.

An object of the present invention is to provide a data carrier system comprising a data carrier, a base station, and a host computer, by generating self-generated detailed position coordinates on the data carrier and transmitting the position information to the nearest base station. Another object of the present invention is to enable the system to provide more detailed personal services based on the location information.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a data carrier comprising a transmitting circuit and a receiving circuit using a high frequency such as a VHF band, a UHF band, a microwave band, a receiving circuit, an antenna, and an acceleration sensor. And a detection circuit. In addition, the apparatus has position coordinate acquiring means for acquiring self-position coordinates, and traces its own movement amount by a position detection circuit configured by using an acceleration sensor, and adds this movement amount to the position coordinates to obtain the position coordinates. By constantly updating the memory, it is possible to confirm its own position coordinates.

Further, the position detecting method according to the present invention can be applied to a data carrier of a data carrier system comprising a data carrier, a base station, and a host computer. VH for wireless communication
A high-frequency transmission / reception circuit and antenna for F band, UHF band, microwave band and the like, and a position detection circuit based on an acceleration sensor using a piezoelectric element or the like are hybrid-mounted on a data carrier, and this data carrier is used. Thereby, the system is capable of grasping the detailed position coordinates of the data carrier holder in the specific area. This allows the system to provide extremely fine "human friendly" personal services to multiple data carrier holders.

Although a conventional data carrier has a wireless communication function, it cannot generate position information by itself, so a plurality of base stations which have calculated the distance to the data carrier provide information to each other, and the system uses data. Either the carrier position is estimated with coarse accuracy, or only rough location registration information per base station is available.

[0010]

FIG. 1 shows a functional block diagram of a data carrier 100 according to the present invention. The basic configuration is almost the same as that of a normal wireless card, and includes a wireless transmission circuit 1, a reception circuit 2, a CPU 3, a memory 4, and a battery 5.
Consists of Reference numeral 6 denotes a transmission / reception switching means.
Denotes an oscillation unit, and 8 denotes an antenna. Unusual parts are
The input / output port of the CPU 3 receives a signal from the position detection circuit 9 including the first and second X-axis acceleration sensors 9A and 9B and having an amplification unit and an A / D conversion unit. The position detection circuit 9 includes two X-axis acceleration sensors, a sensor voltage amplifier, and an A / D converter for an amplified signal.
The X-axis acceleration sensor detects the acceleration in the traveling direction,
Normally, a "weight" mechanically supported inside the sensor uses the piezoresistance effect (piezoelectric effect) of induction ceramics, metal or semiconductor to apply pressure to these sensor films, or a sensor supporting the "weight" , A voltage corresponding to the distortion is generated. For transmission and reception of wireless information, both the data carrier 100 and the base station (to be described later) include a transmitting circuit 1 and a receiving circuit 2 each including a high-frequency circuit such as the antenna 8 and the oscillating unit 7 described above.
Is used, the signal from the receiving circuit 2 is digitized,
Input to CPU3. The CPU 3 returns data (ID or coordinate data) corresponding to the received command to the base station through the transmission circuit 1.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the structure of a data carrier according to the present invention. Reference numeral 10 denotes a case, 11 denotes a board substrate for mounting a circuit, and shows a case where a button battery is used as the battery 5 and a loop antenna is used as the antenna 8.
And the same code | symbol as FIG. 1 shows the same member. The positional relationship between the X, Y, and Z axes and the rotation direction θ is shown at the lower right of the figure. It is assumed that the surface direction of the data carrier 100 is the X axis, and the holder mainly moves in this direction. That is, the acceleration sensor can detect acceleration in the X-axis direction.

In this embodiment, a board having a relative permittivity of about 3.5 and a thickness of 1.6 mm is used, and the VH used for transmission and reception is used.
The antenna 8 in the F (260 MHz) band is a loop antenna. The wireless communication is a half-duplex system, and the switching means 6 for transmission and reception is performed by switching using a diode. The size is 87mm x 54mm x as an example
The thickness is 6 mm. Although a button battery is used as the battery 5, if a 0.5 mm thick paper lithium battery is used, the thickness of the data carrier is not limited by the battery 5. Although a general-purpose chip is used for the CPU 3, the memory 4, and the circuit that electrically connects them, a custom I / O chip is used.
By using C, it is needless to say that the size and thickness can be significantly reduced. By using the data carrier 100 having such a structure, bidirectional communication of about 5 m was possible between the base station and the data carrier.

