WO2019222957A1

WO2019222957A1 - Systems and methods for assistant positioning and navigation based on smart address plates

Info

Publication number: WO2019222957A1
Application number: PCT/CN2018/088171
Authority: WO
Inventors: Anthony Garon Yeh; Teng Zhong; Run SHI
Original assignee: Versitech Limited
Priority date: 2018-05-24
Filing date: 2018-05-24
Publication date: 2019-11-28
Also published as: CN112205010A; CN112205010B

Abstract

Methods and systems for assistant positioning and navigation based on Smart Address Plates are provided. The method comprises: a mobile device to be positioned retrieving address-related information of one room/space from a server based on the address identification broadcasted by a Smart Address Plate associated with the room/space, and confirming the arrival of the mobile device to the room/space based on the address-related information and the distance between the mobile device and the Smart Address Plate associated with the room/space. With the assistant of Smart Address Plates, the system can confirm the arrival of a user to the destination automatically and accurately.

Description

Systems and Methods for Assistant Positioning and Navigation based on Smart Address Plates

Field of the Invention

The present application generally relates to positioning and navigation techniques. In particular, the present application relates to systems and methods for assist positioning and navigation based on Smart Address Plates.

Background of the Invention

The traditional consumer-grade positioning and navigation systems always give a user (for example, a person or a robot) rough estimation of the position of a building or room, and then direct the user to the vicinity of the building or room. However, these systems cannot confirm the arrival of a user to the building or room/space accurately. When the user is navigated to the vicinity of the room/space, it usually requires the user to find an identification of the destination such as logo or doorplate by herself/himself. If the identification of the destination is hidden or not found, the user will be confused about the arrival.

Summary of the Invention

To overcome this, this invention is designed to be used for the confirmation of the arrival of a user to a room/space accurately and retrieve up-to-date address-based information related to that room/space. It can work together with the existing indoor positioning and navigation system to guide the user to the room/space that he would like to go automatically and also to provide address related information and services of the room/space to the user.

In one aspect, the present application is directed to a system for assistant positioning and navigation based on Smart Address Plates, the system comprises one or more Smart Address Plates and a management server; wherein each Smart Address Plate is associated with one room/space and broadcast a signal including an address identification of its associated room/space; the management server is configured to receive a query from a mobile device to be positioned, the query includes an address identification received by the mobile device from one of the one or more Smart Address Plates, and to transmit address-related information of the room/space corresponding to the address identification to the mobile device, so that the arrival of the mobile device to the room/space is confirmed based on the address-related information and the distance between the mobile device and the Smart Address Plate associated with the room/space.

In one embodiment, the system may further comprise a client software running on the mobile device of the user with a map interface showing the indicator of the user’s location and the map of the room/space where the mobile device is locating. The client software may generate and transmit the query for address-related information to the management server in response to receive the signal from a Smart Address Plate. The query may include an address identification received by the mobile device from one of the one or more Smart Address Plates. Upon receiving the query from the client software, the management server returns address-related information of the room/space corresponding to the address identification. The client software may estimate the location of the user based on the received address-related information, and present the estimated location information of the user (s) on its map interface.

In another embodiment, the client software can further pre-fetch some address-related information of a location-of-interest of the user from the management server, and store such information in the memory of the mobile device. Such pre-fetched address-related information can be used to estimate the position of the mobile device in combination with the address identification of one room/space broadcasted by one Smart Address Plate with which room/space is associated when the address-related information is not available from the management server or when the mobile network is down.

In one embodiment, each of the Smart Address Plates may comprise a radiofrequency device. The radiofrequency device may be Bluetooth Low Energy device, WiFi device, ZigBee device, NFC device or the like.

In one embodiment, the distance between the mobile device and the Smart Address Plate associated with the room/space may be determined based on the strength of the signal of the Smart Address Plate received by the mobile device.

In one embodiment, each of Smart Address Plates may be configured to be connected with the management server via a gateway. In one embodiment, each of the Smart Address Plates may comprise a display device for displaying information about its associated room/space from the management server. In one embodiment, the system may further comprise one or more display devices, each of which is associated with one room/space and is used for displaying information about its associated room/space.

