HK1079308B - Method for supplying a program-aided information system with specific positional information - Google Patents

Description

Method for providing location-specific information to a program-assisted information system

Technical Field

The invention relates to a method of providing specific location information to a program-assisted information system, wherein the information system provides at least one selection of certain location information depending on the location of a specific person or a specific object that can be detected by a sensor.

This type of method is based on program models in a computer program that handle location information, which provide information to users based on where their users are currently located or where they are located in the future. In these computer programs, users strictly receive information that they actually need at the time and place where the corresponding demand occurs.

Thus, the dimension "place" is an important aspect, by means of which in computer programs the process of providing information to a user is optimized. This aspect plays an important role in different ways. For example, the user's need for certain information depends on, for example, the location of the user himself/herself. Only certain information is needed at certain locations. Furthermore, the information itself, which may potentially be provided to the user, may in some cases be related to a location, i.e. it is only relevant to certain locations, or in a certain location it has more information content for the user. Even a communication medium that provides desired information to a user using such a computer program depends on the location of the user.

Thus, this type of computer program must be able to process the information needs of the user, the information itself, the communication media, and ultimately the location information associated with the user and other relevant objects at the current and future locations. For this reason, a sensor system is needed that can locate people and objects. The information provided by these sensors must also be representable and processable.

Background

Currently, there are many computer programs available to provide information to a user based on the user's current or future location. This type of program is called a location-based service and all have the common feature of: they contain a data model for the possible locations of people and objects.

Theoretically, in a data model, there are two possible ways to represent a place. They may be mapped in the form of geometric data, i.e. they are associated with an n-dimensional coordinate system, or they may be mapped as symbolic data linked by a relationship, i.e. as a set of symbols or names. Although most prior art systems are currently limited to one of these two possible location representations, attempts have been made to integrate geographical and symbolic locations. However, the currently employed location models have a number of limitations that make them unsuitable for providing person-specific, demand-oriented information.

On the one hand, these models, and the systems that utilize them, are based on the user's static information needs established by the system itself. The user can not or only to a limited extent influence these requirements. Furthermore, computer programs are currently typically located with only a single sensor system. Each program thus covers only a narrow part of the possible position information.

The models used all adopt different semantics. Currently, there is no known uniform representation of a place in a computer program. Furthermore, in particular, a place with a certain representation can only be converted to a place using another representation within a limited range. This is especially true in the case where different symbol locations are used. However, such a conversion is indispensable in order to sufficiently handle position information in various presentation areas, which is relevant to providing demand-oriented information.

The prior art procedures have not or not satisfactorily addressed the problem of providing information about the interrelationships of locations, which are important for the representation of locations, which may be, for example, distances; containment relations, i.e. checking whether one location is contained in another location, e.g. room 23 is contained in the second floor of house X; and an overlapping relationship. Furthermore, the prior art programs are also not able, or only to a small extent, to map the relationship between location and person, and correspondingly the relationship between location and object, i.e. are not able to retrieve or provide individual information depending on the current location of the person or object.

Disclosure of Invention

Based on the above state of the art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of providing specific location information to a program-assisted information system, wherein the information system provides at least one selection of certain location information depending on the location of a specific person or a specific object detectable by a sensor in such a way that the method can be used independently of the type or dimension of the sensor signal used for locating the respective person or the respective object. In particular, a computer-aided database structure for positions should be provided which allows simple and free adaptation to existing positioning systems. Moreover, it aims to: the accuracy of determining the location of a corresponding person or a corresponding object from the position information acquired by the positioning system is improved. Finally, it aims to: the information of the specific location is selectively and exclusively provided to the person being located and, correspondingly, to the object being located.

One solution to the object of the invention is to provide a method of providing location-specific information to a program-assisted information system, wherein the information system provides at least one choice of certain location-related information depending on the location of a specific person or a specific object detectable by a sensor, characterized by a combination of the following steps: detecting position data of a location of a specific person or a specific object by a sensor; converting the position data detected by the sensor into a location representation, associated with a hierarchy, using at least one sensor adapter that establishes a frame of reference in which the position data can be assigned a value in space; combining the location representations in a set of locations, wherein the position data of at least two locations are linked in a defined order, forming a positional relationship between the locations, persons or objects, which are located in a so-called positioned set of locations, and applying an operation of determining a match of locations as a basis for generating or providing location-related information of a specific person or a specific object.

