KR20000022231A - Location determination in a communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A location determination in a communication system is provided for an easy addition and transformation because the server is connect rated at location. Various types of services, particularly location based services using the user's location, may be provided, including street address (407), directions from a starting location to a desired location (509), and emergency assistance (609). CONSTITUTION: The location determination in a communication system includes the steps of receiving (201), from a user, a first wireless voice transmission including a verbal description of a location. Using speech recognition, the first wireless voice transmission is converted (203) into a data representation of the location. The location may include a street address or a landmark name.

Description

Position determination in telecommunication systems

Travelers, businessmen, vacationers, and many others who travel generally need accurate location information. For example, if a person is in a city or an unfamiliar place in a city, but wants to go to a specific place such as a landmark, a hotel, a convention center, an airport, etc., the person does not know how to get there, You will not even know where he is currently located.

To help people travel from their current location to where they want to go, there are a variety of navigation systems, including systems with artificial intelligence using routing algorithms and display maps. Some of these systems also assist the driver by providing audio output when the vehicle is in motion. Some systems use satellite signals and other external sensors to determine the location of the vehicle relative to a map in the vehicle location system within the vehicle. However, such a system is not accurate in determining exactly where the vehicle is located and sometimes deviates by thousands of feet. In addition, such systems are very expensive, not readily available for rental cars, and are not portable devices that are readily available to travelers.

If a person does not know his current location on foot or while in a rental car without a vehicle navigation system, he or she must choose to request information from someone in the area and to trust the accuracy of the information received. Limited to. If a person can find a landline phone, such a system has the ability to identify the location of the phone and hence the location of the individual through known tracking techniques. However, such a system cannot provide additional help, for example, the direction from the current location to a predetermined location unless the operator of the telephone system knows what the user wants. Such a system is typically not provided for cellular telephone customers traveling over large geographic areas, whose location can be best determined within a particular cell. In particular, known techniques for locating a wireless user, such as a cellular user or a radio frequency (RF) user, are expensive and inaccurate to the extent generally required by someone in need of location-based assistance.

Thus, there is a need for a way to help people find their location without the need for a vehicle navigation system.

The present invention relates to communication services, including but not limited to providing location-based services to wired and wireless users.

1 is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance with the present invention.

2 is a flow chart describing positioning in accordance with the present invention.

3 is a flow chart illustrating a method of communicating between a location server 109 and a user having a communication device in accordance with the present invention.

4 is a flow chart illustrating a method for determining a road name in accordance with the present invention.

5 is a flow chart illustrating a method of determining a direction from a starting position to a predetermined position in accordance with the present invention.

6 is a flow chart illustrating a method of handling a request for help in an emergency in accordance with the present invention.

The following describes an apparatus and method that assists users in determining their current geographic location and providing direction and / or other geographic information. In addition, if someone is in an unfamiliar location and needs urgent assistance, such as a police or ambulance, the present invention provides a server that can help get a provider for help. The present invention provides speech recognition, speech synthesis, and speech to provide services to wireless or wired users who do not know where they are, how to get to where they want to go, or how to seek emergency help with their current location. It is proposed to combine the positioning techniques. According to the invention, the user dials a telephone number for a location server, which can be an unmanned automated system. User calls are routed to a location server that uses voice synthesis technology to instruct the user about information from the user, helping to determine where the user is and the type of service the user wants, such as emergency assistance, location determination, direction, etc. Gives.

The method includes receiving a first wireless voice transmission comprising a verbal description of a location from a user. With speech recognition, the first wireless voice transmission is converted into a data representation of the location. The location may include a road name or a landmark name, and the oral description may include at least one of at least one road name, at least one highway name, at least one landmark name, and at least one building name.

In a preferred embodiment, each of the plurality of locations is stored in the database as a data representation along with a corresponding road name, a corresponding landmark name, and a corresponding grid reference. When the data representation for the location does not match one of the plurality of locations stored in the database, the user location is determined using wireless transmission location technology. Additionally, the method may further include adaptively learning by storing the user's location and storing the corresponding radio frequency signal as determined by the radio transmission location technology to further aid in location determination.

The first wireless voice transmission may be routed to a location server, talks to the user to determine the type of service, and may be a location-based service. In addition, the present invention can be applied to wired voice transmission.

Additional steps include the use of speech synthesis by the location server to convert a series of questions upon receipt into a transmission signal that can be heard by the user, and verbal representation of a plurality of stored data representations of the location using speech synthesis. Converting the series of responses to the series of questions into a data representation in a format processable by the location server to determine whether it corresponds to the data representation of the location referred to by.

A request for the type of service may also be sent. A second wireless transmission is received that includes the type of service. The second radio transmission is converted into a data representation of the service type, and the data representation for the service type and the data representation for the location are treated as information useful to the user. Messages that provide information to the user are automatically sent.

