KR20170033503A - A terminal and server for signal and positioning information acquistion based on the users of service network - Google Patents

Abstract

A server for collecting signals and location information based on service network users according to an embodiment comprises: an Internet access device for accessing a terminal via the Internet under the control of a control unit; a user management device for authenticating a user to determine whether the user is a subscriber to a corresponding service or for determining whether the user is in a malicious user list; and a signal attribute and location DB for storing attribute information of at least one of radio, light, or sound signals received at a terminal location, location information of a terminal input by a user of the terminal, and time. Furthermore, a terminal for collecting signals and location information based on service network users according to an embodiment comprises: an Internet access device for accessing a server via the Internet under the control of a control unit; an authentication device for accessing the server; a signal attribute measuring device for measuring attribute information of at least one of radio, light, or sound signals received at a terminal location; and a location information input device in which the terminal user inputs current location information.

Description

Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a terminal and a server for collecting signal and location information based on a service network user,

The present invention utilizes users subscribed to a service network for collecting location information. The present invention includes attribute information such as a received signal size of a radio wave or a light or a sound signal at a specific place indoors or outdoors, a reception direction, The location information such as coordinates, address, building name, floor, office name, business name, photo, and the like of the corresponding location is collected by users who are active in the related service network, Relates to a system and a method for verifying and integrating these pieces of information and constructing the signal attribute information at an arbitrary position and a corresponding location information database.

As the scope of the service industry using the location information of the user or the object is expanded, the technique of estimating the corresponding position becomes very important. In the outdoors, a technique of estimating the position of a corresponding GPS receiver by receiving four or more US Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite signals at the same time has become popular, and service using such a vehicle navigation device has become essential. However, since the GPS satellite signal is not received in the room, it can not be used, and thus, the location-based service in the room is rarely used.

Recently, as the spread of smart phones with various communication devices and sensor devices is activated, indoor location estimation technology using the communication devices and sensor devices is actively researched and already used in some buildings. Currently, the indoor positioning service provider previously measures the radio signal intensity of wireless LAN routers installed in a room in advance at each point in the room and registers the information in a data base (DB) When the user measures the radio signal intensity of the wireless LAN router at an arbitrary position in the room, the information is compared with the previously measured information stored in the DB, Is a WiFi fingerprint method.

The advantage of this method is that there is no separate large unit cost except for the service server for indoor location estimation. This is because the signal of the wireless LAN router which is installed and operated in the conventional manner is received and used unilaterally. However, the disadvantage is that pre-measurement costs are incurred because the radio signal strength of wireless LAN routers must be measured and registered in DB beforehand at every point of the building. Especially, the service provider constructs the radio signal intensity information of wireless LAN routers as DB There is a problem that it can not be used at all in a building which is not used. In addition, when the material or location of the internal structure of the building is changed due to the nature of the radio wave signal, the strength of the radio signal of the wireless LAN router is changed, which causes a position estimation error. Therefore, There is a difficulty.

Other indoor positioning techniques include inertial navigation technology using a gyro sensor and an acceleration sensor, and techniques for triangulating the position of a radio wave, a light, and an acoustic signal.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for continuously estimating a position of a user in a room, such as a WiFi fingerprint method, And to solve the difficulty of continuously updating the DB contents.

According to an embodiment, a server for collecting signal and location information based on a service network user includes an Internet access device for accessing a terminal through the Internet under the control of a controller; A user management device for authenticating whether the user is a subscriber to the service or whether the user belongs to a malicious user list; And a signal attribute and location DB for storing attribute information of at least one of a radio wave, a light signal and an acoustic signal received at the terminal and a location information and a time of the terminal inputted by the terminal user.

According to an embodiment, a terminal for collecting signal and location information based on a service network user includes an Internet access device for accessing a server via the Internet under the control of a controller; An authentication device for connecting to a server; A signal property measuring device for measuring property information of a radio wave or light or sound signal received at a terminal location; And a location information input device in which the terminal user inputs current location information.

The control unit of the terminal for collecting the signal and position information based on the service network user may receive the signal attribute information of the terminal from the signal attribute and location DB of the server, Together with the attribute information, and estimating the position of the terminal.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and many modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

In the fingerprint method using the signal strength information of the wireless LAN router or the mobile communication base, a technique of estimating the position of the terminal using mainly the previously measured and stored signal strength information and the newly measured signal strength information at an arbitrary terminal Has been studied, and the indoor position can be measured with an error of about 5 m in the room. However, in reality, there is a difficulty in continuously measuring the intensity of the radio signal at all points in the building where the indoor location measurement is performed.

