JP3296261B2 - Terminal device, information providing system, information obtaining method, information providing method, and recording medium - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a terminal device such as a portable computer capable of receiving position information by receiving radio waves from a satellite such as a GPS, and to providing information relating to the position information. The present invention relates to a system and an information acquisition and provision method for acquiring or providing information related to position information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As schematically shown in FIG. 8, a portable type or a vehicle type equipped with a system capable of receiving a radio wave from a plurality of satellites 9 and performing radio wave positioning to detect a current position of the vehicle is installed. A terminal device 6 has been developed. For example, GPS
(Global Positioning System) is installed in a car navigation system, which is a terminal device mounted on a vehicle.
A portable GPS receiver such as a wrist-type or notebook-type is used for climbing and hiking navigation.
Your location is easily shown to users.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A radio wave from a positioning satellite such as GPS is received and the position information (longitude,
In radio wave positioning for acquiring latitude and altitude, it is necessary to directly receive radio waves from at least four satellites. Furthermore, in order to calculate the position information by measuring the distance from each satellite, information such as an accurate orbit of each satellite and accurate timekeeping information (clock) is also required. Therefore, such information is transmitted from each satellite as data (navigation message) 80 in a format as shown in FIG. 9, and each terminal device 6 receives this data 80 and initializes the internal data. I have. The main information supplied from the satellite 9 is time correction information 81 of each satellite, orbit information (orbital calendar, Ep) of each satellite.
hemeris, ephemeris) 82, satellite information (satellite calendar, Almanac, almanac) of GPS satellites 8
3, ionospheric correction data 84, and the like. Therefore, even if each terminal 6 does not have the initial information for positioning such as time, ephemeris, almanac, etc. in advance, it obtains these initial information by receiving the radio wave from the satellite 9 and obtains G
Radio positioning using a PS satellite can be performed.

FIG. 10 shows a schematic process of performing radio wave positioning in each terminal 6. First, in step ST81, the terminal device 6 performs a cold start in which positioning is started in a state where there is no prior information, for example, information on the time, the position of the terminal device, or the like, or the last time positioning was performed using the current location information and time. It is determined whether or not a warm start is to be performed in a state where the information at the time can be used. At the time of a cold start, the almanac is not stored in the terminal device 6 or is not valid and cannot be used. Accordingly, in step ST82, receivable satellites are searched for and captured while sequentially generating code patterns for all satellites. Then, in step ST83, if at least one satellite has been captured, the navigation message transmitted from the satellite is received for at least one cycle to acquire the almanac. 1
The cycle navigation message (master frame) is composed of two main frames each including the five subframes shown in FIG.
Since five frames are provided and the transmission speed is about several tens of bps, it takes 12 to 1 to receive one master frame.
Three minutes are required.

If at least one satellite can be acquired to acquire the almanac, the approximate current location and time of the terminal device 6 can be determined, and the values are set in step ST84. And based on the almanac and the approximate current location and time,
In step ST85, an appropriate GPS satellite 9 located at the visible position at the current position and time is selected. In step ST86, each satellite is captured by the predetermined code pattern of the satellite 9, and the distance measurement operation is started. In step ST81,
When the warm start is selected, it is determined that the information of the almanac, the current location, and the time stored in the terminal device 6 is almost valid, and the process from step ST85 is performed.

In step ST86, the radio wave from the satellite 9 is received and measured, and in step ST87, the navigation message is decoded to obtain the ephemeris of the satellite.
When these steps are performed on a plurality of satellites in the visible range to obtain predetermined measurement data, in step ST88, the measurement data is corrected using various correction data included in the navigation message, and the current position of the current location is corrected. Find location information. The position information obtained here is the position information of the single positioning performed based on the information only from the satellite. When compared with the relative positioning using the difference information described later, the included error is very large and It can be several hundred meters. When the position information of the current location can be obtained, in step ST89, the information of the terminal 6 is updated with the clock, the almanac and the current location information obtained in the process of obtaining, and a series of processing ends.