In one embodiment, each of the Smart Address Plates may be configured with a confidence range; and the arrival of the mobile device to the room/space is confirmed when the mobile device is within the confidence range of the Smart Address Plate with which the room/space is associated. The confidence range of one Smart Address Plate may be set as 1 meter around the Smart Address Plate.

In another aspect, the present application is directed to a method for assistant positioning and navigation based on Smart Address Plates, the method comprises: receiving, a mobile device to be positioned, an address identification of one room/space broadcasted by one Smart Address Plate with which the room/space is associated; obtaining, by the mobile device from a management server, address-related information of the room/space based on the address identification; and confirming the arrival of the mobile device to the room/space based on the address-related information of the room/space and the distance between the mobile device and the Smart Address Plate associated with the room/space.

In one embodiment, the method may further comprise determining the distance between the mobile device and the Smart Address Plate associated with the room/space based on the strength of the signal of the Smart Address Plate received by the mobile device. In one embodiment, the method may further comprise estimating the position of the mobile device based on the received address-related information of the room/space from the management server and the distance between the mobile device and the Smart Address Plate associated with the room/space.

In another aspect, the present application is directed to a Smart Address Plate, which comprises a radiofrequency device for broadcasting a signal including an address identification of one room/space with which the Smart Address Plate is associated.

In one embodiment, the Smart Address Plate may further comprise a display device for displaying information about its associated room/space. The radiofrequency device may further be configured to communication with a server over networks.

It is to be understood that the features of the various embodiments described herein are not mutually exclusive and can exist in various combinations and permutations. Reference throughout this description to "one example, " "an example, " "one embodiment, " or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the example is included in at least one example of the present technology. Thus, the occurrences of the phrases "in one example, " "in an example, " "one embodiment, " or "an embodiment" in various places throughout this description are not necessarily all referring to the same example. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, routines, steps, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more examples of the technology. The headings provided herein are for convenience only and are not intended to limit or interpret the scope or meaning of the claimed technology.

As used herein, except where the context requires otherwise, the term “comprise” and variations of the term, such as “comprising” , “comprises” and “comprised” , are not intended to exclude further features, components or steps.

The details of various embodiments of the present disclosure are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below.

Brief Description of the Figures

The foregoing and other objects, aspects, features, and advantages of the invention will become more apparent and better understood by referring to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of navigation in a building with Smart Address Plates;

FIG. 2 is an example of geo-coded address id and related information of a room/space;

FIG. 3 is the illustration of confirmation of arrival at room/space with the assistance of the Smart Address Plate.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the system for assistant positioning and navigation based on Smart Address Plates.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of the system for assistant positioning and navigation based on Smart Address Plates.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of District Smart Building Address Management System.

The features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings, in which like reference characters identify corresponding elements throughout. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. Also, the drawings are not necessarily to scale, with an emphasis instead generally being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention.

Detailed Description of the Invention

Below, the invention will be explained in detail in combination with the accompanying drawings.

The existing positioning and navigation systems always give a user rough estimation of the position of a building or room, and then direct the user to the vicinity of the building or room. However, these systems cannot confirm the arrival of a user to the building or room accurately. When the user is navigated to the vicinity of the room/space, it usually requires the user to find an identification of the destination such as logos or doorplates by herself/himself. If the identification of the destination is hidden or not found, the user may be confused about the arrival.

In an embodiment, the present application is directed to a system for assistant positioning and navigation based on Smart Address Plates, which can confirm the arrival of a user to a room/space accurately and retrieve up-to-date address-based information related to that room/space. It can work together with the existing indoor positioning and navigation system to guide the user to the room/space that he would like to go automatically and also to provide address related information and services of the room/space to the user. The system comprises one or more Smart Address Plates that can be placed on or near the doors of rooms or walls/floors of open spaces (such as exhibition halls or car parking spaces) in different floors/places of a building, and a management server for managing Smart Address Plates deployed in the system and providing address-related information and services to the user. For the convenience of description, the invention is described with navigation across a plurality of rooms located on one of the floors in a building as an example. But it should be understood that the principle described in this invention can be applied to navigation in any indoor and/or outdoor environment with the Smart Address Plates deployed.

