WO2018056533A1

WO2018056533A1 - Location estimation device and location estimation method

Info

Publication number: WO2018056533A1
Application number: PCT/KR2017/001522
Authority: WO
Inventors: 성태경
Original assignee: (주)와이파이브
Priority date: 2016-09-26
Filing date: 2017-02-13
Publication date: 2018-03-29
Also published as: KR101793924B1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a location estimation device and a location estimation method whereby multiple user terminals periodically transmit mutually different unique information, and an access point estimates the locations of the user terminals by using the unique information received by multiple directional antennas of the access point. As a result, in estimating the locations of the multiple terminals using the multiple terminals and the access point comprising the multiple directional antennas, a low-cost terminal that does not have a display may be used, and a separate communication channel between the terminal and a control center server is not necessary.

Description

Position estimating device and position estimating method

The present invention relates to a position estimating apparatus and a position estimating method, and more particularly, to a position estimating apparatus and a position estimating method for estimating a position of a user terminal using an access point having a plurality of directional antennas.

Wireless-based location systems are already in common use, such as Wireless LAN (WLAN), Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), Wireless Broadband Internet (Wi-Fi), World Interoperability for Microwave Access (HMAX), and High Speed Downlink Packet Access (Zigbee), Bluetooth (Bluetooth), Ultra-wideband (UWB), Infrared Data Association (IrDA), Ultra Wild Band (WAP), Shared Wireless Access Protocol (SWAP), Long Term Evolution (LTE) It is very effective in terms of cost since it is used.

As part of the communications infrastructure, wireless networks can implement location systems through notebook computers, PDAs, smartphones or other wireless mobile devices, and these software-based location solutions are significantly less expensive than indoor dedicated location tracking architectures.

Conventionally, wireless-based positioning techniques generally use a variety of methods to relatively triangulate a location. There are currently no standards for wireless location solutions, and each solution is unique to Vendor, using proprietary patented technology, and does not disclose details of user location.

Conventional indoor location estimation technology is a cell ID method for recognizing the cell ID (cell identification) of the access point, multi-position positioning method using the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) to calculate the position by the difference in signal strength between base stations And a radio frequency (Fingerprint) method using radio wave strength for each location.

The cell ID method has a large error, and the multivariate positioning method using RSSI has a low throughput and an infrastructure cost burden due to interference between various access point signals, and the RF finger print method has a large amount of calculation and is sensitive to environmental changes. There is this.

In order to solve this problem, a position estimating apparatus and a position estimating method for estimating the position of a terminal using an access point (access point capable of wireless communication with a terminal) including a plurality of directional antennas have been proposed.

Patent Document 1 (Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2014-0063650, Publication Date May 27, 2014) is an example of implementing such a method.

However, the method described in Patent Document 1 should be an expensive device including a display. Therefore, it is difficult to apply to a terminal without a display, for example, a low-cost terminal installed in a hard hat or a cart.

In addition, in order to determine the location of the plurality of terminals in the terminal location information management server, a separate communication channel between the terminal and the terminal location information management server is required.

In the case of Patent Document 2 (Domestic Patent Publication No. 10-2014-0063651, published May 27, 2014), since a plurality of terminals are monitored using an AP having a plurality of antennas, the terminal and the terminal location information management server Although there is an advantage of not needing a separate communication channel, there is a problem in that the phase difference of the received signal must be precisely measured.

The problem to be solved by the present invention is to use a low-cost terminal without a display in the position estimation of the plurality of terminals using an access point comprising a plurality of terminals and a plurality of directional antenna, the terminal and the terminal There is no need for a separate communication channel between the location information management server.

Location estimation apparatus of the present invention, a plurality of user terminals; An access point having a plurality of directional antennas; And the plurality of user terminals periodically transmit different unique information, and the access point estimates the location of the user terminal using the unique information received by the plurality of directional antennas.

The access point may be installed on a ceiling of a point having a plurality of passages, and each of the plurality of directional antennas of the access point may be installed in a direction toward the passage.

The access point may be a beacon scanner.

The user terminal may be installed in a portion of the cart.

The user terminal may be a wearable device that can be worn on a user's body.

The plurality of directional antennas may receive unique information of the user terminal using the same channel.

The location estimating apparatus may further include a terminal location information management server, and the access point may transmit the estimated location of the user terminal to the terminal location information management server.

A location estimation method according to an embodiment of the present invention is a location estimation method using a location estimation device including a plurality of user terminals and an access point having a plurality of directional antennas. A first step of transmitting periodically; The access point includes a second step of estimating the position of the user terminal using the unique information received by a plurality of directional antennas.