FIG. 3 shows a data carrier 10 according to the invention.
A position detection method using 0 will be described. Note that (S1) to (S
9) shows each step. The amplified output voltages of the first and second X-axis acceleration sensors 9A and 9B are respectively represented by V _X1 and V _X1 .
_X2 (S1), (S2). First, the A / D converter of the position detection circuit 9 converts the analog values of V _X1 and V _X2 into digital signals and passes the signals to the CPU 3. First, the CPU 3 calculates the difference between the two voltages (V _X1 −V _X2 ) and the arithmetic average of the two voltages (V _X1 −
_VX2 ) / 2 is calculated (S3), (S4). Subsequently, since the voltage difference (V _X1 −V _X2 ) means the angular velocity of the case 10 around the Z axis, the voltage difference (V _X1 −V _X2 ) and the sensor 9
The movement direction (θ) of the case 10 is calculated from the distance between A and 9B (S5). Also, the arithmetic mean of the voltage (V _X1 −V _X2 )
Since / 2 means the average acceleration in the moving direction, this is calculated to calculate the moving amount (Δx) of the card (S6). A movement vector is estimated from the movement direction (θ) and the movement amount (Δx) (S7), and is added to the position coordinates stored in its own memory 4 (S8). By storing this, the coordinate memory is updated (S9). The data carrier 100 once registered in the specific area continues to detect the position coordinates until the registration is deleted by the base station or the data carrier itself.

FIG. 4 shows a configuration example of a data carrier system 500 according to the present invention. In this figure, 100 is the data carrier described above, 200 is a base station, 201 is a communication circuit such as a LAN, 300 is a host computer, and 400 is a management area managed by each base station 200. Each base station 200 is in charge of management of the corresponding area, and the ID of the data carrier 100 that has entered the management area 400 in charge.
The number is registered, and the ID and the registration status are notified to the host computer 300. Next, the base station 200 transmits a data request command with an ID number to the registered data carrier 100 in the management area 400, and
The data carrier 100 with the matching D returns its own position coordinates to the base station 200. Further, the base station 200 notifies the host computer 300 of the acquired ID and position coordinates of the data carrier 100 as needed, and the host computer 3
00 provides a personal service corresponding to each data carrier 100.

FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 show a control flow centering on the data carrier. FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 show control flows centered on the base station. In these figures, (S11) to (S17), (S21) to (S23),
(S31) to (S34) and (S41) to (S47)
Indicates each step.

First, the data carrier 100 and the base station 20
0 performs registration work. This will be described with reference to FIGS. The data carrier 100 is initially in an unregistered state (S11), and when entering the management area 400 near the base station 200, the base station 200
00 (S12), (S3)
1), the data carrier 100 returns an ID to the base station 200 (S13), (32). The base station 200 registers this ID in the management area 400 (S33),
The host computer 300 is notified of the registration ID and the registration status. Subsequently, the base station 200 transmits its absolute coordinates to the data carrier 100 (S34). The data carrier 100 initializes its own coordinate memory based on the coordinates (S14).

Next, a description will be given of the updating of the position coordinates in the normal state. After the data carrier 100 initializes the coordinates,
Based on the method shown in FIG. 3, the movement amount is measured and the coordinate memory is updated (S15), (S16). At this time, it is determined whether or not itself is in a registration state (for example, if a coordinate request command of the base station 200 is not received at a certain set time, it is determined that registration has been canceled on the data carrier 100 side) ( S17) If it is in the registered state, the memory update of the self coordinates is continued, while if it is in the unregistered state, the measurement and detection of the coordinates are stopped.