Similar to the conventional address plate, The Smart Address Plate can be an identification or flag of a room/space; for example, a name plate placed on or near the door of a room in a building to display the room number (such as Room 801) and/or the name of the occupant (such as Room 901, Mr. X, General Manager) or function of that room (such as Room 1103, Company XX; Room 1202, Shop/Restaurant YY; Room 1203, Meeting Room, Function (s) of the Day) so that users will be able to find the room/space and know the information about the room/space. But beyond that, the Smart Address Plate can transmit identification information about the room/space it represents to mobile devices (e.g., smart phones) carried by users in the vicinity, such that the user can confirm the arrival of the destination in navigation by utilizing the received identification information from Smart Address Plates. In one embodiment, the Smart Address Plate can comprise a radio frequency (RF) module that can transmit information to nearby mobile devices. And the mobile device may be integrated or equipped with one or more RF receivers and receive signals from nearby RF devices. The RF module can be a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) device, a WiFi device, a ZigBee device, a NFC device or any other RF device that can transmit information to nearby mobile devices. For the convenience of description, the bellow embodiments are illustrated with a BLE device as an example of the RF module of Smart Address Plates. In another embodiment, the Smart Address Plate can also communicate via gateways with a server in a network. In some embodiments, the Smart Address Plate may comprise a display device which can display the real-time information related to a room/space according to the received information or instruction from the server.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of navigation in a building with Smart Address Plates. Each room/space of the building is equipped with a Smart Address Plate. The Smart Address Plate may be placed near a room (such as the door of a room) or space (such as wall/floor of a space) , and the Bluetooth low energy device of the Smart Address Plate broadcasts identification information about the room/space it represents to nearby mobile devices (e.g., smart phones) . A user (human-being or robot) is navigating with a mobile device that is capable of receiving information transmitted by the Smart Address Plates. When the user is within the signal range of a Smart Address Plate of a room/space, the mobile device of the user receives identification information about the room/space from the Smart Address Plate, and then sends the received identification information to the management server for managing Smart Address Plates, also called Smart Address Plate Management Server (SAP-MS) , to obtain the information related to the room such as coordinates or other address-based information. In one embodiment, the identification information may be a kind of geo-coded address ID. As FIG. 2 shown, every room/space of a building is assigned a unique geo-coded address ID that can position it on a digital floor plan/map. All address-related information of each room/space may be stored in the SAP-MS and indexed by the geo-coded address ID, including geographical x, y coordinates for navigation (e.g. the coordinates of the centroid of a room/space) , building code, floor code, room/space code, room/space information, room/space access right information, and other information (e.g. the distance from the room/space centroid to the wall/edge of the room/space on which the Smart Address Plate is placed) . The geo-coded address ID of a room/space is also stored in the Smart Address Plate of the room. The unique geo-code address ID can be global georeferenced x-y coordinates or an assigned ID, such as postal-building code with additional information on the floor and room number added on to it recited in reference 1 (Yeh, A.G.O. and Jiasong Zhu (2013) , “The Study and Applications of Postal Building Geocoding for Smart Cities” , Geomatics World, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 1-7) . In one example, the geo-coded address ID may be associated with and generated from the x-y coordinates of the centroid of the room/space obtained manually or automatically via the Digital Floor Plan/Map of the management server. In another example, the geo-code address ID may be generated based on the relative position of the room/space in the indoor environment. For example, the planar position (x, y) coordinates of the centroid of the room/space are compared with the lower left corner of the minimum bounding box of the indoor room/space. Their X-axis position difference will be represented by a number of digits; while their Y-axis position difference will also be represented by the same amount of digits. What is more, there will also be some digits used to indicate the floor number of the room/space. The geo-code address ID will be a combination of these digits.

