CN113495266A

CN113495266A - Electronic device, method for positioning, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN113495266A
Application number: CN202010255765.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 盛彬; 吴志坤; 孙晨
Original assignee: Sony Corp
Current assignee: Sony Corp
Priority date: 2020-04-02
Filing date: 2020-04-02
Publication date: 2021-10-12
Also published as: WO2021197218A1; CN115349096A

Abstract

An electronic device, a method for positioning, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium are provided. The electronic device includes processing circuitry configured to: transmitting address codes of a plurality of beacon tag devices to sequentially activate the beacon tag devices in the vicinity of the electronic device; obtaining tag configuration information from each active beacon tag device, and obtaining an address code of a positioning tag device in an area where the beacon tag device is located according to the tag configuration information; transmitting the obtained address code of each positioning label device to activate the corresponding positioning label device; and obtaining a reflection reference signal obtained by reflecting the radio frequency reference signal by each activated positioning label device, and positioning the electronic equipment by using the reflection reference signal. According to at least one aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, when an electronic device such as a user equipment is in an environment where there is no direct-view path between the base station and the electronic device, it is also possible to provide accurate positioning of the electronic device.

Description

Electronic device, method for positioning, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of wireless communication technologies, and more particularly, to an electronic device for positioning based on environmental backscatter communication, a method for positioning, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.

Background

Existing positioning methods include a multipoint positioning (multicast) method and a Cooperative positioning (Cooperative Location) method. Multi-point positioning refers to that a receiving end measures signals transmitted from a plurality of transmitting ends (positions are known) and determines the position of the receiving end according to a geometric method. Cooperative positioning is mostly used for wireless sensor networks, which utilize the distances between multiple sensors and the exchanged information to improve the positioning accuracy.

Currently, positioning of a ue in a wireless communication system is generally implemented in a multi-point positioning manner, that is, the ue as a receiving end measures signals transmitted from a plurality of base stations as a transmitting end, and determines the location of the ue according to a geometric method. The fourth generation mobile communication (4G) system supports a variety of cellular-based positioning techniques, such as a Time Difference of Arrival (otdoa) positioning method based on Observed Time Difference of Arrival (AOA), a positioning method based on Angle of Arrival (AOA) and Time Advance (TA) of a measurement signal, and The like. These positioning methods all assume that there is a direct Line Of Sight (LOS) as between the base station and the user equipment. For a propagation environment without a direct-view path between the base station and the user equipment, for example, when the user equipment is indoors, the positioning accuracy of the positioning method is greatly reduced because signal transmission is blocked by obstacles such as walls.

Disclosure of Invention

The following presents a simplified summary of the disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. However, it should be understood that this summary is not an exhaustive overview of the disclosure. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure or to delineate the scope of the disclosure. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

In view of the above, it is an object of at least one aspect of the present disclosure to provide an electronic device, a method for positioning, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, which enable accurate positioning to be provided for an electronic device such as a user equipment when the electronic device is in an environment where there is no direct-view between the base station and the user equipment, for example, indoors.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, there is provided an electronic device comprising processing circuitry configured to: transmitting address codes of a plurality of beacon tag devices to sequentially activate the beacon tag devices in the vicinity of the electronic device; obtaining tag configuration information from each active beacon tag device, and obtaining an address code of a positioning tag device in an area where the beacon tag device is located according to the tag configuration information; transmitting the obtained address code of each positioning label device to activate the corresponding positioning label device; and obtaining a reflection reference signal obtained by reflecting the radio frequency reference signal by each activated positioning label device, and positioning the electronic equipment by using the reflection reference signal.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is also provided an electronic device comprising processing circuitry configured to: when receiving an address code of the electronic equipment from user equipment, enabling the electronic equipment to enter an active state from a dormant state; and providing label configuration information for the user equipment so that the user equipment obtains the address code of the positioning label device in the area where the electronic equipment is located according to the label configuration information.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is also provided an electronic device comprising processing circuitry configured to: when receiving an address code of the electronic equipment from user equipment, enabling the electronic equipment to enter an active state from a dormant state; and reflecting the received radio frequency reference signal for positioning by the user equipment based on the reflected reference signal.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is also provided a method for positioning, the method comprising: transmitting address codes of a plurality of beacon tag devices to sequentially activate the beacon tag devices in the vicinity of the electronic device; obtaining tag configuration information from each active beacon tag device, and obtaining an address code of a positioning tag device in an area where the beacon tag device is located according to the tag configuration information; transmitting the obtained address code of each positioning label device to activate the corresponding positioning label device; and obtaining a reflection reference signal obtained by reflecting the radio frequency reference signal by each activated positioning label device, and positioning the electronic equipment by using the reflection reference signal.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is also provided a method for positioning, the method comprising: when receiving an address code of the electronic equipment from the user equipment, enabling the electronic equipment to enter an activated state from a dormant state; and sending label configuration information to the user equipment so that the user equipment obtains the address code of the positioning label device in the area where the electronic equipment is located according to the label configuration information.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is also provided a method for positioning, the method comprising: when receiving an address code of the electronic equipment from the user equipment, enabling the electronic equipment to enter an activated state from a dormant state; and reflecting the received radio frequency reference signal for positioning by the user equipment based on the reflected reference signal.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is also provided a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the respective functions of the above-described electronic device or method for positioning.

According to other aspects of the present disclosure, there is also provided computer program code and a computer program product for implementing the above-described method according to the present disclosure.

According to at least one aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, when an electronic device such as a user equipment is in an environment where there is no direct-view path between the base station and the electronic device, it is also possible to provide accurate positioning of the electronic device.

Additional aspects of the disclosed embodiments are set forth in the description section that follows, wherein the detailed description is presented to fully disclose the preferred embodiments of the disclosed embodiments without imposing limitations thereon.