The location-based service may be a request for a road name of a given location. In this case, the processing step may further comprise determining a first grid reference from the data representation for the position at which the position is the starting position, and determining a second grid reference for the predetermined position. Using a memory map having a first grid reference and a second grid reference, the direction from the starting position to the predetermined position is determined. The direction is translated into a third wireless voice transmission sent to the user. Optionally, the memory map may be updated with road construction information such that a direction for avoiding the use of a road or an elevated road currently under construction is determined.

The location-based service may be a request for emergency help for a given location, where a message is sent to the provider for the type of emergency help requesting the type of emergency help to be sent to the given location. The provider for the type of emergency assistance sends the estimated time of arrival of the type of emergency assistance requested and a message is sent to the user indicating the estimated time of arrival.

A block diagram of a communication system according to the invention is shown in FIG. The wireless communication unit 101 sends a user request for service to a wireless base station 103, also known as a relay. The wireless communication unit 101 can be a cellular telephone, a two-way radio with telephone interconnect capability, and the like. The base station 103 sends a call to the call router 105, which routes the call to the location server 109 corresponding to the telephone number dialed by the communication unit 101. The user of the wireless communication unit 107, such as a toll telephone, standard telephone, or cordless telephone, may also dial the location server 109 to receive the service.

The location server 109 basically consists of a data processor 111, such as a POWER PC 603/66 microprocessor available from Motorola. The processor may access the speech recognition module 113, which receives the digitized voice transmitted to the location server 109 and converts the digitized voice into a digital signal for use by the data processor 111. Based on the information received from the speech recognition module 113, the data processor 111 can request more information by asking the user of the communication unit 101 or 107, in particular where the user is or what form the user is. Determine if you are requesting services. Such a question is provided through the voice recognition module 117, which is a voice transmission that can be heard by the user after demodulation by the user's communication unit 101 or 102 when the stored questions are taken and transmitted over the communication channel. Convert them. For example, the commercially available "Software Developer's Kit for Microprocessors" available from Learnout & Hauspie can do both speech recognition and synthesis.

The data processor 111 also accesses the location database 115, from which the data processor 111 can match stored location information, such as addresses and landmark names, with user information converted to digital information. If there is a match between the information from the user of the communication unit 101 or 107 and the information in the database, the data processor 111 knows that it locates the user or the request location of the user. The location database 115 includes street and road names or road names including highway names and / or street addresses for each geographical location. Each geographic location also has a corresponding landmark name. Landmark names include, for example, restaurant names, companies, airports, interesting historic places, bus stops, train stations, buildings, and the like. Each location has a corresponding grid reference, in addition to having a road name and a landmark name. Each region has a grid reference in terms of X and Y coordinates so that a correlation can be provided between two different geographical locations. Such X and Y components may be, for example, longitude and latitude components.

A flowchart describing the location determination by the location server 109 is shown in FIG. In step 201, a voice transmission with a verbal description of the location is received. In step 203, voice transmission is converted into a data representation of the spoken location using a speech recognition technique such as provided by speech recognition module 113. In step 205, it is determined whether the location, converted to the format of the data representation, is found in the location database 115. If the location is in database 115, the procedure proceeds to step 215. If the location is not in the database at step 205, the procedure proceeds to step 207, where the location server communicates with the user of the communication unit 101 or 107 to determine the location. 3 illustrates a method for providing a conversation technique. In step 209, it is determined if the location from step 207 is found in the location database 115. If the location is found in step 207, the procedure proceeds to step 215.

If no location is found in the database at step 209, the procedure proceeds to step 211. At step 211, the location is determined using an AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location), a wireless transmission location technology such as a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS), and other techniques as known in the art. For example, "Method and Apparatus for Determinig the Location of a Wireless Communication System Subscriber, filed on behalf of Eugene J. Bruckert et al. On June 12, 1996, with the same assignee as the present application, incorporated by reference. See US Patent Application No. 08 / XXX, XXX entitled ". In step 213, the location server learns adaptively from the location determination step 211 by storing the transmission parameters along with the associated location. Such transmission parameters include signal strength, bit error rate, and signal delay scatter plot.

The procedure then proceeds to step 215 where the location database sends a request to the user of the type of service desired by the user. This request is in the form of a speech synthesis message informing the user of a particular response. The user can respond by verbally stating one of the selection numbers or by pressing a particular button or set of buttons on the telephone keypad. In a preferred embodiment, the service type is a location-based service. For example, one type of service may be a request for a road name of a particular location where the user knows the landmark name but does not know the road name, but can find a location from the road name. For example, a user may want to know the address for a particular restaurant, but once the address is known, the restaurant may be found. Another service may be a request for a direction from a departure location to a location. Another type of service may be an emergency task naming service such as a firefighter, police, or ambulance. In this situation, a person may be in a remote area or may not know where he is, but has a wireless communication unit such as a cellular telephone and needs an ambulance or other emergency assistance dispatched at that location. Finally, the user can ask the live operator or another person, the location server, to speak to the person who routes the call.