With the received geo-coded address ID of the room/space, the mobile device of the user or the navigation system can decode and retrieve the coordinates and related information of that room/space from the management server. The coordinates and information of that room/space can be used for confirmation of the arrival of room/space in navigation. Moreover, with the received signal from a nearby Smart Address Plate, the distance between the user’s mobile device and its corresponding Smart Address Plate can be determined based on the signal strength of the Smart Address Plate; for example by means of RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) . A stronger signal strength of the Smart Address Plate means a shorter distance between the user and the Smart Address Plate. This will assist the user to locate his indoor location in real time and navigate to his destination. The user’s approximate location may be estimated according to the determined distance between the user’s mobile device and the Smart Address Plate as well as the retrieved coordinates and related information of the room from the management server. In one example, the user’s approximate location may be determined by triangulation measurement based on the distance between the user’s mobile device and the Smart Address Plate and the distance between the Smart Address Plate and the room centroid. In another example, the mobile device may be provided or configured with a lookup table which gives the relationships between the signal strength of the Smart Address Plate and distance between the user and the Smart Address Plate. So, the possible range of user’s position can be estimated based on the signal strength received by user’s mobile device.

But the distance determined based on the signal strength of the Smart Address Plate is not always accurate. If the user’s position is far away from the Smart Address Plate, the estimation of distance will be inaccurate. In one embodiment, each Smart Address Plate is configured with a confidence range, which is defined to ensure every mobile device within the confidence range of the Smart Address Plate can have a high accuracy estimated distance from the Smart Address Plate. For a BLE device, the estimated distance may have a 1-meter accuracy if the user’s mobile device is within a 4-meter distance from the BLE device, but may have a 0.1-meter accuracy if the user’s mobile device is within a 1-meter distance from the BLE device. So, the confidence range of the Smart Address Plate equipped with a BLE device may be set about 1 meter away from the Smart Address Plate. When the user is within the confidence range of the Smart Address Plate of the room/space that he would like to go to, he/she can confirm the arrival to the destination accurately.

As shown in FIG. 1, there are two ranges for each Smart Address Plate: the signal range and the confidence range. The signal range of a Smart Address Plate refers to the range where the signal of the Smart Address Plate can be received, which depends on the capability of the BLE device included in the Smart Address Plate and usually is about 4-5 meters from the Smart Address Plate. The confidence range X refers to the range where the arrival to the room/space that the Smart Address Plate represents can be confirmed; for example, it may be about one meter around the Smart Address Plate, i.e., 0 ≤X≤1m. When the user enters the signal range of a Smart Address Plate, the mobile device of the user will receive the unique geocoded address ID of the room/space from the Smart Address Plate. With the unique geo-coded address ID of the room/space, the user or the navigation system can retrieve the geographical coordinates and address-based information of that room/space from the management server to be used for navigation. Thus, the user can know which room he has approached. For example, the user at position A in FIG. 1 within the signal ranges of Smart Address Plate1 and Smart Address Plate 9 can know he/she is nearby room 1 and room 7. The mobile device can further measure the distances from the Smart Address Plate, for example by means of RSSI, and based on the measured distance and the geographical coordinates of that room/space, the mobile device can get an estimate of the approximate location of the user. By comparing the user’s approximate location and the final destination (e.g., room 3) , the system can assist the user to navigate to his destination. When the user enters the signal range of Smart Address Plate 3, the user can know he is nearby room 3 based on the received signal of Smart Address Plate 3, and the distance between the mobile device and the Smart Address Plate 3 can be measured by means of RSSI. If the measured distance is less than the confidence range of Smart Address Plate 3, the arrival of the user to his destination (room 3) can be confirmed.

The functions of the mobile device discussed above such as location estimation and distance measurement may be implemented by an application or a client software running on the mobile device. The application or client software may also provide the user with a map interface showing the indicator of the user’s location and the map of the user's current environment. When obtaining the estimation of user’s approximate location as described above, the application or client software may present the estimated location information of the user on its map interface. In some embodiments, the application or client software running on the mobile device can further pre-fetch some address-related information of a location-of-interest of the user from the management server, and store such information in the memory of the mobile device. Such pre-fetched address-related information can be used to estimate the position of the mobile device in combination with the address identification of one room/space broadcasted by one Smart Address Plate with which room/space is associated when the address-related information is not available from the management server or when the mobile network is down.

In addition, with the unique geo-coded address ID of the room/space from the Smart Address Plate, the user or the navigation system can obtain real-time up-to-date address-based information (such as the person who is occupying it, the name of company or shop in it, the function of that room/space, the event (s) that will be held in it, and boarding time) about that room/space closest to him from the management server via the unique geocoded address ID. Such address-based information can be used for context-aware navigation. Up-to-date contextual information (such as change of occupant, function or event, boarding gates) of a room/space can be transmitted to the user so that he will be able to know whether the occupant/function/event/boarding gate has moved to another room/space instantly during navigation or when he is in front of that room/space. In response to the dynamic operational contextual information of the rooms/spaces, the navigation system may automatically provide a recalculated route to the user.