Drawings

The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only of selected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a Wi-Fi based existing positioning method in an indoor environment;

fig. 2 is a block diagram showing one configuration example of an electronic device on the user device side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating one example application scenario of an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating example address codes transmitted in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the arrangement of beacon tag devices in a plurality of areas according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 6A is a table showing an example of beacon tag address codes, tag configuration information, location tag address codes, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 6B is a table illustrating another example of beacon tag address codes and tag configuration information according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram for explaining an example positioning process according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 8 is a block diagram showing one configuration example of a control unit in an electronic device on the user device side according to the embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 9 is a diagram for explaining the environmental reflection channel estimation by the tag information acquiring unit in the control unit shown in fig. 8;

fig. 10 is a diagram for explaining tag reflection channel estimation by the tag information acquiring unit in the control unit shown in fig. 8;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of time shifting and transmission sequence in a backscatter process of a plurality of position tag devices according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of frequency shift in backscatter processes of multiple position tag devices according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Fig. 13 is a block diagram showing one configuration example of an electronic device capable of functioning as a beacon tag apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 14 is a block diagram showing one configuration example of an electronic apparatus capable of being used as a positioning tag device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an information interaction process according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 16 is a flowchart illustrating a process example of a method for positioning at a user equipment side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 17 is a flowchart showing a process example of a method for positioning on the beacon tag device side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 18 is a flowchart showing a process example of a method for positioning at the side of a positioning tag device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 19 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a smartphone to which the technique of the present disclosure may be applied;

fig. 20 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a car navigation device to which the technique of the present disclosure can be applied.

While the disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the disclosure to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the disclosure. It is noted that throughout the several views, corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts.

Detailed Description

Examples of the present disclosure will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the present disclosure, application, or uses.

Example embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough, and will fully convey the scope to those skilled in the art. Numerous specific details are set forth such as examples of specific components, devices, and methods to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that specific details need not be employed, that example embodiments may be embodied in many different forms, and that neither should be construed to limit the scope of the disclosure. In certain example embodiments, well-known processes, well-known structures, and well-known technologies are not described in detail.

The description will be made in the following order:

1. a description of the problem;

2. configuration example of electronic device on user device side

2.1 basic configuration example of an electronic device

2.2 example application scenarios and examples of processing performed by an electronic device

2.3 configuration example of control Unit of electronic device

3. Configuration example of electronic device capable of serving as beacon tag device

4. Configuration example of electronic device capable of being used as positioning tag device

5. Examples of information interaction Processes

6. Method embodiment

6.1 method embodiment at user Equipment side

6.2 method embodiment on the Beacon tag device side

6.3 method embodiment for locating the side of a tag device

7. Application example

<1. description of the problems >

In a multipoint positioning method in which a user equipment measures signals transmitted from a plurality of base stations and determines the position of the user equipment according to a geometric method, when the user equipment is in a propagation environment without a direct-view path with its base station, for example, when the user equipment is indoors or in a tunnel, the positioning accuracy is greatly reduced because signal transmission is blocked by an obstacle such as a wall.

For this reason, methods suitable for indoor positioning have been proposed. Figure 1 schematically illustrates a prior art Wi-Fi based positioning method in an indoor environment. As shown in fig. 1, when a user equipment UE enters an area covered by a local area network router AP, a Wi-Fi signal transmitted by the AP may be received. Since the location of the AP is known, the UE can calculate the distance d between itself and the AP by measuring the arrival time of the Wi-Fi signal sent by the AP, and perform positioning accordingly. When there is only one AP in a room, the positioning result of the UE is a circular area with the AP as the center and the radius d as the radius, and the positioning accuracy is not sufficient in many cases. It is therefore desirable to be able to provide an accurate positioning means suitable for propagation environments without direct line of sight between the user equipment and the base station, such as indoor scenarios.

The present disclosure proposes, for such a scenario, an electronic device on the user equipment side, an electronic device capable of functioning as a beacon tag apparatus, an electronic device capable of functioning as a positioning tag apparatus, a method for positioning, and a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium, which enable accurate positioning to be provided also for an electronic device such as a user equipment when the electronic device is in an environment where there is no direct-view between the base station and the user equipment, for example, indoors.

The electronic apparatus on the user equipment side according to the present disclosure may be implemented as various user equipments, for example, a mobile terminal such as a smartphone, a tablet Personal Computer (PC), a notebook PC, a portable game terminal, a portable/cryptographic dog-type mobile router, and a digital camera, or a vehicle-mounted terminal such as a car navigation apparatus. The user equipment described above may also be implemented as a terminal (also referred to as a Machine Type Communication (MTC) terminal) that performs machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. Further, the user equipment may include a wireless communication module (such as an integrated circuit module including a single chip) or the like mounted on each of the above-described terminals.

The electronic device capable of functioning as a beacon Tag apparatus and the electronic device capable of functioning as a positioning Tag apparatus according to the present disclosure may be implemented as a Tag apparatus such as a passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Tag (Tag). The tag device is in a dormant state at ordinary times and does not transmit signals; which backscatters (also sometimes referred to herein as reflections) a Radio Frequency (RF) signal from a signal source to a reader (reader) only after waking up or activation. In backscattering the radio frequency signal, the tag device alters the backscattered radio frequency signal, such as by changing its antenna impedance, in accordance with the information to be transmitted, thereby effecting modulation of the reflected radio frequency signal. The reader may demodulate the reflected radio frequency signal it receives to obtain the information sent by the passive tag. In practical applications, the reader and the signal source may be integrated in one device or may be implemented separately. The tag device has the advantages of low power consumption and low cost because the circuit of the tag device is simple and does not emit signals per se.

<2. configuration example of electronic device on user device side >

[2.1 basic configuration example of electronic device ]

Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing one configuration example of an electronic device on the user device side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 2, the electronic device 200 may include a transceiver 210, a control unit 220, and an optional storage unit 230.