In a conventional terminal device having a GPS function,
When starting acquisition of position information such as a cold start and a warm start, the above processing (terminal initialization processing) needs to be performed. Therefore, the time required from when the position information is instructed to when the first position information is obtained becomes extremely long. For example, at the time of a cold start, it takes at least 12 to 13 minutes to obtain an almanac, and in practice, a considerably long time is required in consideration of the time required to acquire a satellite. Further, there is a case where the almanac cannot be reliably obtained in one cycle. Therefore, when position information is desired, an accurate position cannot be obtained immediately, which is inconvenient. Further, since it is necessary to operate the terminal device for a long time to initialize the terminal, power consumption during this time is also a problem in the portable information processing device.

[0008] Even in the case of a warm start, it is necessary to receive at least one main frame of a navigation message and to analyze it, in order to obtain ephemeris of each satellite.
It takes about eight minutes to perform such processing for four satellites. Furthermore, when the accuracy of the time and position information used for the positioning calculation is low or not, the calculation time becomes longer.

In order to shorten the terminal initialization time, improvement of the receiving system has been studied. Conventional single channel low-speed sequencing receiving systems, two- or three-channel low-speed sequencing receiving systems, high-speed sequencing (multiplex) 2.) A receiving system, and further, a continuous tracking (multi-channel) receiving system and a system capable of shortening the time for acquiring a navigation message have been adopted. However, even if the receiving system is multi-channeled, the acquisition time of the initial information unique to each satellite such as ephemeris does not become short, and the calculation time for the position information and the time information does not shorten.

Therefore, according to the present invention, there is provided a terminal device which can obtain the first position information within several seconds to several tens of seconds after a request for obtaining the position information is issued by using a system different from the conventional one. It is an object to provide a system, an information acquisition method, and an information providing method. Furthermore, a small-sized terminal device which can be initialized at a high speed without using a sophisticated reception system and which can be provided at a low price, and an information providing system, an information acquiring method, an information providing method and a suitable information providing device. It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording medium on which a program for acquiring information is recorded. It is another object of the present invention to provide a terminal device, an information providing system, and the like that can provide position information at high speed for relative positioning using difference information. Then, using a portable processing terminal equipped with a GPS function such as a notebook type and an arm-worn type, which is small and suitable for carrying, which can be easily used anywhere by the user,
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a terminal device, an information providing system, and the like that enable the user to immediately obtain position information of his / her current location and information related to the current position, regardless of where he or she moves. It is another object of the present invention to provide a terminal device, an information providing system, and the like that are suitable for carrying by reducing power consumption by shortening a processing time for initializing the terminal.

[0011]

A solution for the] Therefore, in the terminal apparatus of the present invention, a computer network can be connected information acquisition unit, such as the Internet is provided, rather than the initial information for positioning from satellites, acquires initial information Suitable for
Via a computer network
Upon request, the information is acquired through the computer network , and at this time, initial information for positioning corresponding to the access position including information on the access position to the computer network is acquired. That is, the terminal device of the present invention includes a radio wave positioning unit capable of receiving a radio wave from a satellite to derive position information indicating its current position, and at least satellite orbit information used when deriving the position information. A storage unit capable of storing initial information for positioning, and requesting initial information via a computer network at a timing of acquiring the initial information;
An information acquisition unit capable of acquiring positioning initial information corresponding to the access position, including information on an access position to the computer network via the network . The speed of receiving data from the computer network is 20-30 kbps, and even 6
4 kbps or more is possible, which is very fast compared to the speed (several tens of bps) when receiving data from satellites. Therefore, before a request to obtain position information is issued and before receiving a radio wave from a satellite and performing a radio wave positioning step of deriving position information indicating its own current position , a request for initial information via a computer network is made, Initial information for positioning including at least satellite orbit information used when deriving information, and information for positioning corresponding to the access position, including information on an access position to the computer network (network). the initial information con
By executing the information acquisition step of acquiring information via a computer network, initial information that takes several tens of minutes to download from a satellite can be downloaded via the network in one to several seconds. Therefore, based on the downloaded initial information, an appropriate satellite can be captured, a radio wave can be received, a process of measuring a distance can be started immediately, position information can be obtained in a very short time, and this terminal can be obtained. Power consumption for the initialization process can be significantly reduced. Further, in order to obtain data at a high speed by analyzing data measured by receiving radio waves at the terminal device, information on the approximate current position of the terminal device is important. Therefore, by connecting to the computer network when the terminal device requests the initial information, it is possible to analyze the access position of the access point, and utilizes the information of the access position, including the information of the access position, for the positioning for the access position. It is possible to acquire the initial information, and even in a cold start state having no initial information for positioning and no information on the current location, the position of the current location is several seconds to several tens of seconds after the location information acquisition request is issued. Information can be calculated and provided to the user. Moreover,
DGP as initial information for positioning related to the access position
Difference information for S or WADGPS can be provided in advance via a network.