The Smart Address Plate plays a vital role to assist navigation by confirming the arrival of the user in a room/space. The present consumer-grade indoor positioning systems can give the user (human-beings or robots) rough estimation of the indoor position. However, these systems cannot confirm the arrival of the user in a room/space. The Smart Address Plate that contains a unique geo-coded address ID with a confidence range can be used to confirm the arrival of a user to a room/space accurately and retrieve up-to-date address-based information related to that room/space. It can work together with the existing indoor positioning and navigation system that is used for tracking and locating pedestrian in a building and guide the user to the room/space that he wants to go. For example, when the user is directed to arrive nearby the destination by the navigation system such as GPS or indoor positioning methods, the navigation system or the user’s mobile device may further utilize the signal received from the nearby Smart Address Plate to estimate his real-time location as discussed above, which is more accurate than the location estimation by means of GPS. The real-time location of the user may be displayed as an indoor map symbol on the use’s mobile device by the navigation system. The navigation system may confirm the arrival of the user to the destination in responsive to determine that the user enters into the confidence range of the Smart Address Plate of the destination. Furthermore, the navigation system may adjust the route based on the up-to-date contextual information nearby the user which obtained from the management server based on the information sent by the Smart Address Plate.

As shown in FIG 3, The Smart Address Plate equipped with a BLE device is broadcasting its stored address-based information to nearby mobile devices. The mobile devices of users A, B, and C are navigating by an indoor positioning and navigation system. The indoor position of mobile devices A, B, and C can be estimated by some indoor positioning methods like trilateration and triangulation based on the indoor positioning devices (e.g., devices a, b, c) deployed in the indoor positioning and navigation system. For example, triangulation is normally used based on the angle of arrival (AoA) that is determined by measuring the time difference of arrival (TDOA) between highly directional sensors. However, the indoor positioning and navigation system just gives the user rough estimation of the indoor position. The present application can increase this accuracy when the user is at the signal range and confidence range of the Smart Address Plates and confirm the arrival of the user to his destination.

As shown in FIG 3, mobile device B is within the confidence range (0.1-meter accuracy within 1 meter from a Smart Address Plate) of the Smart Address Plate 3. Therefore, it can be confirmed that mobile device B is in the door area of Rm. 3 with its related geo-reference coordinates derived from the geo-coded address ID obtained from Smart Address Plate 3 with a position accuracy of 0.1 meter which is less than that of 5-10 meters from other consumer-grade indoor positioning systems. Meanwhile, as mobile devices A and C is not within any confidence range of the Smart Address Plates, the estimated position of mobile devices A and C are only rough locations, and thus the arrival of smart phone A and C in any room cannot be confirmed. The position of mobile device A is of higher confidence and accuracy than that of mobile device C. It is because mobile device A is within the signal ranges of Smart Address Plate 1 (Rm. 1) and Smart Address Plate 9 (Rm. 7) with an accuracy of 1 meter, while mobile device C can only receive information from other consumer-grade indoor positioning devices with an accuracy of 5-10 meters. Furthermore, if the destination of the user is Rm. 3, by knowing the relative position of mobile device A to Smart Address Plate 1 (Rm. 1) and 9 (Rm. 7) , it can help to confirm the right direction that the user is heading at position A.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the system for assistant positioning and navigation based on the Smart Address Plates. The system comprises one or more Smart Address Plates and a management server. The Smart Address Plates are placed on or near the doors of rooms or walls/floors of open spaces in different floors/places of a building. For a user (human being or robot) who would like to go to a room or a space (such as exhibition hall or car parking space) , the system will give the user the navigation route with a route map. Through the Smart Address Plates and the management server, the user will be able to find the exact location of the room/space confidently that he would like to go via a mobile device (e.g., smart phone) . When the user arrives at the address that he would like to go, information related to that address may be transmitted to his mobile device or displayed on a display board in front of him if there is one in the room/space. This can be used for finding a shop, restaurant, office room, room, car park, exhibition hall, the lobby of a building, boarding/departure gates which has a Smart Address Plate installed.