Here, each unit of the electronic device 200 may be included in the processing circuit. The electronic device 200 may include one processing circuit or may include a plurality of processing circuits. Further, the processing circuitry may include various discrete functional units to perform various different functions and/or operations. It should be noted that these functional units may be physical entities or logical entities, and that units called differently may be implemented by the same physical entity.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the transceiver 210 of the electronic device 200 may sequentially transmit address codes of a plurality of beacon tag apparatuses to activate the beacon tag apparatuses in the vicinity of the electronic device 200. Subsequently, the control unit 220 may obtain tag configuration information through a demodulation process or the like according to a signal received by the transceiver 210 from the active beacon tag device. As an example, a predetermined radio frequency reference signal may be transmitted by the transceiver 210 (or by another signal source) by the electronic device 200 as a signal source, and the transceiver 210 may receive a reflected signal that activates a beacon tag device to reflect and modulate the radio frequency reference signal with tag configuration information. The control unit 220 may, together with the transceiver 210, perform the function of a reader, i.e. obtaining tag configuration information from received reflected signals from active beacon tag devices by demodulation processing or the like.

The tag configuration information obtained by the control unit 220 from the active beacon tag device may be associated with or directly include address codes of the locating tag devices within the area in which the beacon tag device is located. Alternatively, the tag configuration information obtained by the control unit 220 from the active beacon tag device may also be associated with location information of a positioning tag device within the area in which the beacon tag device is located, or directly include such location information. In the case where the tag configuration information is associated with an address code (and optionally location information) for locating the tag device, the control unit 220 may control the transceiver 210 to transmit the obtained tag configuration information to the base station and obtain the address code (and optionally location information) for locating the tag device associated with the tag configuration information from the base station. In the case where the tag configuration information directly includes the address code (and optionally the location information) for locating the tag device, the control unit 220 obtains the address code and the like included in the tag configuration information when obtaining the tag configuration information.

The transceiver 210 may transmit the address code of each location tag device obtained by the control unit 220 to activate the corresponding location tag device. By way of example, a predetermined radio frequency reference signal may be transmitted by the transceiver 210 (or other suitable device) of the electronic device 200 as a signal source, and the transceiver 210 may receive a reflected reference signal that activates the locating tag device to reflect the radio frequency reference signal. The control unit 220 may use these reflected reference signals to locate the electronic device 200.

For example, the control unit 220 may calculate a correlation function between the rf reference signal transmitted by the electronic device 200 and the received reflected reference signal by using information of the rf reference signal known in advance, and calculate a round trip time of the rf reference signal (or an arrival time of the reflected reference signal) by determining a peak value of the correlation function, thereby calculating a distance between the activated positioning tag device and the electronic device 200.

The control unit 220 may determine the location of the electronic device 200 based on the location information obtained by it for the plurality of activated position tag devices and the calculated distance between each activated position tag device and the electronic device. Due to the low cost of the location tag device, such as a passive tag, multiple location tag devices may be installed in one room, so that the electronic device 200 may achieve accurate location using reflected reference signals from the multiple location tag devices, for example, by a multi-point location method.

Furthermore, since the beacon tag device and the positioning tag device can be implemented by passive tags with low power consumption, the electronic device 200 only needs low power consumption (such as hundreds of nW), and the power consumption of Wi-Fi signal positioning in the prior art can be several W) in the processes of receiving the reflected signal carrying tag configuration information from the active beacon tag device and receiving the reflected reference signal from the active positioning tag device, so that the positioning with low power consumption is facilitated.

Furthermore, the electronic device according to the embodiment of the present disclosure reduces the number of address codes of the positioning tag to be transmitted by first activating the nearby beacon tag device and then obtaining tag configuration information from the activated beacon tag device to obtain the address code of the nearby positioning tag device, thereby reducing the processing load and facilitating an increase in positioning speed.

For the electronic device, it cannot know in advance the specific information of the positioning tags of the entered environment, i.e. which positioning tags are specifically present in the indoor environment. Thus, if only positioning tag devices are set in the environment and no beacon tag devices are set, the electronic device needs to transmit the address codes of all the positioning tags that may be in its vicinity (e.g., the address codes of all the positioning tags within the entire building) and in this way activate those positioning tag devices that are in the vicinity of the electronic device. Assuming that consider an example of a 10-story building having 20 rooms per floor with 3 location-tag devices installed in each room, the electronic device would need to transmit the address codes of 600 location-tag devices to activate the nearby location-tag devices.

In contrast, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, since a beacon tag device is provided in addition to a positioning tag device in an environment, the electronic apparatus only needs to transmit the address codes of all beacon tag devices that may be in its vicinity (for example, the address codes of all beacon tag devices in the entire building) to activate the beacon tag devices in its vicinity. In this way, the electronic device can obtain tag configuration information from the active beacon tag device to acquire the address code of the nearby location tag device, and transmit only the address code of the nearby location tag it acquired. Also considering the above example of a 10-story building, assume that one beacon tag device and 3 positioning tag devices are installed per room in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. At this time, the electronic apparatus 200 needs to transmit the address codes of 200 beacon tag devices to activate the beacon tag devices in the room in which the electronic apparatus is located, and obtain tag configuration information from the activated beacon tag devices to acquire the address codes of 3 positioning tag devices (i.e., the address codes of nearby positioning tag devices) in the room in which the beacon tag devices are located. Thereafter, the electronic device 200 only needs to transmit the acquired 3 address codes in order to activate the nearby location tag means. Therefore, the number of address codes required to be sent by the electronic equipment is reduced from 600 to 203, so that the processing load is greatly reduced, and the positioning speed is favorably increased.

The above describes an example process performed by one electronic device 200 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Now consider a case where there are a plurality of electronic devices. When a plurality of electronic devices are present in the environment, it is preferable to cause the electronic devices to perform processing in a time-division manner. That is, when one of the electronic devices performs positioning, the other electronic devices remain silent to avoid interfering with each other.