Another solution to the object of the invention is to provide a method of providing location-specific information to a program-assisted information system, wherein the information system provides at least one selection of certain location-related information depending on the location of a specific person or a specific object detectable by a sensor, characterized by a combination of the following steps: detecting position data of a location of a specific person or a specific object by a sensor; converting the position data detected by the sensor into a location representation, associated with a hierarchy, using at least one sensor adapter that establishes a frame of reference in which the position data can be assigned a value in space; the location representations are combined in the form of a location vector, wherein the location data of at least two locations are linked in a defined order, forming a location vector relationship between the locations, persons or objects, which are located in a so-called localized set of locations, and applying an operation that determines a match of locations as a basis for generating or providing location-related information of a specific person or a specific object.

In the following description, advantageous further development features of the inventive concept are given.

One key element of the invention is that: a method of providing location-specific information to a program-assisted information system, wherein the information system provides a selection of certain location information based on the location of a particular person or object detectable by a sensor, comprising the processing steps of:

in a first step, a technical positioning system detects, for example, the current location of a person by means of sensors. The position data acquired by the sensors in this way are then converted into a representation of the location, the position data being associated with a frame of reference and with a hierarchy, wherein the position data can be assigned spatially in the reference system.

The location representations are then combined in a set of locations and/or combined in the form of a position vector, each location representation being associated with a respective frame of reference and with a hierarchy specific to the respective frame of reference, wherein the location representations of at least two locations are linked in a determined order. Preferably, after the previous step of forming a set of places, respectively position vectors, or a combination of both, in the so-called set of places located, the positional relationship and/or the position vector relationship between places and persons, respectively places and objects, is formed, so that if the places match, i.e. if the position data obtained by the position sensor matches the place stored in the information request, an operation is performed to finally allow the generation or provision of information of a specific person or a specific object related to the place.

In the method according to the invention, the position data acquired by the sensors are converted into a location representation, for example into coordinate values of a frame of reference, by means of so-called sensor adapters, which represent special parts of the computer program. The position data converted into such a location representation is grouped into a set of locations or a position vector, which can be regarded as the basic form of the location representation. A set of places is a set of unclassified place information that may contain one or more elements. A set of places comprising exactly one element maps a so-called atomic place, whereas a set of places comprising more than one element comprises a combined place or list of places. Individual places in such a set of places, respectively position information, are linked together via boolean operators. The position vectors contain several places in a fixed order on their nodes, allowing the route to be mapped in this way. Edges in the location vector provide information about the distance between the place nodes to which they are linked. They may be a set of locations or a position vector.

A tree structure is provided for the order of locations that are related to each other. The tree structure allows to sort the places in a hierarchy, whereby complex place structures and so-called containment relations can be mapped, i.e. it can be checked whether e.g. room X on the Y-th floor is located in building Z.

Contrary to the state of the art described above, the places themselves are not subdivided into different classes and, correspondingly, into different frames of reference, for example a single geographical (longitude, latitude) or single symbolic (place name, street name, etc.) frame of reference, etc. Instead, using the sensor adapter, the location model (and, accordingly, the method) associates each site with a frame of reference to which the site belongs. These frames of reference include characteristics of the sites belonging to these systems, including their dimensions, allowable value ranges, dimensional relationships to each other and to other frames of reference.

In addition, the method provides a transformation rule operating on a frame of reference and is able to transform sites from one to another between different frames of reference, allowing the inclusion, equivalence or intermediate distance of sites to be checked for sites based on the same frame of reference as this frame of reference and for sites having different frames of reference based on the transformation rule.

Furthermore, the location model (and accordingly the method) defines the relation between people and objects and places by modelling so-called prepositions. The prepositions may be assigned to locations of a set of locations or to locations of a position vector. Also, distance information may be added to the prepositions. Distance generally comprises a unit of measure, which may be a unit of measure, time, or location; one unit of quantity; or an operator. Distances may also be used in the position model, in particular at other points in the reference frame. Thus, it is possible to determine the location and the person, respectively, the distance between the location and the object and between the individual locations.

In addition, the method also enables mapping of the accuracy and probability of the location data, which is particularly relevant for integration of different location sensors, which often submit ambiguous location data in terms of granularity and matching to the actual situation of the discovered place. Also, if the user program requires to dynamically expand the frame of reference, allowable prefixes, distance data, and value ranges, this requirement may also be met.

Furthermore, the method enables to manage information about a location uniformly with respect to information in a location sensor, a location-specific and/or person-specific information request, a communication channel, and even a computer program. In this way, the computer program can be made to extend the main trend to personalization and individualization of the services and information provided, even dimensional locations. Thus, computer program users receive only the information they actually need and are relevant to the location where they are located.