As shown in FIG. 4, the management server may comprise a Smart Address Plate management module (SAP-MM) for managing Smart Address Plates. It may also manage a database of information about Smart Address Plates and their associated rooms/spaces, control devices deployed in rooms/space, etc. The control devices of the rooms/spaces may include lock-control devices for controlling the lock of the room, light controllers for controlling the lights in the room, display devices for displaying information related to the room, and the like. The management server may be connected to the Smart Address Plates and control devices of the rooms/spaces of a building through gateways. Thus, the management server may remotely activate control devices of the room for authorized users that are verified by the SAP-MM, such as instructing the display panel of the room to display up-to-date real-time information related to that room/space or opening the door in the room/space. The display panel may be integrated with the Smart Address Plate or separated from the Smart Address Plate of the room. The management server may collect information about the current status of the room via control devices or sensors deployed in the room.

In some embodiment, the management server may also comprise a navigation module and a digital floor plan/map. The navigation module can generate or adjust the navigation route for the user based on the digital floor plan/map and information from the SAP-MM. In a dynamic operation environment, there is often real-time change in the context of a room/space, such as the change of occupant (an unoccupied car parking space is suddenly occupied by another car or vice-versa) , change of departure/arrival gate in the airport or train/bus station, change of function or event from one room/space to another new room/space. The manager of the rooms and spaces of a building is able to update the context of a room/space in real time through the SAP-MS so that the user can know the latest contextual information of the room/space that he is going to. And the navigation module connected to the Smart Address Plate-MM may adjust its navigation route accordingly. Example of this is a change to a new route to a new departure/arrival gate when there is a change in the departure/arrival gate when the user in on the way to the original departure/arrival gate. Another example is a change of the newly available car parking space when the user is on the way to the originally assigned car parking space, or the originally assigned car parking space is occupied, and the user needs to go to a newly available car parking space.

The Smart Address Plate Management Server (SAP-MS) can be used by the manager of the building to carry out real-time updating of the geo-coded Address IDs of the Smart Address Plates and address-based information related to rooms and open spaces, such as occupants, names of companies/shops/restaurants, functions and events (meeting time, boarding time) . Then, up-to-date contextual information (such as change of occupant, function or event, boarding gates) of a room/space can be transmitted to the user. When a user (human-being or robot) is near a room/space with the Smart Address Plate installed, the user can obtain real-time up-to-date address information about that room/space via the unique geo-coded address ID. The user can know whether he is in the right room/space that he would like to go to. The user can also know information about that room/space, such as the person who is occupying it, the name of company or shop in it, the function of that room/space, the event (s) that will be held in it, and boarding time. The user will also be permitted to retrieve address-based information of the room/space with the information access verification function provided by the SAP-MS. This verification function can also be used to control Internet of Things (IoT) devices of the room/space, such as automatically open the door for registered robots or disabled persons.

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the system for assistant positioning and navigation based on address plates. The system is deployed in the whole building, where Smart Address Plate gateways are placed on each floor of the building which can transform the BLE signal to the TCP/IP communication, and all Smart Address Plates placed on rooms/spaces of each floor are connected to the SAP-MS via Smart Address Plate gateways. The Smart Address Plate gateways played a key role to monitor the status of each SAP. The mentioned status of SAP may include but not limited to (1) battery level and charging state of SAP, (2) missing SAP; (3) moving of SAP to different floor of the building, (3) moving of SAP in the same floor of the building. SAP-MS will collect the status of each SAP via the corresponding Smart Address Plate gateway for the purpose of management. For example, when the battery level of an SAP is lower than a pre-defined threshold value and the SAP is not charging, then a warning message will be generated by SAP-MS to alert the SAP-MS manager to handle this incidence. Similarly, this will apply to missing SAP and moving of SAP from one location to another without the authorization of the SAP-MS manager.

The SAP-MS of each building in a district can be connected through the Internet or Cloud to form a District Smart Building Address Management System (DSBA-MS) as shown in FIG. 6. Smart Address Plates in each building are connected to the DSBA-MS via the SAP-MS of each building in the district. This can help to guide a user from the outdoor environment via outdoor navigation to the exact room/space of a building that the user would like to go via the navigation system with the assistance of the Smart Address Plates.