When the proposed technique is implemented, it is not possible to acquire the radio signal strength information at all points at all the buildings in all the buildings, and to estimate the position of the terminal at the corresponding location. However, Registering its own location information and signal strength information in the DB of the server, it becomes possible to construct the signal attribute and location DB in more buildings over time. In the beginning of the service, the indoor location service provider should perform the signal strength measurement and the location information registration mainly in the main building in the main building. However, as the number of service users increases, the voluntary DB registration increases, do. Since users register their DBs directly at their own locations, there is an effect of eliminating registration at unnecessary locations, which reduces the error in the estimation of the location. Since users continuously register the DB, the indoor location service provider directly The problem of constantly measuring signal strength at all point locations has been resolved.

In order for the user to register the signal attribute and the location DB, in order for the user to receive the indoor location estimation service in the terminal, the user may register the signal strength information in the DB at an arbitrary location known to the user in advance or provide the DB registrant with a kind of benefit Thereby inducing a voluntary DB registration of a given user. When this system is established, it has an effect of linking with a social network service (SNS) service related to indoor location information.

1 is a block diagram of a terminal and a server for collecting signal and location information based on a service network user according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear.

1 is a block diagram of a terminal and a server for collecting signal and location information based on a service network user according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The entire system includes a user terminal 21 and a service server 50, the Internet 40 for communication between the terminal and the server, and a plurality of wireless LAN routers 30 and 31 arbitrarily installed around the user terminal 21. [ , 32). Typically, the wireless LAN router periodically transmits a beacon signal, which includes its own SSID, MAC address, and the like. The propagation signal is usually inversely proportional to the third power of the distance, but due to obstacles or multipath propagation, it is very fluctuating in practice and time.

Here, a description will be given taking as an example a technique of estimating the position by measuring the signal strength of a plurality of wireless LAN router or mobile communication base station. In addition, signal property information such as the propagation delay time of the radio wave, And may be applied to signal processing for estimation. Although the description of the indoor position is described in this description, it can also be applied to the case of outdoor.

The user terminal is provided with a service network user based SW and a SW for collecting location information, and the user must execute the SW at a location where he / she has determined to register the signal attribute information and the location information. In this case, the user must know the current location of the corresponding terminal. When this SW is executed, the terminal measures the intensity of the radio signal and the beacon signal information such as the SSID and the MAC address of the neighboring wireless LAN routers at the current position. Also, when the SW is executed, a map is displayed on the screen of the terminal, and the user manipulates the map to input the position of the terminal, which is known to the user, on the screen by clicking or the like. Alternatively, the current location can be entered in the form of address, coordinate value, building name, floor, office name, business name, and the like. When the current location is input by the user, the terminal transmits the signal attribute information such as the beacon signal information, the intensity of the radio wave signal, and the terminal location information and the measurement time to the server 50 And stores it in the attribute and location DB 53.

In this process, the Internet connection device 51 of the server 50 and the user management device 52 are utilized. The user management device 52 confirms whether the user authenticates whether the subscriber is a subscriber or does not belong to a malicious user list.

In the service server 50, the signal attribute information and the corresponding location information at an arbitrary indoor location are transmitted by a plurality of users and are registered in the signal attribute and location DB 53. Therefore, as the number of users increases, Or as time elapses, a vast DB is constructed.

Since the location information and the time are registered together with the signal property information, when the new signal property information at the same location is uploaded to the service server, the time information is analyzed to determine whether the DB information is updated. That is, when the change of the signal attribute information at the same position is large, if the difference between the measurement date and time of the existing information and the measurement time of the new information is large, the DB information is updated using the new information. Wait until the signal attribute information is uploaded. If another new information is also largely changed information, the DB information is updated to limit temporary fluctuation of the signal attribute information, measurement error at the user terminal, or upload of malicious false information. If it is determined that the wrong information has been uploaded, the evaluation score of the terminal or terminal user is adjusted downward, the provided service is limited, or the information uploaded by the user is ignored or subjected to a separate verification procedure.

On the other hand, when the user executes the terminal SW and inquires the current location of the terminal at an arbitrary location, the terminal collects and measures the beacon information of neighbor wireless LAN routers and the signal strength information of the beacon signal, To the location estimation device 54 of the service server 50. The position estimating device 54 compares the information received from the terminal with the signal attribute information stored in the position DB and the signal attribute to find the most similar case, And notifies the user terminal 21 of the result.

There are various methods for comparing the signal property information (SSID, MAC, radio signal strength, etc.) currently measured in the terminal with the signal property information stored in the signal property and the location DB 53 in advance, I never do that. The most common method is to square the difference of the propagation signal intensity to the same wireless LAN router in the signal property information and sum up the sum of them, and estimate that the position corresponding to the signal with the smallest sum size is the location of the terminal. In order to reduce the possible position estimation errors, when measuring the signal property information in advance in the room, it is necessary to measure the space narrowly and measure frequently.