In one example, when a cellular network is present, multiple electronic devices, such as user equipment, may sequentially activate beacon tag devices in the vicinity of each electronic device according to the scheduling of the base station and perform subsequent processing accordingly.

Alternatively, for example, in an area without cellular network coverage, multiple electronic devices may each operate in a Device-to-Device (D2D) mode and sequentially activate beacon tag devices in the vicinity of each electronic Device through distributed scheduling. As an example, a plurality of nearby electronic devices may autonomously select a radio resource for communication by a Congestion control mechanism (Congestion control mechanisms) using Mode 2 in the D2D standard. After the communication is established, each electronic device determines the sequence of the positioning operation through Distributed scheduling (Distributed scheduling).

An example of processing performed by one electronic device will be mainly described in the following description. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that when a plurality of electronic devices exist in an environment, the positioning process between the electronic devices may be coordinated in a time division manner such as described above, and each electronic device may perform the positioning process in a similar manner, which will not be described in detail herein.

A basic configuration example of an electronic device of the embodiment of the present disclosure is described above with reference to fig. 2. As described above, the electronic apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure can achieve high-precision positioning because positioning is performed based on interaction with a plurality of tag devices, and further reduce the processing load because the interaction with a beacon tag device greatly reduces the number of address codes of positioning tag devices that need to be transmitted, and can perform positioning more quickly.

[2.2 example application scenario and example of processing performed by an electronic device ]

Fig. 3 schematically illustrates an example application scenario of an embodiment of the present disclosure. Next, further details of the electronic device shown in fig. 2 and the exemplary processes performed by the respective units thereof will be further explained in conjunction with the exemplary application scenario shown in fig. 3.

As shown in fig. 3, an indoor environment including three rooms, Room1, Room2, and Room 3, and an arrangement of a beacon tag device and a positioning tag device in the indoor environment are shown in this example. In the example of fig. 3, each Room, Room1, Room2, or Room 3, is installed with one Beacon Tag device, Beacon Tag1, Beacon Tag2, or Beacon Tag3, respectively, and a location Tag device corresponding to the Beacon Tag device, Tag1-a through Tag1-C, Tag2-a through Tag2-C or Tag3-a through Tag3-D (e.g., installed on a respective wall surface). Note that the number of location tag devices in each room is by way of example only, and fewer or greater numbers may be used in practice.

When a user carrying the electronic device 200 enters an area as shown in fig. 3, the transceiver 210 of the electronic device 200 may sequentially transmit address codes of a plurality of Beacon Tag devices including Beacon Tag1 to Beacon Tag3 (for example, address codes of 200 Beacon Tag devices of all 200 rooms in the example building described above with reference to fig. 2) in a building in which the area is located under the control of the control unit 220, so as to activate one or more of the Beacon Tag devices Beacon Tag1 to Beacon Tag3 in the vicinity of the electronic device 200.

Preferably, in order to avoid interference between activated beacon tag devices, the electronic device 200 transmits the address code of the next beacon tag device after transmitting the address code of one beacon tag device to activate the corresponding beacon tag device, at least after a time of the entire process related to the corresponding beacon tag device (and the positioning tag device in the area). In the following specific example, an example of an interaction process between an electronic device and one beacon tag apparatus (and a positioning tag apparatus within an area) will be mainly described. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that when a plurality of beacon tag devices exist in an environment, the electronic device may perform similar interaction processing with each beacon tag device (and the positioning tag device in the area) respectively according to a time division manner such as described above, and will not be described in detail herein.

(example mode of obtaining address code of beacon tag device)

The electronic apparatus 200 may obtain the address code of the beacon tag device to be transmitted in various suitable manners. As an example, when an electronic device 200 such as a user equipment is in an area with cellular network coverage, it may receive in advance, for example, address codes of a plurality of Beacon Tag apparatuses including Beacon Tag1 to Beacon Tag3 from a base station. When the electronic device 200 is in an area without cellular network coverage, it may, for example, read the address codes of a plurality of beacon tag apparatuses from the storage unit 230. In this case, the storage unit 230 is configured to store address codes of a plurality of beacon tag devices in advance.

(example of Address code of Beacon tag device/location tag device)

Each beacon tag device or locating tag device has a unique address code (ID) which may be formed, for example, from a string of binary bit sequences. Fig. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example address code transmitted according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which schematically illustrates one example address code transmitted by a transceiver of an electronic device on a user equipment side of an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 4, the address code is in the form of a bit sequence {101001011} of length 9, the transceiver 210 transmitting a pulse of a certain period and power when bit 1 is to be transmitted, and the transceiver 210 not transmitting any signal when bit 0 is transmitted. For the tag device, after receiving such an address code, it can read the address code transmitted by the transceiver 210 by performing, for example, power detection and identification processing, and activate from the sleep state to the active state only when its own address code is read.

(example of setting of Address code of multiple beacon tag devices)

In a preferred embodiment, adjacent beacon tag devices of the plurality of beacon tag devices may have different address codes. For example, when the electronic device 200 is at the interface between rom 2 and rom 3 in fig. 3, if Beacon Tag2 and Beacon Tag3 use the same address code, Beacon Tag2 and Beacon Tag3 may be activated at the same time when the electronic device 200 transmits such address codes, causing them to interfere with each other. Therefore, different address codes are preferably set for the Beacon Tag1 to Beacon Tag3 in the example shown in fig. 3, thereby avoiding interference. As an example, the address codes of Beacon Tag1, Beacon Tag2, and Beacon Tag3 may be {100101010}, {101101010}, {11010110}, respectively.

On the other hand, in a preferred embodiment, at least two non-adjacent beacon tag devices among the plurality of beacon tag devices may have the same address code. Due to the close distance of the backscattered communication, beacon tag devices at a certain distance may not interfere with each other even if they are operating simultaneously (e.g. interacting with different user equipments, respectively), i.e. they no longer need to operate in a time-division manner. Therefore, the same address code can be multiplexed for beacon tag devices that are spaced apart by a certain distance.