In step 219, the service type and location are processed with information useful to the user. If the user requests a road name, the road name corresponding to the location provided to the user in step 201 is provided to the user. See Figure 4 and its related text for further details. For example, if a user requests a direction from one location to another, the location server 109 will provide a direction from the starting location to the predetermined location. In addition, road construction information may also be entered into the database so that directions are provided to avoid roads or highways currently under road construction when directions are determined by location server 109. Various sets of directions are provided in this way. See Figure 5 and its related text for further details. If the user asks for emergency assistance, the user may receive an estimated time of arrival as it is sent to the location server 109 after requesting appropriate assistance from the appropriate provider. See Figure 6 and its related text for further details.

A flow chart illustrating a method of conversation between a user having a location server 109 and a communication unit 101 or 107 is shown in FIG. 3. At step 301, the question is converted to voice transmission and sent to the user using speech synthesis as provided by speech synthesis module 117. Depending on the type of information shown by the location server 109, a series of questions are stored in the location database 115 where the question was formulated to obtain the information required by the location server 109. In step 303, a response to the question is received by the location server. In step 305, the location server determines whether the response received in step 303 provides the information shown by the location server 109 to properly determine the location. If the location is determined by the response in step 305, the procedure ends. If the location is not yet determined, the procedure continues to step 307. If there are more questions to be asked from the series of questions in step 307, the procedure continues to step 307. If no further questions are requested in step 307, no location is determined and the procedure ends. The following example is a conversation that can take place between the location server 109 and the user of the communication unit 101.

Location server (109): "Hello, would you like information about restaurants, hotels, gas stations, flower gardens, or call for emergency services?"

User: "I want the name of the nearest flower garden."

Location Server 109: "Please tell me where you are now"

User: "I'm in Fourth & Main.

Location Server (109): "There are three flower gardens nearby. Able, Becker, and Charlie's gardens are closest, and Charlie's gardens are closest. Where do you want?"

User: "A flower garden of Charlie."

Location Server (109): "Go five blocks east of 4th Street. Higgs's garden is on 132th Street. Want more information?"

User: "No."

Location Server (109): "Thank you. Have a nice day"

A flowchart illustrating a method for determining a road name is shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4. In step 401, a grid reference is determined for the location provided by the user in step 201. In step 403, the road name is determined from the grid reference determined in step 401. This procedure includes searching the grid reference in the location database 115 and finding the corresponding road name from the location database 115. At step 405, the street address is converted to voice transmission using speech synthesis module 117. In step 407, voice transmission is sent to the user and the procedure ends.

A flowchart illustrating a method of determining the direction from the starting position to a predetermined position is shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5. In step 501 a grid reference is determined for the starting position, which is the position described in step 201. In step 503, a grid reference is determined for a given location requested from the user. In step 505, the direction from the starting position to the predetermined position is determined using the difference between grid references using the memory map. For example, the Trimaker 1996 CDROM, commercially available from Rand McNally & Company, provides source and destination addressed drive routes. In step 507, the direction is converted to voice transmission using the speech synthesis module 117. In step 509, a voice transmission is sent by the user and the procedure ends.

A flowchart describing how to handle a request for emergency assistance is shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6. In step 601, the type of emergency help requested is determined by using the steps in the flowchart of FIG. 3, for example, until a particular type of emergency help requested is determined. In step 603, the provider of the emergency assistance type is determined from a lookup table in the location database 115. The location database 115 stores phone numbers, provider locations, and other appropriate information needed to assist the location server 109 in requesting emergency information. For example, if a user requests to call an ambulance, the location server will look for an ambulance in the location database 115 and find a provider of an ambulance near the user's current location. In step 605, a message is sent to the provider, which requests the type of emergency help the user requested at the user's location. In step 607, location server 109 receives an estimated time of arrival for emergency assistance from the provider. At step 609, location server 109 sends the user an estimated time of arrival for emergency assistance, and the procedure ends. The next example is a conversation that can take place between the location server 109 and the user of the communication unit 101.

Location server (109): "Hello, would you like information about restaurants, hotels, gas stations, flower gardens, or call for emergency services?"

User: "I need emergency services."

Location server 109: "Do you need police, ambulance, fire station or roadside service?"

User: "Police."

Location server 109: "Connect; police car will arrive at your location within 60 seconds ... Thank you. Hi."

The present invention provides the following advantages. It is no longer necessary to have other location equipment in the master switch or base station. If the base station has location equipment, the subscriber provides much higher degree of accuracy. No route planning equipment is required on the master switch. The present invention provides an easy addition or modification of the service provided because the server is centralized in location. Wireless users are provided with location information and other services that were previously limited to car and wired users. The use of RF location equipment helps to narrow down the range of items available for processing with a speech recognizer. The correlation of RF location information with subscriber-provided location information helps to better predict and analyze wireless communication system coverage, providing a mechanism for knowing RF coverage as the wireless communication system is used.