The foregoing description of various embodiments of the claimed subject matter has been provided for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the claimed subject matter to the precise forms disclosed. The terms and expressions employed herein are used as terms and expressions of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention, in the use of such terms and expressions, of excluding any equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof. Embodiments were chosen and described in order to best describe the principles of the invention and its practical application, thereby enabling others skilled in the relevant art to understand the claimed subject matter, the various embodiments and with various modifications that are suited to the particular use contemplated. So, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that other embodiments incorporating the concepts disclosed herein may be used without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the described embodiments are to be considered in all respects as only illustrative and not restrictive.

Claims

A system for assistant positioning and navigation based on Smart Address Plates, the system comprises:

one or more Smart Address Plates, each of which is associated with one room/space and broadcast a signal including an address identification of its associated room/space;

a management server is configured to:

receive a query from a mobile device to be positioned, the query includes an address identification received by the mobile device from one of the one or more Smart Address Plates, and

transmit address-related information of the room/space corresponding to the address identification to the mobile device, so that the arrival of the mobile device to the room/space is confirmed based on the address-related information and the distance between the mobile device and the Smart Address Plate associated with the room/space.
The system of claim 1, wherein each of the Smart Address Plates comprises a radiofrequency device.
The system of claim 2, wherein the radiofrequency device is one of the following: Bluetooth Low Energy device, WiFi device, ZigBee device, or NFC device.
The system of claim 1, wherein each of one or more Smart Address Plates is further configured to be connected with the management server via a gateway.
The system of claim 4, wherein each of the Smart Address Plates further comprises a display device for displaying information about its associated room/space from the management server.
The system of claim 1, wherein further comprises one or more display devices, each of which is associated with one room/space and is used for displaying information about its associated room/space.
The system of claim 1, wherein each of the Smart Address Plates is configured with a confidence range; and the arrival of the mobile device to the room/space is confirmed when the mobile device is within the confidence range of the Smart Address Plate with which the room/space is associated.
The system of claim 1, wherein the confidence range of one Smart Address Plate is set as 1 meter around the Smart Address Plate.
The system of claim 1, wherein the distance between the mobile device and the Smart Address Plate associated with the room/space is determined based on the strength of the signal of the Smart Address Plate received by the mobile device.
The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the system further comprising a client running on a mobile device, wherein the client is configured to:

receive a signal broadcasted by a Smart Address Plate;

measure the distance between the mobile device and the Smart Address Plate;

generate and transmit a query including an address identification of the room/space associated with the Smart Address Plate to the management server;

receive address-related information of the room/space corresponding to the address identification from the management server;

confirm the arrival of the mobile device to the room/space based on the address-related information and the distance between the mobile device and the Smart Address Plate associated with the room/space.
The system of claim 10, wherein the client is further configured to:

pre-fetch some address-related information of a location-of-interest of the user from the management server, and store the pre-fetched information in the memory of the mobile device.
A method for assistant positioning and navigation based on Smart Address Plates, the method comprises:

receiving, a mobile device to be positioned, an address identification of one room/space broadcasted by one Smart Address Plate with which the room/space is associated;

obtaining, by the mobile device from a management server, address-related information of the room/space based on the address identification;

confirming the arrival of the mobile device to the room/space based on the address-related information of the room/space and the distance between the mobile device and the Smart Address Plate associated with the room/space.
The method of claim 12, further comprises determining the distance between the mobile device and the Smart Address Plate associated with the room/space based on the strength of the signal of the Smart Address Plate received by the mobile device.
The method of claim 12, further comprises estimating the position of the mobile device based on the received address-related information of the room/space from the management server and the distance between the mobile device and the Smart Address Plate associated with the room/space.
A Smart Address Plate comprises:

a radiofrequency device for broadcasting a signal including an address identification of one room/space with which the Smart Address Plate is associated.
The Smart Address Plate of claim 15, further comprises a display device for displaying information about its associated room/space.
The Smart Address Plate of claim 15, wherein the radiofrequency device is further configured to communication with a server over networks.