The functionality provided by the present method represents a considerable added value for the users compared to current computer programs and provides a considerable competitive advantage to their providers. These competitive advantages are magnified because the methods and models can be dynamically expanded and used in a wide range of applications. Thus, the inventive method can be easily integrated in a computer program quickly and cost-effectively.

Moreover, computer program providers can also react quickly and efficiently to changing program demands. The model of the invention is also particularly advantageously applicable to innovative applications in the so-called "intelligent Internet". Here, by selectively providing information, the flow of information to the surge can be controlled, and information can be processed and provided according to the place. The ability to generate and expand this method, while differentiating these types of applications by efficient distribution of information handling stations, makes it particularly suitable for providing a unified platform for intelligent Internet applications.

The process of the present invention has been successfully implemented in a test model in a platform for providing person-specific traffic information. In this platform, when registered users begin a planned trip, information is sent to them based on current traffic conditions so that they arrive at a specified destination at a given time, taking into account the buffering time between the received information and the departure time, and the route preferred by the user. Furthermore, the user may also be provided with current information regarding route traffic conditions, possible traffic jams, and alternative routes during driving, depending on where the user happens to be. In this example, there is a location-based information request: when a user is driving on a highway, he wishes to receive current congestion information for his route and his destination. Thus, this information request contains location information in the form of "on the highway". To satisfy this request, the user is located by the sensor after the user begins his trip. These sensor systems give the current location of the user in the form of Gauss-kruger geographical coordinates. The traffic information itself is provided with position data in the form of highway abbreviations linked to highway exit abbreviations and highway intersection situations. The location model is responsible for mapping, managing, and converting these location data into their different forms. The location data highway, Gauss-kruger coordinates and highway, or exit/highway abbreviated names are mapped into located objects, wherein each located object is associated with a semantic frame of reference for the transport line, respectively, geographic coordinates. The route preferred by the user is mapped to a position vector, and the vehicle is given on the edge of the position vector. It is determined by a conversion algorithm whether the coordinates providing the positioning procedure match the location specification of the requested information. Also, when this is the case, the coordinates are converted into a position format in the traffic information.

Drawings

The present invention will become more apparent by the following description of the preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are not intended to limit the scope or spirit of the inventive concept.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the structure of the method.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic view of a frame of reference.

Detailed Description

FIG. 1 is a typical flow chart describing the structure and relationship of the above elements (location set, location vector, preposition, etc.).

First, a position set OM containing locations and/or position vectors and a position vector OV comprising locations detected by at least two sensors are shown.

The structure S is associated with the site O itself. This structure S maps the so-called inclusion relationship between the respective sites O. To this end, structure S has nodes K and leaves B that form a tree structure, thereby allowing a hierarchical order of places. For example, if the site is "room 1.29", which corresponds to one leaf contained in "building of company X", the "building of company X" corresponds to one node contained as a part thereof in the site "multiple mond", which corresponds to the node.

In addition to these individual location data, the method enables mapping of the prepositions P, i.e. the relation between a person or object and a place, for example "in …", "before 20 km" and "outside …". To allow this, the method comprises a set of localized places PO comprising a so-called positional relationship OR and may further comprise a vector relationship VR. The positional and vector relationships correspond to the previously described set of locations OM and position vector OV, but they are extended with the necessary prepositions P. The positional relationship OR comprises a location O and a prefix P associated with this location O, e.g. "within a 20km radius of Munich (Munich)". The vector relation VR similarly comprises a position vector OV and a corresponding prefix P, e.g. "on the way to work".

The class relation R ensures that the positional relation OR and the vector relation VR are of the same type and allows the operation OP to be transferred to the positional relation and the vector relation. The relation R is associated with the described preposition P. The prepositions P as part of them may have distance information D including quantity information, e.g. "within 20km radius of munich"; units of measure, such as "km"; and operators, such as "within radius of …".

Fig. 2 depicts the order of the location O with respect to the reference frame RS. Each location O is described by a set of coordinates KO. These coordinates KO clearly fix the position of the point O within the reference frame RS. The coordinates KO not only relate to physical coordinates, such as latitude and longitude provided by the GPS system, but the coordinates of a place can also be any type of value related to a dimension, such as a room number with a value of 1.29, or a dimension "city name" with a value of munich. Thus, there are a number of alternative frames of reference where the coordinates define the location of a place, such as a geography RS, a building RS, an object RS or a UTM-RS.

The method also takes into account the positioning accuracy that different sensor systems have when detecting the location, i.e. the specific accuracy G of each sensor system is associated with the coordinate value W detected by the sensor.

In this way, a mapping may be performed: for example, a single value W of coordinates is coordinates of the latitude D "longitude and latitude", and the accuracy of the position data is 10 m.