Fig. 5 schematically shows an example of the arrangement of beacon tag devices in a plurality of areas according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Fig. 5 shows a plurality of hexagonal areas with three different backgrounds, each of which may for example comprise a predetermined number of rooms (e.g. from 1 to from 3 as shown in fig. 3), wherein each Room is provided with one beacon tag device. For the sake of simplicity, only 2 or 3 beacon tag devices disposed in the rooms of the region are schematically shown in fig. 5 in the region of a solid background. For areas adjacent to each other (areas indicated with different backgrounds in fig. 5), different address codes are set for beacon tag devices therein to avoid interference. On the other hand, the same address code may be employed for areas that are not adjacent to each other, i.e., areas indicated with the same background in fig. 5. For example, the same 2 or 3 address codes may be set for Area1, Area3, and all areas indicated by solid backgrounds, but different address codes are set for beacon tag devices in Area1 and Area2, and different address codes are set for beacon tag devices in Area3 and Area2 and Area 4.

With this preferred arrangement, the number of address codes of the beacon tag devices acquired and/or transmitted by the electronic device can be reduced, thereby further reducing the processing load and/or increasing the speed of location determination.

(example Process of obtaining tag configuration information)

In the process that the transceiver 210 of the electronic device 200 sequentially transmits the address codes of the beacon tag devices such as described above with reference to fig. 4 and 5, the beacon tag devices in the vicinity of the electronic device 200 that receive the own address codes are activated, and tag configuration information for the positioning tag devices in the area where the beacon tag devices are located is provided to the electronic device 200 in an appropriate manner.

For example, in the example scenario shown in fig. 3, assuming that the electronic device 200 is in the center of Room2 and sequentially transmits the address codes of a plurality of Beacon tags including Beacon Tag1 to Beacon Tag3, Beacon Tag1, Beacon Tag2, and Beacon Tag3 near the electronic device 200 will be sequentially activated upon receiving their own address codes. The following description will be made taking as an example that Beacon Tag2 is currently in an active state.

Activated Beacon Tag2 will provide the electronic device 200 with Tag configuration information for the location Tag devices Tag2-A through Tag2-C in the area where Beacon Tag2 is located, i.e., in Room2, in an appropriate manner. By way of example, Beacon Tag2 may reflect a radio frequency reference signal emitted from a signal source (such as electronic device 200 or other device capable of emitting a radio frequency signal) via backscatter communication, and in the process modulate Tag configuration information onto the reflected reference signal. The control unit 220 of the electronic device 200 may perform demodulation processing on such a reflected reference signal received by the transceiver 210, thereby acquiring tag configuration information. The specific details of how the tag configuration information is acquired will be further described later in a configuration example of the control unit.

(exemplary Process of obtaining Address code according to tag configuration information)

As an example, the tag configuration information obtained by the control unit 220 from an active beacon tag device may include, for example, the number of a set of locating tag devices within the area in which the beacon tag device is located. For example, the Tag configuration information obtained by the control unit 220 from the activated Beacon Tag2 may be a length-3 bit sequence {101}, which represents the number of the set of location Tag devices { Tag2-A, Tag2-B, Tag2-C }. The control unit 220 may control the transceiver 230 to transmit the number to the base station and receive the address code of each positioning Tag device Tag2-A, Tag2-B, Tag2-C in the positioning Tag set corresponding to the number from the base station. The address code of each locating tag device may take the form of a bit sequence, such as a length 9, similar to the address code of a beacon tag device.

In this way, the amount of data that needs to be stored and transmitted by a beacon tag device with limited storage and communication capabilities may be reduced. Accordingly, when the electronic device 200 interacts with the thus-provided beacon tag apparatus, it is possible to improve processing efficiency/reduce processing time.

Fig. 6A illustrates one example of a beacon tag address code, tag configuration information, location tag address code, which is suitable for a case where a cellular network exists so that the electronic device 200 can communicate with a base station, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Table (I) of fig. 6A shows information about beacon tag devices of respective rooms stored in the base station, for example. The electronic device 200 may obtain the address code of the beacon tag apparatus, such as shown in the third column of table (I), from the base station. Tables (ii.1) to (ii.3) of fig. 6A respectively show Tag configuration information of the Beacon Tag devices Beacon Tag1 to Beacon Tag3, which is specifically the number of the set of positioning Tag devices in the area where each Beacon Tag device is located. Tables (ii.1) to (ii.3) of fig. 6A may be stored in the corresponding beacon tag devices, respectively, for example, and may be acquired by the electronic device 200 from the activated beacon tag devices. Table (III) of fig. 6A shows the address codes of the respective positioning tags associated with the tag configuration information (i.e., the address codes of the respective positioning tags in the set of positioning tag devices within the area in which each beacon tag device is located), which may be stored in the base station, for example. The electronic device 200 may obtain, from the base station, the address codes of a group of positioning tags in table (III) corresponding to the tag configuration information according to the tag configuration information (the number of the corresponding set of positioning tag devices) obtained from the activated beacon tag device.

Here, although not shown, table (III) of fig. 6A, such as stored in the base station, may optionally include an additional fourth column indicating location information for each location tag device. Accordingly, the electronic device 200 may further obtain, from the base station, location information of a positioning tag device in an area where the beacon tag device is located, according to the tag configuration information obtained from activating the beacon tag device.