Claims (11)

Receiving, from a user, a first wireless voice transmission comprising a verbal description of a location; And Converting the first wireless voice transmission into a data representation of a location using speech recognition Including but not limited to: The location includes at least one road name and the location includes a landmark name; The verbal description includes at least one of at least one road name, at least one highway name, at least one landmark name, and at least one building name; Each of the plurality of locations is stored in a database as a data representation along with a corresponding road name, a corresponding landmark name, and a corresponding grid reference; And wherein the first wireless voice transmission is routed to a location server. The method of claim 1, The data representation for the location does not match one of the plurality of locations stored in the database, Using wireless transmission location technology to determine your location Adaptively learning by storing the user location as determined by the wireless transmission location technology, and storing at least one of corresponding radio frequency signal information to assist in further location determination; And the location server communicates with the user to determine the location. The method of claim 5, Converting a series of questions into a transmission signal that can be heard by the user, using speech synthesis by the location server; And Using speech recognition, a series of responses to the series of questions are converted into data representations in a format that can be processed by the location server so that any of the plurality of stored data representations of the location is referred to as the spoken representation. Determining whether it corresponds to a data representation of the. The method of claim 1, Sending a request for a service type; Receiving a second wireless transmission including the type of service; Converting the second wireless transmission into a data representation for the service type; Processing the data representation of the service type and the data representation for the location as information useful to the user; And Automatically sending a message providing the information to the user Including but not limited to: The first wireless voice transmission is routed to a location server, the location server talking to the user to determine the service type; The service type is a location-based service; The location-based service is a request for a road name of a given location; The location-based service is a request for the direction of a given location; The location-based service is at least one of a request for emergency assistance of a given location. The method of claim 4, wherein the processing step, Determining a grid reference for the predetermined location; Determining, from a database storing each of a plurality of locations as a data representation together with a corresponding road name and a corresponding grid reference, a road name corresponding to said grid reference for said predetermined location; Converting the road name corresponding to the grid reference into a third wireless voice transmission; And Sending the third wireless voice transmission to the user Method further comprising a. The method of claim 4, wherein the processing step, Determining a first grid reference from the data representation for the location that is a starting location; Determining a second grid reference for the predetermined location; Determining a direction from the starting position to the predetermined position using a memory map having the first grid reference and the second grid reference; Converting the direction to a third wireless voice transmission; Sending the third wireless voice transmission to the user; And Updating the memory map according to road construction information Including but not limited to: The determining step further comprises determining a direction to avoid using a road or highway currently under construction. The method of claim 4, wherein The request for emergency assistance includes the type of emergency assistance, and a message is sent to the provider for the type of emergency assistance requesting that the type of emergency assistance be sent to the predetermined location; The provider for the type of emergency assistance sends at least one estimated time of arrival of the type of emergency assistance requested and a message indicating the arrival estimated time is sent to the user. Receiving a first wired voice transmission comprising a request for a type of service from a user; Converting the first wired voice transmission into a data representation for the type of service using speech recognition; Processing the data representation for the service type and the data representation for location as information useful to the user; And Automatically sending a message providing the information to the user Method comprising a. The method of claim 8, The first wired voice transmission is routed to a location server, and the location server communicates with the user to determine the service type; The service type is a location-based service; The location-based service is a request for a road name of a given location; The location-based service is a request for the direction of a given location; The location-based service is a request for emergency assistance for a given location; The request for emergency assistance includes the type of emergency assistance, and a message is sent to the provider for the type of emergency assistance requesting that the type of emergency assistance be sent to the predetermined location; The provider for the type of emergency assistance sends at least one estimated time of arrival of the type of emergency assistance requested and a message indicating the arrival estimated time is sent to the user. The method of claim 9, wherein the processing step, Determining a grid reference for the predetermined location; Determining, from a database storing each of a plurality of locations as a data representation together with a corresponding road name and a corresponding grid reference, a road name corresponding to said grid reference for said predetermined location; Converting the road name corresponding to the grid reference to a second wired voice transmission; And Sending the second wireless voice transmission to the user Method further comprising a. The method of claim 9, wherein the processing step, Determining a first grid reference from the data representation for the location that is a starting location; Determining a second grid reference for the predetermined location; Determining a direction from the starting position to the predetermined position using a memory map having the first grid reference and the second grid reference; Converting the direction to a second wired voice transmission; Sending the second wired voice transmission to the user so that the user can hear the direction; And Updating the memory map according to road construction information Include more, Determining the direction further comprises determining a direction to avoid using a road or highway currently under construction.