Further, in the information acquiring step in the information acquiring section, it is possible to communicate with an information providing system in which initial information for positioning has been accumulated via a storage and exchange type information package such as electronic mail. When the power is turned on or when a subsequent periodic condition is satisfied, it is possible to acquire the initial positioning information in advance by e-mail via the network. Therefore, when a request for obtaining position information is issued, it is possible to construct an environment in which the updated initial information for positioning has already been downloaded to the processing terminal. The satellite can be captured, reception can be started, and the location information of the current location can be obtained. Further, when the initial information is obtained by using the e-mail, the network occupation time can be shortened, so that the network load can be suppressed.

[0013] Of course, in the information acquisition step in the information acquisition unit after the request for position information acquisition is issued, communication with the information providing system in which the initial information for positioning is stored is performed using a dedicated protocol, and via the network. It is also possible to obtain the initial information for the latest positioning. Furthermore, by including the difference information obtained from at least one base station in the initial information for positioning, highly accurate position information based on DGPS or WADGPS can be calculated as the position information of the current location. In addition, extremely accurate position information within an error of about several meters due to relative positioning can be obtained in a short period of time.

A series of processes for obtaining the initial information for positioning can be provided as an application program running on a terminal device, and execute the processes in the information obtaining step and the radio wave positioning step described above. A program having a possible instruction can be provided by being recorded on a recording medium such as a magnetic recording medium, an optical recording medium, or a ROM which can be read by using a terminal device or a CPU of the terminal device. Then, the program can be recorded on a built-in hard disk or ROM provided in the terminal device and loaded into the CPU at an appropriate timing to execute the process. Also, it is of course possible to provide a program provided with such instructions via a network such as the Internet.

[0015] Since the initial information for positioning has regional characteristics, at least the approximate current location of the terminal device is required to transmit this information to the terminal device. For this reason, the information providing system of the present invention analyzes the access position of the access point connected to the computer network by the terminal device, and determines the initial information for positioning related to the access position, and also the difference information for DGPS or WADGPS. It is provided via a network. That is, the information providing system of the present invention includes an initial information database storing initial positioning information including orbital information of a satellite for radio positioning, and an information request via a computer network from a terminal device equipped with radio positioning means. An information providing unit that can provide initial information for positioning via a computer network when receiving a position analysis, and a position analysis that can analyze an access position of a point at which a terminal device accesses the computer network to send an information request Part. Further, in order to obtain data at a high speed by analyzing data measured by receiving radio waves at the terminal device, information on the approximate current position of the terminal device is important. For this reason, the information providing unit provides positioning initial information corresponding to the access position, including the access position information. Therefore, on the terminal device side, even in a cold start state in which there is no initial information for positioning and no information on the current position, the position information of the current position can be obtained within several seconds to several tens of seconds after the position information acquisition request is issued. It can be calculated and provided to the user.

As described above, according to the information providing method of the present invention, when an information request is received via a computer network from a terminal device provided with a radio wave positioning means, the positioning information including the orbit information of the satellite for radio wave positioning is provided. An information providing step capable of providing the initial information of the terminal device via the computer network, and a position analyzing step of analyzing an access position where the terminal device has accessed the computer network to transmit the initial information before the information providing step. Further, in the information providing step, initial information for positioning corresponding to the access position is provided, including information on the access position obtained in the position analysis step.