The coordinates KO are therefore strictly associated with a reference frame RS given by the sensor system. This reference system RS specifies which properties the respective coordinates KO must have. This can be achieved by presetting a dimension D, i.e. the value W of the coordinates KO is associated with the dimension D, which also defines the range of valid values.

In addition, the reference frame RS determines which attributes the location contains. Since there is one source per frame of reference, this source assigns a hierarchically higher position or a higher system limit to each site. If it is advantageous to do so, the reference frame RS contains the relation between the locations of the reference frame. For a room, for example, this may be a room layout mapped by a frame of reference describing the room arrangement.

Furthermore, the reference system RS also comprises conversion rules for converting locations associated with one reference system into locations having a different reference system and thus into different coordinates.

Furthermore, the frame of reference is linked to the sensor adapter, which is a special part of the computer program that receives positioning data from the sensors (GPS receiver, transponder system, electronic reservation book, user ticket, etc.) and converts them into coordinate values of a frame of reference.

The inventive method firstly and foremost allows a uniform mapping of possible locations in a computer program for providing person-specific, demand-oriented information, thus allowing relevant, location-dependent information to be provided to a computer program user.

This approach is particularly important, however, if the user's information request is dependent on their current or anticipated location. This is the case if an information request only occurs at certain locations or if the information associated with a certain user is itself defined by the location where the user is located.

In this case, the object of the inventive method is to map the current and future locations of the user and the object. Furthermore, the method maps location data associated with the user's request for information, which may be, for example, "when X women enter a building, send a message" or "message about a traffic jam on my route". An important task of the computer program using the method of the invention is to check whether a current or expected location matches the location situation of the user's information request. For this purpose, the data is obtained by means of sensors, i.e. using the above-mentioned sensor adapters.

The sensors may be different types of sensors. They can be roughly classified into intrinsic and derived positioning systems. Intrinsic positioning systems are sensors developed specifically for determining a location, such as GPS, transponder, infrared systems, etc. Derived positioning systems are systems that were originally used for other purposes than positioning, but which can be employed to determine the location of people and objects. These systems include systems for determining work hours, electronic appointment books, room occupancy plans, user statements for direct payment, and the like.

The sensor adapter converts the determined data acquired by the positioning system into a location based on the structure of the location in the set of locations and the location vector. Depending on the type of sensor and its use (installation location, purpose of the computer program), these adapters determine which frames of reference are appropriate for mapping the sensor data employed. They convert the data acquired in this way into coordinate values of the corresponding reference system. If the sensor data is directly available as coordinates of the coordinates of a frame of reference (e.g., in GPS coordinates or symbol positions), then the mapping may be direct on a site.

The locations thus mapped are grouped into location vectors and location sets, if appropriate. The structure of the places, e.g. places of higher or lower hierarchy, is mapped via the source of the frame of reference. The acquired sensor data is grouped by means of the characteristics (e.g. accuracy) of the sensors and the characteristics of the reference frame are converted into distance information corresponding to the model and grouped into a set of localized locations via positional and vector relationships.

An example is: a person is located by means of an ultrasonic device in the room horizontally 3m from the upper left corner of the room and vertically 4m from the upper right corner of the room. The positioning accuracy is 10 cm. The object reference of the room is a chair located at 3.5m horizontally and 4m vertically. From this point, the location from which the chair is derived has a distance of 50 cm.

Since the position data are usually obtained in symbolic form or, in few cases, as physical coordinates, no or only few sensor adapters are required for the position data contained in the so-called information requests, i.e. the information requests are stored for each single user or object in a computer-assisted file in which the respective information request for each location is stored. The set of places and location vectors, structures, and prepositions are mapped in a similar manner.

If the location data acquired by the sensor or established in the information request is mapped according to the method of the invention, an operation can be performed on the location data. These operations allow the computer program to determine which information is relevant to the user, depending on his/her location. For this purpose, the position data in the information request must first be compared with the locations detected by the sensors. Thus, the model includes operations such as isIn (), equals (), how far from (), and the like. These operations, which may be performed on the sites, allow for a determination of whether the sites are the same, whether one site is contained within another site, or how far apart the sites are.

If the sites involve different frames of reference, transformation rules are employed to perform the operations. First, a suitable transformation rule is found to transform the site to a unified frame of reference. In terms of a reference system, uniformly expressed in physical coordinate form, or by converting the coordinates of one location into coordinates of a reference system belonging to another location by means of stored mapping data, e.g. "building XY" corresponds to "musterstr.10, 12345 Musterhausen, BRD", or mapping rules, e.g. algorithms for converting GPS data of a UTM system into GPS data of a WGS84 system.