The location estimation method may further include a third step of transmitting the terminal location estimated by the access point to a terminal location information management server.

The access point is installed on the ceiling of a point having a plurality of passages, and the plurality of directional antennas of the access point are respectively installed in a direction toward the passage, so that in the second step, the position information of the user terminal can be estimated. At this time, it is also possible to estimate the moving direction of the user terminal using the change in the intensity of the signal received by the plurality of directional antennas.

A location estimation method according to another embodiment of the present invention is a location estimation method using a location estimation apparatus including a plurality of user terminals, an access point having a plurality of directional antennas, and a terminal location information management server. Is a first step of periodically transmitting different unique information; The access point transmits the unique information received by a plurality of directional antennas to a terminal location information management server managing terminal location information; And a third step of estimating the location of the user terminal based on the received information.

The access point is installed on the ceiling of a point having a plurality of passages, and the plurality of directional antennas of the access point are respectively installed in the direction toward the passage, so that in the third step, the position information of the user terminal can be estimated. At this time, it is also possible to estimate the moving direction of the user terminal using the change in the intensity of the signal received by the plurality of directional antennas.

In estimating the location of a plurality of terminals using an access point including a plurality of terminals and a plurality of directional antennas, a low-cost terminal without a display can be used, and a separate communication channel between the terminal and the terminal location management server There is no need for this.

1 is a conceptual diagram of a position estimation device according to the present invention

2 is an example of a reception strength graph according to the movement of a user terminal.

Figure 3 is an installation example of the position estimation device according to the present invention

4 is a block diagram of the present invention

As the invention allows for various changes and numerous embodiments, particular embodiments will be illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the written description. However, this is not intended to limit the present invention to specific embodiments, it should be understood to include all transformations, equivalents, and substitutes included in the spirit and scope of the present invention. In the following description of the present invention, if it is determined that the detailed description of the related known technology may obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular example embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention. Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

Hereinafter, a position estimation apparatus and method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a conceptual diagram of a position estimation apparatus according to the present invention.

In the present invention, an access point having a plurality of directional antennas is installed on the ceiling.

The user terminal periodically transmits its own information.

The unique information of the user terminal is information for distinguishing it from other user terminals.

The unique information of the user terminal may be a unique number of the device or may be a mac address of the device. That is, it may be variously modified as necessary, and any information may be provided as long as it can be distinguished from other user terminals.

When the user terminal is located in the radio wave reception area of the plurality of directional antennas, the directional antenna can receive the radio wave, so that the user terminal is in the radio wave reception area of the directional antenna which has received radio waves. Can be. That is, if the directional antenna A receives the radio wave of the user terminal, it can be estimated that the user terminal is located in the receiveable area of the directional antenna A, and if the directional antenna B receives the radio wave of the user terminal, the receiveable area of the directional antenna B It can be assumed that there is a user terminal at.

Therefore, in order to estimate the position of the user terminal from the radio wave reception state of the directional antenna, the position of the access point including the directional antenna, the position of the radio wave reception region of the directional antenna should be stored in advance.

Examples of the user terminal include a wearable device (for example, a smart watch, a smart band, a device attached to a work cap, a device attached to a seat belt, etc.) in addition to a smartphone, a terminal attached to a cart of a large mart.

If the user terminal is attached to the cart of the hypermarket, it is possible to grasp the shopping line of the user of the hypermarket. If attached to the worker's work cap, it is possible to determine the movement path of the workers.

An example of an access point with multiple directional antennas is a beacon scanner.

Beacon scanner is a next-generation short-range communication technology through low-power Bluetooth. Currently developed Bluetooth beacon scanner can track up to 100 meters with 4 antennas and can track a total of 2000 beacon terminals.

Using the position estimating apparatus of FIG. 1, it is possible to estimate the moving direction of the user terminal by using the change in the reception intensity of the directional antenna A and the directional antenna B. FIG.

FIG. 2A is a graph of Received Signal Strength of RSS_A and RSS_B, and FIG. 2B is a graph obtained by subtracting RSS_B from RSS_A.

RSS_A is the radio wave strength of the user terminal received by the antenna A, RSS_B is the radio wave strength of the user terminal received by the antenna B.

Since RSS_A and RSS_B may contain noise, RSS_A and RSS_B may be treated as valid values only if their size is larger than the RSS_threshold.

When RSS_A and RSS_B are changed as shown in the graph of FIG. 2, the user terminal may be estimated to move in the direction of the arrow of FIG. 1 (the direction from the reception area of antenna A to the reception area of antenna B).

When the access point of FIG. 1 is installed in the door, it is possible to grasp the change in the position of the users (users carrying the user terminal) entering and leaving.