In the information providing system and the information providing method, a function of communicating with the terminal device via a storage-and-exchange type information package corresponding to the terminal device and the information obtaining method, and a special protocol for communicating with the terminal device It is desirable to have a function of communicating using a. Further, the information providing system is provided with a difference information database storing difference information obtained from at least one base station, and in the positioning initial information supplied from the information providing system, difference information relating to the access position is included. As described above, the relative positioning using DGPS or WADGPS with high accuracy can be immediately performed by the terminal device by including the.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows several types of terminal devices 6 capable of receiving position information by receiving radio waves from GPS satellites, and a book capable of providing initial information for positioning to these terminal devices 6 via the Internet 1. 1 schematically shows an outline of a system centering on an information providing station 10 provided with an information providing system 20 according to the present invention. The information providing system 20 of this example includes a mail server 21 connected to the Internet 1 and a GPS server 22 capable of transmitting and receiving information via the mail server 21 or directly connected to the Internet 1. . GPS
The server 22 analyzes the e-mail addressed to the GPS server 22 arriving from the user to the mail server 21, converts the positioning initial information for the origin of the e-mail into e-mail, and transmits the e-mail to the address of the sending user (shipping). , Provided)
I can do it. Also, the GPS server 22
It is also possible to establish a connection with the user's terminal device 6 via the Internet using a dedicated protocol and provide initial information for positioning to the terminal device 6. Further, the GPS server 22 can access various servers connected to the Internet 1,
A plurality of DGPS (differential GPS) base stations (fixed stations) 2 are accessed to accumulate data for WADGPS (wide area DGPS), or to a WWW (world wide web) server or database server 4 in each region. The address of the server holding the appropriate information by accessing and storing the information in the database in the GPS server 22 or the processing of searching and storing the information can be performed.

The server 5 of the provider connected to the Internet 1 can be of various types such as a notebook-type terminal 6a, a wrist-mounted terminal 6b, or a terminal 6c mounted on a car via a wired or wireless connection via a dial-up IP connection. Terminals are connectable. A request for providing initial information for positioning is transmitted from these terminals 6a, 6b and 6c to the mail server 21 and the GPS server 22 by e-mail or a dedicated protocol. At this time, the position of the access point 5a accessed by the terminal devices 6a, 6b, and 6c (hereinafter, the terminal device 6) is included in data embedded in the electronic mail or information transmitted by a dedicated protocol. . Similarly, when the terminal device 6 is connected to the provider 5 via the public telephone network 7, information on an access point (node) to which the terminal device 6 is connected to the public telephone network 7,
For example, location information such as a PHS base station 7a, a radio telephone base station 7b, and a telephone number of a wired telephone that have communicated with the terminal device 6 is supplied from the location information center 8 to the provider 5, and the information is added to the e-mail. Alternatively, it is finally transmitted to the GPS server 22 by a dedicated protocol.

Further, the information providing station 10 of the present embodiment
Is capable of providing information all over the world via the Internet 1 by the information providing system 20, and also has the function as a provider described above.
Therefore, a bus (LA) is provided downstream of the information providing system 20.
N) 11, gateways 12 for various uses are connected. The access point 13 or the public telephone network 7 transmits an e-mail requesting initial information for positioning or communication using a dedicated protocol to the information providing system 20 via the gateway 12. Information providing system 20 via gateway 12
The communication by the e-mail and the dedicated protocol transmitted to the terminal device 6 is also similar to the case of the provider 5 described above.
The location information of the access point 13 accessed by the user or the information of the node of the public telephone network 7 is automatically added by a function of the location information center 8 or the like.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of a processing terminal device capable of receiving radio waves from GPS satellites and acquiring position information indicating its current location. The above-described processing terminal devices 6a, 6
Since the configurations relating to the functions of acquiring the position information of b and 6c are almost the same, the terminal device 6 will be described below. The processing terminal 6 of this example is a CPU that is a control unit.
An internal bus 36 connected to the CPU 31 includes a memory 32 which is an internal storage device having a ROM and a RAM, and a display device 33 such as an LCD.
An input device 34 capable of inputting data from a keyboard or pen, an external storage device 35 such as a flash ROM,
Further, an extension bus interface 37 is connected. A data communication device 38 is connected to the internal bus 36. The data communication device 38 connects to the server of the provider via a public telephone network or the like.
E-mail can be exchanged with the information providing system 20 connected to the Internet according to the TCP / IP protocol. In addition, using a dedicated protocol for information exchange that operates on the TCP / IP protocol, the GPS
Initial information for positioning can be obtained from the server 22. Further, a GPS surveying unit 39 is connected to the internal bus 36, and the GPS surveying unit 39 is connected to a GPS satellite via an attached GPS receiving antenna 40 or an external antenna attached to an external antenna terminal 41 attached externally. And a computer 39b that analyzes received data to obtain position information such as coordinate position and time information.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a functional schematic configuration of the terminal device 6 of the present embodiment and the information providing system 20. The terminal device 6 of the present example includes a GPS surveying unit (radio positioning unit) 39 that performs radio positioning when there is a request to acquire position information from the control unit 48, and the initial positioning information required at that time is: It is stored in a storage unit 45 such as an internal storage device 32 such as a RAM or an external storage device 35. As described above, the initial information includes time correction information of GPS satellites, orbit information (ephemeris) of each satellite, G
There are satellite information (almanac) of the PS satellite group, ionospheric correction data, and the like. Further, the terminal device 6 of the present example is provided with an information acquisition unit 46 for acquiring these initial information for positioning via a data communication device 38 serving as an interface via the Internet at an appropriate opportunity. Radio positioning can be started without acquiring initial information for use.

