Localizing mobile device in vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10034145-B2
Application number	US-201415111473-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 16, 2014
Priority date	Jan 16, 2014
Publication date	Jul 24, 2018
Grant date	Jul 24, 2018

Abstract

Method and system for localizing a mobile device in a vehicle is provided. The method may include: triggering an audio system mounted on a vehicle, which audio system includes a plurality of speakers, to play an acoustic signal; and calculating a position of a mobile device in the vehicle based on a recording of the audio system's playback of the acoustic signal, which is recorded by the mobile device, and position information of the plurality of speakers. Localization may be more accurate.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for localizing a mobile device in a vehicle, comprising:
triggering an audio system mounted on the vehicle to play a source acoustic signal, the audio system including a plurality of speakers, each speaker being triggered to emit at least a respective part of the source acoustic signal;
receiving, at a processing device, a recording from the mobile device, the recording including at least recordings of emitted respective parts of the source acoustic signal as captured by the mobile device; and
calculating, with the processing device, a position of the mobile device in the vehicle based on a sample period of the recording and position information of the plurality of speakers, the sample period being selected based on magnitudes of the recording, and the method further comprising padding each part of the source acoustic signal with zero to make a length of each part of the source acoustic signal equal to a length of the sample period.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the audio system's playback of the source acoustic signal is triggered by the mobile device.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the position of the mobile device is calculated based on time differences of arriving at the mobile device between the emitted respective parts of the source acoustic signal.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein each part of the source acoustic signal has a self-correlation coefficient greater than a cross-correlation coefficient with any other part.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the position of the mobile device is calculated based on cross-correlation between the source acoustic signal and the recording.

6. The method according to claim 3 , wherein calculating the position of the mobile device comprises:
multiplying each part of the source acoustic signal and a corresponding part of the recording;
transforming the multiplied results from time domain into frequency domain to obtain corresponding frequency shifts; and
calculating the time differences of arriving at the mobile device between the emitted respective parts based on the obtained frequency shifts.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein parts corresponding to the source acoustic signal are selected in the recording based on their magnitudes.

8. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising determining on which seat of the vehicle the mobile device is located based on the calculated position of the mobile device.

9. A system for localizing a mobile device in a vehicle, comprising:
an audio system mounted on the vehicle for playing a source acoustic signal, the audio system comprising a plurality of speakers, each speaker configured for emitting at least a respective part of the source acoustic signal; and
a processing device for receiving, from the mobile device, a recording including at least recordings of the emitted respective parts as captured by the mobile device, and for calculating a position of the mobile device in the vehicle based on a sample period of the recording and position information of the plurality of speakers, the sample period being selected based on magnitudes of the recording, and each part of the source acoustic signal being padded with zero to
make a length of each part of the source acoustic signal equal to a length of the sample period.

10. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the audio system's playback of the source acoustic signal is configured to be triggered by the mobile device, and wherein an estimated starting point of the sample period is performed by coarse detection using a calculation of moving averages of magnitudes of samples in the recording.

11. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the processing device is configured to calculate the position of the mobile device based on time differences of arriving at the mobile device between the emitted respective parts of the source acoustic signal.

12. The system according to claim 9 , wherein each part of the source acoustic signal has a self-correlation coefficient greater than a cross-correlation coefficient with any other part.

13. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the processing device is configured to calculate the position of the mobile device based on cross-correlation between the source acoustic signal and the recording.

14. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the processing device is configured to:
multiply each part of the source acoustic signal and a corresponding part of the recording;
transform the multiplied results from time domain into frequency domain to obtain corresponding frequency shifts; and
calculate the time differences of arriving at the mobile device between the emitted respective parts based on the obtained frequency shifts.

15. The system according to claim 14 , wherein the processing device is configured to select, in the recording, parts corresponding to the source acoustic signal based on their magnitudes.

16. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the processing device is further configured to determine on which seat of the vehicle the mobile device is located based on the calculated position of the mobile device.

17. A method for localizing a mobile device in a vehicle, comprising:
triggering an audio system mounted on the vehicle to play a source acoustic signal, the audio system including a plurality of speakers, each speaker being triggered to emit at least a respective part of the source acoustic signal;
receiving, at a processing device, a recording from the mobile device, the recording including at least recordings of the emitted respective parts as captured by the mobile device;
selecting, in the recording, a sample period corresponding to the source acoustic signal based on sample magnitudes in the recording, the sample period including a predetermined number of consecutive samples starting from an estimated starting point and having a predetermined length, the estimated starting point determined by calculating moving averages of magnitudes of samples in a sample sequence and determining consecutive samples in the sample sequence that have respective moving averages that are larger than a threshold, the sample sequence including the predetermined number of consecutive samples; and
calculating, with the processing device, a position of the mobile device in the vehicle based on the recording and position information of the plurality of speakers, wherein the audio system's playback of the source acoustic signal is triggered by the mobile device, and the position of the mobile device is calculated based on time differences of arriving at the mobile device between the emitted respective parts of the source acoustic signal.

18. The method according to claim 17 , wherein each part of the source acoustic signal has a self-correlation coefficient greater than a cross-correlation coefficient with any other part.

19. The method according to claim 18 , wherein the position of the mobile device is calculated based on cross-correlation between the source acoustic signal and the recording, and wherein calculating the position of the mobile device comprises:
multiplying each part of the source acoustic signal and a corresponding part of the recording;
transforming the multiplied results from time domain into frequency domain to obtain corresponding frequency shifts; and
calculating the time differences of arriving at the mobile device between the emitted respective parts based on the obtained frequency shifts.

20. The method according to claim

Assignees

• Harman Int Ind

Inventors

• Yang Zeng
• Zhang Qingshan
• Zhang Guoxia

Classifications

• G01S2205/01

  specially adapted for specific applications · CPC title

• H04W4/48 Primary

  for in-vehicle communication · CPC title

• H04W4/029

  Location-based management or tracking services · CPC title

• G01S5/30

  Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location · CPC title

• G01S5/26

  Position of receiver fixed by co-ordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements (G01S5/28 takes precedence) · CPC title