In addition, in table (III) shown in fig. 6A, for a positioning Tag device Tag2-B located in the vicinity of the boundary between rooms from 2 and from 3 in which two adjacent Beacon Tag devices Beacon Tag2 and Beacon Tag3 are located, its address code is set to be associated with not only the Tag configuration information of Beacon Tag device Beacon Tag2 of Room from 2 in which Tag2-B is located but also the Tag configuration information of Beacon Tag device Beacon Tag3 of adjacent Room from 3. In this way, whether user equipment 200 is in Room2 or in Room 3, when it activates the corresponding Beacon Tag device Beacon Tag2 or Beacon Tag3, the Tag configuration information obtained by user equipment 200 from the activated Beacon Tag device is associated with the address code of location Tag device Tag2-B at the Room boundary, so that the address code of Tag2-B can be obtained from the base station according to the Tag configuration information to activate Tag2-B and perform location processing using it. In this way, the utilization of the location tag device in the vicinity of the room boundary is improved. Similarly, the address code of the location Tag device Tag3-B in the Room from 3, which is in the vicinity of the intersection of from 2 and from 3, is associated with not only the Tag configuration information of the Beacon Tag device Beacon Tag3 of from 3, but also the Tag configuration information of the Beacon Tag device Beacon Tag2 of from 2.

The example described above with reference to fig. 6A is suitable for a case where a cellular network exists so that the electronic device 200 can communicate with a base station. Alternatively, when the electronic device 200 is in an area without cellular network coverage, the tag configuration information obtained by the control unit 220 from activating a beacon tag device may directly include, for example, an address code of each positioning tag device within the area in which the beacon tag device is located.

Fig. 6B illustrates another example of a beacon tag address and tag configuration information (including a location tag address) suitable for a case where the electronic device 200 is in an area without cellular network coverage, in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. Table (I) of fig. 6B shows the relevant information including the address code of each beacon tag device, which is stored in advance in the storage unit 230 of the electronic apparatus 200, for example. Tables (ii.1) to (ii.3) of fig. 6B show Tag configuration information of the respective Beacon Tag devices Beacon Tag1 to Beacon Tag3, which is specifically related information including address codes of the positioning Tag devices in the area in which each Beacon Tag device is located. Tables (ii.1) to (ii.3) of fig. 6B may be stored in the corresponding beacon tag devices, respectively, for example, and may be acquired by the electronic device 200 from the activated beacon tag devices. Here, although not shown, tables (ii.1) through (ii.3) of fig. 6B may optionally include an additional third column indicating location information for each location tag device. That is, the tag configuration information acquired by the electronic device 200 from the activated beacon tag apparatus may further include location information of a positioning tag apparatus within an area in which the beacon tag apparatus is located.

(exemplary Process of activating a position tag device and receiving a reflected reference Signal)

After the control unit 220 of the electronic device 200 appropriately obtains the address codes of the positioning tag devices in the area where the beacon tag device is located (e.g., the address codes shown in table (III) of fig. 6A or tables (ii.1) to (ii.3) of fig. 6B above) according to the tag configuration information acquired from the activated beacon tag device, the control unit 220 may control the transceiver 210 to transmit the address codes to activate the corresponding positioning tag devices.

As an example, as shown in table (III) of fig. 6A or tables (ii.1) to (ii.3) of fig. 6B, a plurality of positioning tag devices within an area in which one beacon tag device is located may have different address codes. In this case, the control unit 220 may control the transceiver 210 to sequentially transmit the address codes of the location-tag devices to sequentially activate each location-tag device. Accordingly, the transceiver 210 may receive in turn a reflected reference signal resulting from the reflection of the radio frequency reference signal from each active position tag device. In this way, the control unit 220 can distinguish the reflected reference signals from the respective positioning tag devices in a time-division manner and process the respective reflected reference signals separately.

In a preferred embodiment, to further speed up the location process, multiple location tag devices within the area of one beacon tag device may be set to have the same address code. In this case, the control unit 220 of the electronic apparatus 200 controls the transceiver 210 to transmit the address code to simultaneously activate a plurality of location tag devices. At this time, the plurality of active positioning tag devices may modulate their received rf reference signals with different modulation frequencies and/or modulation pilot sequences and perform backscattering, so that the electronic device 200 may simultaneously receive a plurality of distinguishable reflected reference signals. Alternatively, multiple active locator tag devices may reflect their respective received radio frequency reference signals at different times (i.e., each locator tag device has a different time offset between its activation and reflection), respectively, such that the electronic device 200 receives the multiple reflected reference signals at different time offsets.

In such a preferred embodiment, in the former case (i.e. when a plurality of active positioning tag devices use different modulation frequencies and/or modulation pilot sequences), when acquiring the address codes of nearby positioning tag devices according to the tag configuration information, the control unit 200 may further obtain the modulation frequency related information and/or modulation pilot sequence related information of these positioning tag devices according to the tag configuration information, for example. In the latter case (i.e. when multiple active positioning tag devices respectively reflect their respective received rf reference signals at different times), the control unit 200 may further obtain reflection time related information of the positioning tag devices according to the beacon tag configuration information. The above-described modulation frequency-related information, modulation pilot sequence-related information, and/or reflection time-related information may be stored as additional columns in a table having the form of table (III) of fig. 6A or tables (ii.1) to (ii.3) of fig. 6B. With this information, the control unit 200 can distinguish the reflected reference signals from each active position tag device received through the transceiver 210 so that each reflected reference signal can be appropriately processed to calculate the distance between the corresponding active position tag device and the electronic device. Further details of the relevant processing will be described later in a configuration example of the control unit.

(example processing for positioning based on reflected reference signals)

By way of example, each active locator tag device can reflect a radio frequency reference signal emitted from, for example, an electronic device 200 (or other separate signal source) serving as a signal source via backscatter communication, and optionally modulate the reflected reference signal in a predetermined manner during the process. The control unit 220 of the electronic device 200 may calculate a correlation function of the transmitted rf reference signal and the reflected reference signal received by the transceiver 210 using information about the transmitted rf reference signal that it knows in advance, and optionally about correlation processing of the activated location tag device in the backscatter process (such as information about modulation or about time offset, etc.), and calculate a Round-trip time (RTT) of the rf reference signal (or arrival time of the reflected reference signal) by determining a peak of the correlation function. Based on the calculated RTT, the control unit 220 may determine a distance between the electronic apparatus 200 and the corresponding positioning tag device. Specific details on how to calculate the above distance will be provided later in a configuration example of the control unit.