As described above, there are two types of methods for acquiring the initial positioning information from the GPS server 22 via the Internet.
This is a method using a storage-and-exchange type information providing system using electronic mail exchanged via one mailbox 23. Another method is to use a special protocol
This is a method of establishing a connection directly with the S server 22 and acquiring initial information for positioning. FIG. 4 shows a more detailed functional configuration of the GPS server 22 using a block diagram. The GPS server 22 of this example has a function 51 for establishing a connection between the terminal device 6 and the server 22 using a dedicated protocol, and a function 52 for sequentially reading out e-mails stored in a mailbox and decoding the contents. And a function 53 for analyzing and obtaining the access point of the terminal device 6 or the transmission position (access position) of the transmission source of the e-mail. The access position is determined based on, for example, an IP address assigned when a session using a dedicated protocol is established by dial-up connection.
The position of the corresponding access point can be searched by referring to the P table. Further, when accessing the Internet via the public telephone network, the points accessed by the terminal device 6 can be analyzed based on the number of the PHS base station found in the location information center 8.
Information indicating these access point positions (access positions) can be added as route information even in the case of electronic mail stored and exchanged through a plurality of servers. The access position analysis function 53 stores the information of the access point of the terminal device 6 such as the IP address and the base station number transmitted to the GPS server 22 by a dedicated protocol or e-mail on the known position information database 5.
The position information of the access point is obtained by comparing the data with the data stored in the terminal 4, and this position information is set as approximate position information of the current position of the terminal device 6.

Based on the access position, which is approximate position information, the GPS server 22 reads time information of the position of the access point from the auxiliary information database 55, time correction information of the GPS satellites within the visible range from the position, and each satellite. Ephemeris, almanac of GPS satellites including those satellites, ionospheric correction data, etc.,
An information collection function 60 is provided for selecting difference information for relative positioning (DGPS) related to the position from the correction information database 56. Information related to these GPS satellites is stored in a satellite-related data collection function 5 of the GPS server 22.
7 and are periodically collected and updated from the DGPS base station 2 via the Internet or the like.
When the position of the access point is determined, the latest satellite-related information related to the position is stored in the auxiliary information database 55.
And can be extracted from the correction information database 56. The GPS server 22 of the present embodiment further uses the information collection function 59 from the database server 4 connected to the Internet to store information related to the position with information other than satellite-related information, for example, weather forecast and traffic information. When the position of the access point is determined, information related to the position can be extracted by the information collecting function 60.

The GPS server 22 of the present example further has a function of providing such information. When a connection with the terminal device 6 is established by a dedicated protocol, the information is packaged in a dedicated packet. The information is transmitted using the transmission (providing) function 61. When transmission of information is requested by e-mail, the information is transmitted using the function 62 of packaging and transmitting (providing) the e-mail. In these packaging functions 61 and 62, initial information of radio positioning including these satellite-related information extracted by the information collection function 60 and the access point position information itself obtained by the transmission position analysis function 53 is included. The necessary information and other location-related information are packaged together in one dedicated package or e-mail and sent back to the sender.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show, using flowcharts, the outline of the processing for downloading initial information for positioning such as almanac via a network by exchanging e-mails. First, the terminal device 6 determines whether or not it is time to update the initial positioning information in the storage unit 45 in step ST11. This timing may be set immediately after the power of the terminal device 6 is turned on, or may be set after a lapse of a predetermined time from when the initial information for measurement was downloaded immediately before. Further, the timing can be set under various conditions, such as when the initial information for positioning cannot be found in the storage unit 45 or when a predetermined distance has been moved. If it is determined in step ST11 that it is time to acquire the initial information for positioning, the information acquisition unit 46
Automatically creates an e-mail requesting initial information for positioning in order to perform a quick start in step ST12, connects to the Internet 1 using the data communication device 38, and sends it to the information providing system 20.