As shown in FIGS. 6 and 8, the base station 200 first transmits a coordinate request command to each data carrier 100 (S21), (S41). At this time, if there is no data reply within a predetermined time, it is determined that the target data carrier 100 is not in the management area 400 (S4).
2), deregister the ID (S46), (S4
7). On the other hand, if the data carrier 100 existing in the management area 400 receives the request command of the base station 200 (S21), after collating the ID (S22), the data of its own coordinate memory is transmitted to the base station 200. And reply (S23). The base station 200 has a specific data carrier 10
After receiving the coordinate data from 0 (S43), it is determined whether the coordinate is within its own management area 400 (S4).
4) If it is outside the management area 400, the registration of the ID is canceled (S46), (S47). On the other hand, if it is within the management area 400, the ID and position coordinates of the data carrier 100 are notified to the host computer 300.

In the step (S8) in FIG. 3, a movement vector of the detected movement direction (θ) and movement amount (Δx) is estimated and added to the coordinates stored in its own memory 4. In this case, in order to obtain the first position data of the own station, for example, when passing through any vicinity of each base station 200, the position coordinates of the base station 200 may be fetched.

As described above, in the system centered on the data carrier 100 having the functions of wireless communication and position detection, the position registration in the specific management area 400 and the registration of the data carrier holder in the management area 400 are performed. By reporting the movement trace information from the data carrier 100 to the base station 200 by wireless communication, the system can grasp the detailed position of the data carrier holder.

Although general acceleration sensors include uniaxial acceleration sensors and angular acceleration sensors, uniaxial acceleration sensors can be used in the present invention. Applicable to this is a piezoelectric sensor having a piezoelectric effect of a dielectric, metal, or semiconductor. However, the position can be estimated with one uniaxial acceleration sensor and one angular acceleration sensor as the position detection method. However, since the angular acceleration sensor uses a gyro effect or the like and is not thin, a uniaxial acceleration sensor using a piezoelectric sensor is suitable in the present invention in order to prevent the tag from becoming thick.

[0022]

As described above, in the data carrier and the position detecting method according to the present invention, a system centered on a data carrier having a function of wireless communication and position detection is used for a position registration in a specific area. By notifying the mobile station of the data carrier's movement trace information within the area from the data carrier to the base station by wireless, the system can grasp the detailed position of the data carrier's holder. For this reason, it is more reliable, is not aware of the system, and can be grasped in detail by each individual.
Can build a data carrier system.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a data carrier according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a data carrier according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a method of detecting a position on a data carrier according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a data carrier system according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a control flow when focusing on a data carrier according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a control flow when focusing on a data carrier according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a control flow when mainly viewing a base station according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a control flow of the base station according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 data carrier 200 base station 300 host computer 400 management area 500 data carrier system 1 transmitting circuit 2 receiving circuit 3 CPU 4 memory 5 battery 6 switching means 7 oscillating unit 8 antenna 9 position detecting circuit 9A first X-axis acceleration sensor 9B second X-axis Acceleration sensor 10 case 11 board board

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Hiroshi Ichinose 3-19-2 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Claims (3)

[Claims] A digital circuit and an analog circuit electrically connected to a CPU, a memory and the like, and a data carrier equipped with a battery, a transmitting circuit and a receiving circuit using a high frequency such as a VHF band, a UHF band, a microwave band, and the like. A data carrier comprising an antenna and a position detection circuit configured using an acceleration sensor. And a position detection circuit configured by using an acceleration sensor to trace the amount of movement of the vehicle and add the amount of movement to the position coordinates. 2. The data carrier according to claim 1, wherein the position coordinates of the data carrier can be confirmed by constantly updating the position coordinates memory. 3. A method for detecting a position of a data carrier system comprising a plurality of data carriers, a base station and a host computer according to claim 1, wherein said data carrier passes near a base station managing a specific area. In doing so, the base station registers the ID of the data carrier, at the same time, initializes the coordinates of the position detection circuit built in the data carrier, and thereafter searches the registered data carriers sequentially, and executes the position coordinates from the data carrier. A data carrier position monitoring method, wherein the host computer constantly monitors detailed position information of each data carrier by a procedure of sequentially notifying the host computer of the ID and position coordinates of each data carrier. .