Apparatus and method for estimating indoor location based on packet capture

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020367192-A1
Application number	US-202016853557-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 20, 2020
Priority date	May 16, 2019
Publication date	Nov 19, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

Disclosed herein are an apparatus and method for estimating an indoor location based on packet capture. The method for operating an apparatus for estimating an indoor location based on packet capture includes receiving packet capture information from multiple packet-collection-dedicated access points, searching a positioning infrastructure database for positioning data corresponding to the received packet capture information, and estimating a movement direction of a terminal using found positioning data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for operating an apparatus for estimating an indoor location based on packet capture, comprising:
receiving packet capture information from multiple packet-collection-dedicated access points; searching a positioning infrastructure database for positioning data corresponding to the received packet capture information; and estimating a movement direction of a terminal using found positioning data.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the multiple packet-collection-dedicated access points receives a packet transmitted from the terminal.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the multiple packet-collection-dedicated access points collects the packet capture information having a unique number of the terminal and signal strength information of the transmitted packet using a packet-sniffing technique.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the positioning infrastructure database is constructed by receiving the packet of the terminal, transmitted from a reference point in a service area, from the packet-collection-dedicated access points and by storing a signal strength corresponding to the received packet.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein searching the positioning infrastructure database for the positioning data comprises searching for a reference point corresponding to the packet capture information by performing pattern matching on the positioning infrastructure database.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein a found reference point is estimated to be a location of the terminal.

7 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the reference point is found using a method corresponding to any one of nearest neighbor search, k-nearest neighbor search, and Jaccard Similarity comparison.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising estimating a movement direction of the terminal using a rate of change in a received signal strength of the packet capture information within a preset period of time.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein estimating the movement direction comprises:
calculating, for each reference point, rates of change in strengths of signals received from the multiple packet-collection-dedicated access points; vectorizing received signal strengths corresponding to the calculated rates of change; and comparing a vector of the received signal strengths with vectors constructed in respective directions of the reference point, thus determining a direction angle of the terminal.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the rate of change in the received signal strength is used for linear regression.

11 . An apparatus for estimating an indoor location based on packet capture, comprising:
multiple packet-collection-dedicated access points for acquiring packet capture information from a terminal; a positioning infrastructure database for storing pieces of positioning data about reference points corresponding to strengths of signals received from the multiple packet-collection-dedicated access points; and a location estimation server for receiving the packet capture information from the multiple packet-collection-dedicated access points, searching the positioning infrastructure database for a location of a reference point corresponding to the received packet capture information, and estimating a found reference point to be a location of the terminal.

12 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the terminal transmits a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) packet to the multiple packet-collection-dedicated access points.

13 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the packet capture information includes a unique number of the terminal and strength information of a signal transmitted from the terminal.

14 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the location estimation server calculates rates of change in signals corresponding to a reference point from the packet capture information transmitted from the multiple packet-collection-dedicated access points, vectorizes the calculated rates of change in the signals, compares a vector of the rates of change in the signals with vectors constructed in the positioning infrastructure database, and then estimates a movement direction of the terminal based on a result of the comparison.

15 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the location estimation server allows the terminal to calculate a rate of change in signal strengths appearing within a preset period of time at a specific time point and to vectorize the calculated rate of change in the signal strengths, compares a vector of the rate of change in signal strengths with vectors constructed in the positioning infrastructure database, and estimates a movement direction of the terminal based on a result of the comparison.

16 . A location estimation server of an apparatus for estimating an indoor location based on packet capture, comprising:
at least one processor; and a memory for storing at least one instruction that is executed by the at least one processor, wherein the at least one instruction is executed by the at least one processor so as to: collect packet capture information from multiple packet-collection-dedicated access points, perform pattern matching on a positioning infrastructure database, and estimate a reference point corresponding to the packet capture information based on a result of pattern matching to be a location of the terminal.

17 . The location estimation server of claim 16 , wherein the at least one instruction is executed by the at least one processor so as to calculate, for possible movement directions from each reference point, rates of change in signal strengths acquired by the multiple packet-collection-dedicated access points and vectorize the calculated rates of change in the signal strengths.

18 . The location estimation server of claim 16 , wherein the at least one instruction is executed by the at least one processor so as to allow the terminal to calculate a rate of change in signal strengths appearing within a preset period of time at a specific time point and vectorize the calculated rate of change in the signal strengths.

19 . The location estimation server of claim 18 , wherein the at least one instruction is executed by the at least one processor so as to compare a vector of the rate of change in the signal strengths with vectors of rates of change constructed in the positioning infrastructure database, and determine a movement direction of the terminal based on a result of the comparison.

20 . The location estimation server of claim 16 , wherein the at least one instruction is executed by the at least one processor so as to predict a current location of the terminal based on past movement status of the terminal using a Kalman filter or particle filter and correct the current location of the terminal in consideration of the packet capture information.

Assignees

• Electronics & Telecommunications Res Inst

Inventors

• Ji Myung-In
• Cho Young-Su

Classifications

• H04W64/003 Primary

  locating network equipment · CPC title

• H04L43/04 Primary

  Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation · CPC title

• G01S5/0294

  Trajectory determination or predictive filtering, e.g. target tracking or Kalman filtering · CPC title

• H04W64/006 Primary

  with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination · CPC title

• H04W88/08

  Access point devices · CPC title