The transmitted e-mail is transmitted via several mail servers or directly to the information providing system 20.
, And is stored in the mailbox 23 in step ST21. Information providing system 20
When the GPS server 22 finds the stored e-mail for the quick start request, the GPS server 22 analyzes the origin of the e-mail by referring to the known position database 54 in step ST22. When the position information (access position) of the sending place is obtained, initial information for positioning related to the sending place of the mail is extracted from the auxiliary information database 55 and the auxiliary information database 56 as the initial information database in step ST23. Package it in a reply e-mail including the access location. And
The reply e-mail in which the positioning initial information used in this quick start is incorporated is described in step ST24.
Is transmitted via the Internet in the same manner as general e-mail.

The terminal device 6 receives the e-mail on a regular basis in step ST13. If it is determined in step ST14 that the e-mail for the quick start packaged with the initial information has been received, the e-mail is disassembled in step ST15. And extract necessary information as initial information for positioning. Then, the initial information for positioning sent by e-mail is stored in the storage unit 45. The total amount of the initial information for positioning, including almanac, is about 5 kbytes as described above, and is MIME-encoded and attached to an e-mail and used in Internet mail for sending and receiving such as POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP. It can be exchanged easily and in a short time using the usual protocol. Further, by acquiring the initial information by using the storage-and-exchange type e-mail, the network load can be hardly increased, and the processing can be performed by normal e-mail upload and download. It is possible to perform the processing at an appropriate timing with a small CPU load. Accordingly, there is almost no processing load for downloading the initial information, and the power consumption for this processing can be significantly reduced.

As described above, by acquiring or updating the initial information for positioning at an appropriate timing such as immediately after the power is turned on or every time a predetermined time elapses by using an electronic mail, as shown in FIG. As soon as positioning using radio waves from GPS satellites is started, highly accurate position information of the current position can be acquired in, for example, several seconds to several tens of seconds. When an instruction to start positioning is issued in step ST31, the terminal device 6 of this example uses the latest time available at that position,
Since satellite-related information such as almanac and ephemeris has already been prepared in the storage unit 45, an appropriate GPS satellite is caught in step ST32 based on the initial information for positioning, a radio wave is received, and GPS surveying is started. . When information from a predetermined number of GPS satellites is obtained,
In step ST33, in addition to the information, relative positioning calculation is performed using effective difference information at the position that has already been obtained via the network, and extremely accurate position information of the current position can be obtained. . Step ST34 is performed according to the position information and the time of the highly accurate current position that has been measured.
The information stored in the storage unit 45 is further brushed up. Since there is no need to download initial information such as almanac from the satellite from when the positioning start instruction is issued until the position information is obtained, the time until the start of the arithmetic processing is very short. Furthermore, since the temporary position information indicating the position of the point accessed via the network and the highly accurate time information are obtained, the calculation result can be obtained quickly, and the highly accurate current position information can be obtained in a short time. be able to.

Even when radio positioning is performed in a state where a connection is established between the terminal device 6 and the GPS server 22 of the information providing system 20 using a dedicated protocol, position information can be acquired in a very short time. . The outline is shown in FIG. In step ST41, when an instruction to start radio wave positioning is issued and the positioning process starts, step ST4
At 2, the connection via the Internet 1 is established between the terminal device 6 and the GPS server 22 using the data communication device 38. Then, in step ST43, a transmission packet for requesting a quick start is transmitted from the terminal device 6. Information providing system 2 with GPS server 22
On the side of 0, upon receiving the quick start request in step ST51, the position of the terminal device is analyzed from the IP address and the number of the PHS base station in step ST52 as described above. Then, in step ST53,
As in the case of the e-mail, information necessary as initial information of radio positioning such as almanac, ephemeris, time, and provisional position information itself based on the provisional position information (access position) of the terminal device is selected. Response packet). Then, step ST54
Then, a reply packet is transmitted from the GPS server 22 to the terminal device 6 again via the Internet.