On the other hand, a function of estimating the position of the terminal may be performed in the terminal. That is, when the user terminal 21 queries its own location, the service server 50 transmits the signal attribute and location information corresponding to its own approximate location to the signal attribute and location DB 53 of the service server 50, And can estimate the indoor position of the current user terminal 21 by comparing the signal property information of neighbor wireless LAN routers measured by the terminal 21 at the current position.

In order for the present invention to be successfully utilized, it is essential that users voluntarily register signal information and location information. Therefore, it is necessary to have a function of inducing the user to register the signal attribute information and the position information in a place where he / she knows the indoor position surely, and it is important to monitor and limit the registration of the wrong indoor position information by mistake or intention .

In order to secure accurate signal property information and position information, the user may upload the picture around the terminal together with the signal property information to the service server. In this case, the service server can estimate the location of the terminal by comparing and analyzing with the existing photo database.

In the case of using the received signal strength (RSS) of the neighboring wireless LAN router among the measured signal property information, since the RSS measurement values may be relatively different from each other depending on the terminal due to difference in reception sensitivity of the terminal, In comparing the RSS values measured by the terminal with the RSS values stored in the existing signal attribute and position DB 53 to estimate the current position of the terminal, the RSS values are compared in an absolute manner and compared in a relative manner Accurate. In other words, as shown in Fig. 1 below, even if the same wireless LAN routers are measured at the same place and at the same time, the difference in RSS values generally occurs when the reception sensitivities of the terminals are different. That is, although there is an absolute difference between RSS values, the ratio of relative RSS values is maintained. Therefore, when estimating the current position of the terminal, an error is generated based on an absolute RSS value, so it is necessary to compare patterns of relative RSS values.

        (a) Terminal 1 (b) Terminal 2

  Figure 1. RSS patterns of the same wireless LAN routers according to difference of reception sensitivity of terminals

On the other hand, there is an apparatus that can measure accurate coordinate values in the room as in the TDOA method. In this case, there is an advantage in that it is possible to measure the position coordinates of the terminal very accurately, though it is burdensome to install the device. If there is a device capable of accurately measuring the coordinates of the terminal in the vicinity of the user, the terminal can automatically receive the location information from the terminal without inputting its own location information into the signal property and location DB 53 through the terminal And to upload the signal attribute information and the corresponding position information to the signal attribute and position DB 53. [ In this case, it is highly likely that the location information is very accurate. Therefore, it is highly reliable when storing or updating data in the DB.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. will be. The scope of the invention will be determined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims (7)

A service network user-based signal and location information collection server,
An internet connection device for connecting to the terminal through the Internet under the control of the control part;
A user management device for authenticating whether the user is a subscriber to the service or whether the user belongs to a malicious user list; And
A signal attribute for storing the attribute information of at least one of the radio wave or the light and sound signals received at the terminal location and the location information and the time of the corresponding terminal inputted by the terminal user,
A server for collecting signal and location information based on a service network user.
The method according to claim 1,
A service network user-based signal and location information collection server,
A position estimating unit for estimating a position of the user terminal by processing the signal attribute and the attribute information of the signal at an arbitrary position stored in the position DB and the signal attribute information received at an arbitrary user terminal position,
And a server for collecting signal and location information based on a service network user.
3. The method of claim 2,
A position estimation apparatus for estimating a position of a user terminal,
A function of comparing the signal attribute information measured in the terminal and the signal attribute information already stored in the signal attribute and the position DB to compare the relative size of the signal attribute information when estimating the current position of the terminal
And a server for collecting signal and location information based on a service network user.
3. The method of claim 2,
A position estimation apparatus for estimating a position of a user terminal,
The user uploads a picture around the terminal together with the signal attribute information to the server, and the server or the separate picture storage and analysis server compares and analyzes the stored picture DB with the function of estimating the position of the terminal
And a server for collecting signal and location information based on a service network user.
A terminal for collecting signals and location information based on a service network user,
An internet connection device for connecting to the server via the Internet under the control of the control unit;
An authentication device for connecting to the server; And
A signal property measurement device for measuring property information of at least one of a radio wave or light or sound signal received at a terminal location; And
The terminal user inputs the current location information by using the location information input device
And a terminal for collecting signal and location information based on the service network user.
6. The method of claim 5,
The control unit of the terminal for collecting the signal and position information based on the service network user,
Receiving the signal attribute of the server and the signal attribute information of the surrounding of the terminal from the location DB, processing the received signal attribute information together with the signal attribute information measured at the terminal location, and estimating the location of the terminal
And a terminal for collecting signal and location information based on a service network user.
6. The method of claim 5,
A location information input device of a terminal for collecting signal and location information based on a service network user,
When the current position information of the terminal is provided from another position measuring apparatus, the information is automatically inputted to the above-mentioned signal attribute and position DB
And a terminal for collecting signal and location information based on a service network user.

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