After calculating the distance between the electronic device 200 and each activated positioning tag device, the electronic device may determine the position of the electronic device 200 by various suitable means, such as a multi-point positioning method, according to the position information of each activated positioning tag device and the distance between each activated positioning tag device and the electronic device 200.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram for explaining an example positioning process according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which schematically shows an example of the above-described positioning process performed by the control unit 220. In this example, a user equipment UE, which is an example of an electronic device 200, is in a Room, such as Room2 shown in FIG. 3, and has acquired address codes and location information for respective positioning Tag devices, Tag2-A, Tag2-B, Tag2-C, from Tag configuration information acquired from Beacon Tag2 of the Room 2. The control unit of the UE controls the transceiver to sequentially transmit the acquired address codes to sequentially activate each of the positioning Tag devices Tag2-A, Tag2-B or Tag2-C, and calculates a distance d between the UE and the positioning Tag device based on the reflected reference signal received from the activated positioning Tag device₁、d₂Or d₃. Then, the UE may determine the location of each of the positioning tag devices based on the calculated distance and the location information of each of the positioning tag devices by various conventional methods such as trilaterationAnd determining the position of the UE.

Examples of example application scenarios of the electronic device and example processes performed thereby of embodiments of the present disclosure are described above with reference to fig. 3 to 7. In an example application scenario such as that shown in fig. 3, since both the electronic device and the positioning tag device may be located indoors (i.e., a direct-view path exists between the electronic device and the positioning tag device), the positioning accuracy that the electronic device according to the embodiment of the present disclosure may implement is better than the positioning method based on OTDOA between the base station and the user equipment, and theoretically reaches an estimation accuracy of centimeter level. In addition, the positioning error realized by the electronic device of the embodiment may be reduced as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the radio frequency reference signal for positioning is increased. In contrast, the average additional delay caused by the obstruction of obstacles such as walls makes the error of the OTDOA-based positioning method not reduced with the increase of the signal-to-noise ratio.

[2.3 configuration example of control Unit of electronic device ]

Fig. 8 is a block diagram showing one configuration example of a control unit in an electronic device on the user device side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The control unit 220 shown in fig. 8 is a configuration example of the control unit 220 of the electronic apparatus 200 of fig. 2, and therefore the following description will proceed on the basis of the configuration of the electronic apparatus and the processing performed thereby, which will be described above with reference to fig. 2 to 7.

As shown in fig. 8, the control unit 220 in the present example includes a configuration information acquisition unit 2210 and a positioning unit 2220.

(example processing performed by the configuration information acquiring Unit)

As previously described, a predetermined radio frequency reference signal may be transmitted by the transceiver (or by another signal source) by the electronic device acting as a signal source, and the transceiver may receive a reflected signal that activates the beacon tag device to reflect and modulate the radio frequency reference signal with tag configuration information. The configuration information acquisition unit 2210 included in the control unit of the electronic device can obtain tag configuration information from such a reflected signal received by the transceiver through demodulation processing.

Channel estimationExamples of the processing

Preferably, in order to enable demodulation of the reflected signal, the configuration information acquisition unit 2210 may estimate in advance a channel experienced by the backscatter signal from the active beacon tag device. Such channel estimation may include two parts: an ambient reflection channel and a beacon tag device reflection channel. In the environment backscattering communication, a part of signals sent by the electronic equipment reach the beacon tag device, and are modulated and then return to the electronic equipment; another portion of the signal is reflected back to the electronic device by the environment (such as a wall surface), which may be referred to as a self-interference signal. By measuring the ambient reflected channel, the self-interfering signal can be estimated, and after the self-interfering signal is eliminated from the reflected signal received by the electronic device, the reflected signal from the beacon tag device can be obtained to demodulate it and obtain the tag configuration information.

For this reason, in a preferred example, after the electronic device activates the beacon tag device, it may first interact with the beacon tag device according to a preset flow for the configuration information acquisition unit 2210 to perform the channel estimation process.

Next, the channel estimation process performed by the configuration information acquisition unit 2210 will be specifically described in conjunction with the examples shown in fig. 9 and 10. In this example, an electronic device as a user equipment UE (which has a configuration such as the electronic device 200 described above with reference to fig. 2 to 7 and can perform corresponding processing) includes a control unit 220 having a configuration information acquisition unit 2210 and a positioning unit 2220, which interact with an active Beacon Tag device Beacon Tag.

Fig. 9 is a diagram for explaining the environmental reflection channel estimation by the tag information acquisition unit 2210, which shows an example of estimating the environmental reflection channel. After being activated, the Beacon Tag enters a silent mode first without modulating any signal, as shown in fig. 9. The quiet period of the Beacon Tag may be preset (e.g., 16 μ s) and is known at both the UE and the Beacon Tag side. When white gaussian noise is ignored, the configuration information obtaining unit 2210 in the UE controls the transceiver of the UE to transmit the radio frequency reference signal x (t), and the signal reaching the transceiver of the UE after being reflected by a wall W such as shown in the figure is as the following formula (1)

Wherein h is_env(t) represents a Multipath channel (Multipath channel) experienced by the signal. Since x (t) is known, the configuration information obtaining unit 2210 can adopt any suitable existing channel estimation method to obtain h_env(t)。

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram for explaining the tag reflection channel estimation by the tag information acquisition unit 2210, which shows an example of estimating a beacon tag device reflection channel. As shown in fig. 10, after the end of the silent period, the Beacon Tag starts to modulate the radio frequency reference signal x (t) from the UE. At this time, the signal modulated by the Beacon Tag is a pilot signal known by the configuration information acquisition unit 2210, so as to facilitate it to estimate the channel parameters reflected by the Beacon Tag. The channel estimation time may be preset (e.g., 32 μ s) and is known at both the configuration information acquisition unit 2210 and the Beacon Tag end.