Upon receiving the quick start reply packet in step ST44, the terminal device 6 sets or updates the initial information in the storage unit 45 according to the information included in the reply packet. Thereafter, based on the initial information such as the almanac, G is determined in step ST45.
Radio waves from the PS satellite 9 are received, and based on the result, the position information of the current location can be obtained in step ST46. Also in this example, the initial information sent for the quick start includes the difference information, and relative positioning can be performed in step ST46 to obtain very accurate position information. Further, the obtained highly accurate position information and time information are stored in the storage unit 45 in step ST47, and the initial information for positioning is updated with new information.

The terminal device 6 and the GP using a dedicated protocol
Even when a connection is established between the S servers 22 and satellite positioning is performed, initial information can be downloaded via a computer network (Internet) having a high transmission speed, and it takes more than 10 minutes to download from a GPS satellite. You can get the information you need over a network within seconds. Further, in the process, the temporary position of the terminal device 6 is obtained, and the position information is sent from the GPS server 22 side, so that the terminal device 6 can display the position information in a very short time.

The processing shown in FIGS.
Floppy disk, optical disk, and the like that can be read by a terminal device as an application program executable by
It can be provided by being recorded on a recording medium such as a memory card, and can also be provided via a computer network such as the Internet. And
The above processing can be performed by storing the data in the internal storage device and loading the data at an appropriate timing.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, the initial information necessary for positioning such as almanac and ephemeris, which has been received from the positioning satellite, is initialized.
It is requested via a computer network such as the Internet at the appropriate timing to acquire information ,
It can be downloaded using a computer network . At that time, the terminal device Ru can automatically recognize the approximate position of the acquire position access to a computer network terminal device. For this reason, it is possible to obtain initial information from the network at high speed, and to obtain an access position as information which is an approximate current position of a terminal important for obtaining the current position at high speed, so that the terminal is in a cold start state. Also, it is possible to provide a terminal device, an information providing system, an information obtaining method, and an information providing method capable of obtaining initial position information within a few seconds to several tens of seconds after a request for obtaining position information is issued. In addition, since it can be downloaded using a network, it can be used for positioning at a timing that is not directly related to positioning processing using e-mail as a medium, periodically, or when connected to the Internet for other purposes. Can be obtained and can be constantly updated to the latest information.

Further, since the terminal can be initialized at high speed without using an expensive receiving system which is sophisticated according to the present invention, the position information can be provided by a small terminal device suitable for portable use which can be provided at low cost. Can be acquired in a short time, and the power consumption for terminal initialization can be significantly reduced. Furthermore, since the initial information is downloaded via the computer network, it is possible to acquire the differential information for relative positioning together at that time, and it is possible to provide high-accuracy position information at a high speed from the beginning. .

Further, in the information providing system and the information providing method of the present invention, the point accessed by the terminal device is analyzed so that the approximate position of the terminal device can be automatically grasped. Using a portable processing terminal equipped with a GPS function such as a notebook type or an arm-worn type that is suitable for carrying, the user can immediately provide his / her current location information and related information whenever the user moves. . Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to realize a terminal device, an information providing system, an information obtaining method, and an information providing method capable of providing information on a user's current location whenever and wherever the information is desired.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing an outline of a service using a terminal device and an information providing system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration example of a terminal device illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating schematic functions of a processing terminal device and an information providing system illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing schematic functions of a GPS server shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process for initializing a terminal using the terminal device and the GPS server shown in FIG. 1;

6 is a flowchart showing a schematic process of acquiring position information using the terminal device shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a process of initializing and acquiring position information using a terminal device and a GPS server by a method different from that of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an outline of performing radio positioning using a GPS satellite.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of information transmitted from a GPS satellite.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a process of acquiring initialization information from a GPS satellite and performing positioning.

[Explanation of symbols]

1. Internet 2. Base station (fixed station) for DGPS 4. Database server 5. Provider 6. Processing terminal device 7. Public telephone line 8. Location information center 9. GPS satellite 10.・ Information providing station 11 ・ ・ Bus (LAN) 12 ・ ・ PC for gateway 20 ・ ・ Information providing system 21 ・ ・ Mail server 22 ・ ・ GPS server 23 ・ ・ Mail box 38 ・ ・ Data communication device 39 ・ ・ Radio positioning Unit 45 storage unit 46 information acquisition unit 53 access position analysis function 54 known position database 55 auxiliary information database such as satellite history (almanac) and orbit history (ephemeris) 56 difference information etc. Correction information database 60, information collection function 61, 62, information provision function