From this unified representation, the equivalence of two sites can be determined directly. Although the two sites are not identical, some portions may overlap, and as a result of such a comparison, the method provides probability data that can be used to map such overlaps. The distance between locations may be converted into a metric distance or interval according to physical coordinates or by characteristics of a corresponding frame of reference, such as the location and dimensions of a room in a building. The interval is associated with a particular travel speed.

Furthermore, the method described also allows comparing the position data detected by the sensor with position data of a user information request, which is either explicitly transmitted to the computer program by the user or implicitly determined by the user. Such a comparison allows the computer program to determine whether a user located at a certain location needs information and, if so, which information is relevant to the user whose location is being considered.

Claims (20)

1. A method of providing location-specific information to a program-assisted information system, wherein the information system provides at least one selection of certain location-related information depending on the location of a specific person or a specific object detectable by a sensor,

the method is characterized by comprising the following steps:

detecting position data of a location of a specific person or a specific object by a sensor;

converting the position data detected by the sensor into a location representation, associated with a hierarchy, using at least one sensor adapter that establishes a frame of reference in which the position data can be assigned a value in space;

combining the place representations in a set of places, wherein the position data of at least two places are linked in a defined order,

forming a positional relationship between locations, persons or objects, which are located within a so-called localized set of locations, and

the operation of determining a match of a location is applied as a basis for generating or providing information about a specific person or a specific object associated with the location.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the sensor detection of the position data is performed by a technical positioning system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the position data detected by the sensor is converted into a location representation form in a manner of coordinate values in a reference system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein information or characteristics of the individual location are stored in a respective frame of reference, wherein the information or characteristics of the individual location are related to a respective location representation of the location detected by the sensor.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the places are associated with the hierarchy in the form of a tree structure.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the position data detected by the sensors is combined in the set of places in a random order.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the location representation is associated with information about the accuracy with which the technical positioning system acquires the position data, and the location representation is associated with information about the distance in the frame of reference.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein said position data relating to information about the accuracy and the distance in said positional relationship are grouped in a set of places of said positioning and are associated with so-called prepositions quantitatively and/or semantically describing the relative position in space between a place and a person, respectively between said place and an object.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the information request is stored in the form of computer-assisted data and, in accordance with the operation, it is determined whether the position data contained in the information request matches the position data acquired by the position sensor.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the operation checks whether a place representation obtained from sensor data matches the place in the information request or whether an inclusion relationship exists, and

determining matching or numerical information relating to the spatial distance of the location representation obtained from sensor data and the corresponding location-related information request.

11. A method of providing location-specific information to a program-assisted information system, wherein the information system provides at least one selection of certain location-related information depending on the location of a specific person or a specific object detectable by a sensor,

the method is characterized by comprising the following steps:

detecting position data of a location of a specific person or a specific object by a sensor;

converting the position data detected by the sensor into a location representation, associated with a hierarchy, using at least one sensor adapter that establishes a frame of reference in which the position data can be assigned a value in space;

combining the place representations in the form of a position vector, wherein the position data of at least two places are linked in a defined order,

forming a position vector relationship between locations, persons or objects, which are located within a so-called localized set of locations, and

the operation of determining a match of a location is applied as a basis for generating or providing information about a specific person or a specific object associated with the location.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the sensor detection of the position data is performed by a technical positioning system.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the position data detected by the sensor is converted into a location representation form in a manner of coordinate values in a reference system.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein information or characteristics of the individual location are stored in a respective frame of reference, wherein the information or characteristics of the individual location are related to a respective location representation of the location detected by the sensor.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the places are associated with the hierarchy in the form of a tree structure.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the position vector has at least two nodes at which the locations detected by the sensors are provided in a fixed order, an

Between two of said nodes a connection is provided along which information about the route between two places is linked, if necessary in the form of an additional position vector.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the location representation is associated with information about the accuracy with which the technical positioning system acquires the position data, and the location representation is associated with information about the distance in the frame of reference.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein said position data relating to information about the accuracy and the distance in said position vector relation are grouped in a set of places of said positioning and are associated with so-called prepositions quantitatively and/or semantically describing the relative position in space between a place and a person, respectively between said place and an object.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the information request is stored in the form of computer-assisted data and, in accordance with the operation, it is determined whether the position data contained in the information request matches the position data acquired by the position sensor.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the first and second portions are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the operation checks whether a place representation obtained from sensor data matches the place in the information request or whether an inclusion relationship exists, and

determining matching or numerical information relating to the spatial distance of the location representation obtained from sensor data and the corresponding location-related information request.