The access point of FIG. 1 may be installed in the ceiling of a point having a plurality of passages, and in this case, the direction of movement of the users may be known.

3 is an example of installation of the position estimating apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example in which an access point is installed at a point having two passages, and FIG. 3B illustrates an example in which an access point is installed at a point having three passages. In this example, an access point is installed at a point having two passages.

That is, when the access point is installed on the ceiling of a point having a plurality of passages, and the plurality of directional antennas of the access point are respectively installed in the direction toward the passage, the information received by the plurality of directional antennas of the access point is used. It is possible to determine which passages a number of user terminals enter and exit.

The radio wave information received by the plurality of access points must be transmitted to the terminal location information management server managing location information of the terminal so that the terminal location information management server can manage the information of the plurality of user terminals.

Therefore, the location estimation apparatus according to the present invention preferably further includes a terminal location information management server.

4 is a block diagram of the present invention.

The location estimating apparatus of the present invention includes a user terminal, an access point, and a terminal location information management server, and the user terminal can wirelessly communicate with the access point, and communicate with the access point and the terminal location information management server by wire or wirelessly. can do.

The position estimation method according to the present invention includes the following three steps.

(1) First step in which a plurality of user terminals periodically transmit different unique information

(2) an access point estimating the position of the user terminal using the unique information received by a plurality of directional antennas

(3) the access point transmits the estimated terminal location to the terminal location information management server;

In the second step, when estimating the position information of the user terminal, it may also estimate the movement direction of the user terminal by using the change in the intensity of the signal received by the plurality of directional antennas.

Since the access point only transmits the received radio wave strength to the terminal location information management server, and the location of the user terminal may be determined by the terminal location information management server, the location estimation method according to the present invention may be modified as follows. .

(2) a second step of the access point transmitting the unique information received by the plurality of directional antennas to the terminal location information management server managing the terminal location information;

(3) the terminal location information management server estimating the location of the user terminal based on the received information;

In the conventional multi-antenna-based beacon scanner, it increases the scannable signal by allocating different channels for each antenna. In contrast, the present invention uses the same channel between the directional antennas of one access point. Therefore, when one user terminal moves while generating the same signal, the directional antennas of one access point may sequentially detect signals of the moving user terminals, and thus may know the moving direction of the user terminal.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and the scope of application is not limited, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention as claimed in the claims.

Claims

A plurality of user terminals;

An access point having a plurality of directional antennas;

Including,

The plurality of user terminals periodically transmit different unique information,

And the access point estimates the location of the user terminal using the unique information received by a plurality of directional antennas.
The method according to claim 1,

And the access point is installed on a ceiling of a point having a plurality of passages, and the plurality of directional antennas of the access point are each installed in a direction toward the passage.
The method according to claim 1,

And the access point is a beacon scanner.
The method according to claim 1,

And the user terminal is installed at a portion of the cart.
The method according to claim 1,

And the user terminal is a wearable device that can be worn on a user's body.
The method according to claim 1,

Further comprising a terminal location information management server,

And the access point transmits an estimated position of the user terminal to the terminal location information management server.
The method according to claim 1,

And the plurality of directional antennas receive unique information of the user terminal using the same channel.
A location estimation method using a location estimation device including a plurality of user terminals and an access point having a plurality of directional antennas,

A first step of the plurality of user terminals periodically transmitting different unique information;

A second step of estimating a location of the user terminal using the unique information received by a plurality of directional antennas;

Position estimation method comprising a.
The method according to claim 8,

And a third step of transmitting the terminal location estimated by the access point to a terminal location information management server.
The method according to claim 8,

The access point is installed on the ceiling of a point having a plurality of passages, and the plurality of directional antennas of the access point are respectively installed in a direction toward the passage,

In the second step, when estimating the position information of the user terminal, the position estimation method characterized in that to estimate the movement direction of the user terminal using the change in the intensity of the signal received by the plurality of directional antennas.
A location estimation method using a location estimation device including a plurality of user terminals, an access point having a plurality of directional antennas, and a terminal location management server,

A first step of the plurality of user terminals periodically transmitting different unique information;

The access point transmits the unique information received by a plurality of directional antennas to a terminal location information management server managing terminal location information;

The terminal location information management server, the third step of estimating the location of the user terminal based on the received information;

Position estimation method comprising a.
The method according to claim 11,

The access point is installed on the ceiling of a point having a plurality of passages, and the plurality of directional antennas of the access point are respectively installed in a direction toward the passage,

In the third step, when estimating the position information of the user terminal, the position estimation method characterized in that to estimate the movement direction of the user terminal using the change in the intensity of the signal received by the plurality of directional antennas.