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G01C 21/00-21/36 G01C 23/00-25/00 G01S 5/00-5/14

Claims (15)

(57) [Claims] 1. A radio wave positioning unit capable of receiving a radio wave from a satellite to derive position information indicating its current position, and a positioning unit including at least satellite orbit information used when deriving the position information. A storage unit capable of storing initial information, requesting the initial information via a computer network at a timing at which the initial information is obtained, and including the information of an access position to the computer network via the computer network; An information acquisition unit capable of acquiring the positioning initial information corresponding to a position, wherein the positioning initial information includes difference information obtained from at least one base station. Terminal device. 2. The information acquisition unit according to claim 1, wherein:
A terminal device capable of communicating with an information providing system that stores the positioning initial information via a storage and exchange type information package. 3. The information acquisition unit according to claim 1, wherein:
A terminal device capable of communicating with an information providing system storing the positioning initial information by using a dedicated protocol. 4. When an information request is received via a computer network from a terminal device equipped with a radio positioning means, and an initial information database storing positioning initial information including orbital information of a radio positioning satellite. An information providing unit capable of providing the initial information for positioning via a computer network, and a position analyzing unit capable of analyzing an access position of a point at which the terminal device accesses the computer network to send the information request. And a difference information database storing difference information obtained from at least one base station, wherein the information providing unit includes information on the access position,
An information providing system, wherein the positioning initial information corresponding to the access position can be provided, and the positioning initial information including the difference information can be provided. 5. The information providing unit according to claim 4,
An information providing system capable of communicating with the terminal device via a storage and exchange type information package. 6. The information providing unit according to claim 5, wherein:
An information providing system capable of communicating with the terminal device using a dedicated protocol. 7. A radio wave positioning step of receiving a radio wave from a satellite to derive position information indicating the current position of the satellite, and before the radio wave positioning step, the initial position information is acquired via a computer network at a timing of acquiring the initial information. Requesting information and initial information for positioning including at least satellite orbit information used in deriving the position information, the initial information for positioning corresponding to the access position including information on an access position to the computer network. An information acquisition step capable of acquiring the initial information for positioning via the computer network, wherein the initial information for positioning includes difference information obtained from at least one base station. An information acquisition method, comprising: acquiring information; and performing relative positioning in the radio wave positioning step. 8. The information acquisition method according to claim 7, wherein in the information acquisition step, communication is performed via a storage exchange type information package with an information providing system storing the positioning initial information. Method. 9. The information acquiring method according to claim 7, wherein in the information acquiring step, communication is performed with an information providing system storing the positioning initial information using a dedicated protocol. 10. Upon receiving an information request via a computer network from a terminal device provided with a radio positioning device, initial positioning information including orbit information of a satellite for radio positioning is provided via the computer network. A possible information providing step, and before this information providing step, comprising a position analyzing step of analyzing an access position of a point where the terminal device has accessed the computer network in order to send the information request, In the providing step, the positioning initial information including the access position information is provided, and the positioning initial information including difference information obtained from at least one base station is provided. An information providing method characterized by being able to provide the information. 11. The information providing method according to claim 10, wherein in the information providing step, communication with the terminal device is possible via a storage and exchange type information package. 12. The information providing method according to claim 10, wherein in the information providing step, communication is possible with the terminal device using a dedicated protocol. 13. A radio wave positioning process for receiving a radio wave from a satellite to derive position information indicating its own current position, and before the radio wave positioning process, obtains the initial information via a computer network at a timing of acquiring the initial information. Requesting information and initial information for positioning including at least satellite orbit information used in deriving the position information, the initial information for positioning corresponding to the access position including information on an access position to the computer network. Information acquisition processing capable of acquiring the initial information for positioning via the computer network to perform, and in the information acquisition processing, processing for acquiring initial information for positioning including difference information; and A recording medium storing a program having an instruction capable of executing a relative positioning process. 14. The information acquisition process according to claim 13, wherein the command capable of executing a process of communicating with an information providing system storing the positioning initial information via a storage exchange type information package is provided. A recording medium on which a program is recorded. 15. The information acquisition process according to claim 13, wherein a program having an instruction capable of executing a process of communicating with an information providing system storing the positioning initial information by using a dedicated protocol is recorded. A recording medium characterized by being recorded.