The Beacon Tag apparatus Beacon Tag may use a phase modulator to implement modulation on the radio frequency reference signal x (t), which represents information to be transmitted with different phases. In the channel estimation process, Beacon Tag uses a known pilot signal

Modulating the received RF reference signal and reflecting the signal back to the UE

Can be expressed according to the following formula (2):

wherein h is_f(t) denotes the Forward channel (Forward channel) experienced by the radio frequency reference signal x (t) from the UE to the Beacon Tag; h is_b(t) represents the back channel (backhaul channel) experienced by the signal from the Beacon Tag back to the UE; y is_env(t) represents the self-interference signal introduced from ambient scattering, such as reflection from wall surface W. Suppose y_env(t) can be estimated according to equation (2), and its removal results in a reflected signal from Beacon Tag expressed by equation (3) below

At this time, due to x (t) and

as is known, equation (3) becomes a standard channel estimation problem, and the configuration information obtaining unit 2210 can estimate the channel by using any existing estimation method. Here, what the configuration information acquisition unit 2210 actually obtains through channel estimation is the composite channel parameter, not h alone_f(t) or h_b(t) of (d). In this case, the received reflected signal from the Beacon Tag may be further expressed as:

wherein

Representing the composite channel parameters.

In this way, the configuration information acquisition unit 2210 may complete channel estimation processing for the beacon tag device for use in subsequently demodulating the reflected signal from the beacon tag device.

Example of configuration information acquisition processing

When the configuration information acquisition unit 2210 of the electronic device completes the channel estimation process in such a manner as described above, the beacon tag device can transmit tag configuration information to be transmitted in such a manner that the phase or amplitude of the reflected signal is changed, i.e., in a modulated signal e corresponding to the tag configuration information^jθ(t)The reflected signal is modulated. In the manner of the above equation (4), the reflection signal y from the Beacon Tag received at this time can be obtained_d(t)：

For the received signal described above, the configuration information acquisition unit 2210 may demodulate in any suitable manner to acquire tag configuration information therein. As an example, a time domain Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC) method or the like may be adopted, and the symbol modulated by the beacon tag device is obtained through demodulation, so as to obtain the tag configuration information transmitted by the beacon tag device. As an example, the tag configuration information obtained by the configuration information acquisition unit 2210 through demodulation or the like may be a bit sequence of a predetermined length, such as the number of a set of positioning tag devices within the area where the beacon tag device is located.

(example processing performed by the positioning Unit)

As previously mentioned, the predetermined radio frequency reference signal may be transmitted by the transceiver (or by another signal source) by being used as a signal source by the electronic device, and the transceiver may receive a reflected reference signal resulting from activating the positioning beacon tag device to reflect and optionally modulate the radio frequency reference signal in a predetermined manner.

The positioning unit 2220 included in the control unit of the electronic device may calculate a correlation function of the transmitted radio frequency reference signal and the reflected reference signal received by the transceiver using information of the radio frequency reference signal that it knows in advance and optionally related information (such as information about modulation or about time offset) about a correlation process in which the positioning tag device is activated in the backscatter process, and calculate a Round Trip Time (RTT) (or arrival time of the reflected reference signal) of the radio frequency reference signal by determining a peak value of the correlation function. Based on the calculated RTT, the positioning unit 2220 may determine a distance between the electronic device and the corresponding positioning tag device. Based on such distances, the positioning unit 2220 may determine the position of the electronic device by a multipoint positioning method or the like.

Here, a process in which a signal source such as an electronic device transmits a radio frequency reference signal to an active positioning tag device and receives a reflected reference signal provided by backscattering from the active positioning tag device is similar to the process described heretofore in the section "exemplary processing performed by the configuration information acquisition unit" regarding the active beacon tag device, and the difference is mainly that the electronic device does not need to demodulate information from the reflected reference signal from the active positioning tag device, but only needs to calculate RTT by determining a peak value of a correlation function between the radio frequency reference signal and the reflected signal, or the like. The following description will focus on the above differences.

Basic example of processing to calculate RRT

As an example, consider an example process of calculating an RTT for a currently active position tag device Tagi. Alternatively, in the present embodiment, the positioning unit 2220 performs channel estimation for the activated positioning tag device Tagi through the channel estimation process in a manner similar to the above "exemplary process performed by the configuration information acquiring unit" section, and obtains the composite channel parameter thereof

Thus, for the radio frequency reference signal x (t) transmitted by the electronic device, a predetermined pilot signal is transmitted via Tagi

The signal received by the electronic device after being modulated and reflected may be represented as:

in order to determine the round trip time by calculating the peak value of the correlation function, the above received signal is delayed by a variable τ representing the round trip time_iCan obtain

Next, a local utilization radio frequency reference signal x (t) and a known pilot signal can be computed

Generated local signal

And

the correlation function between the two and when the correlation function obtains the maximum value, the corresponding time tau is determined_iI.e. the estimated round trip time

In the actual processing, the above-mentioned estimated round trip time

The process of (2) can be simplified as appropriate depending on the actual situation. For example, in an indoor environment, the environmental reflection channel and the tag reflection channel usually change slowly, so that the channel parameters can be considered to remain unchanged during the measurement time

Will be reduced to a constant. In this case, the processing for channel estimation with respect to Tagi may be at least partially omitted.

In addition, when the respective positioning tags use different address codes and the respective positioning tags are activated in a time-division manner, so that the reference signals from the respective activated positioning tags arrive at the electronic device in a time-division mannerWhen standby (i.e., when the reflected signals of the various active positioning tags do not need to be distinguished by modulating the reference signal), the pilot signal modulated by each tag Tagi can be made

To 1, thereby further simplifying the above equation (8).

One example process for the positioning unit 2220 to calculate the RTT is described above.

As previously mentioned, in a preferred embodiment, to further speed up the location process, multiple location tag devices within the area of one beacon tag device may be set to have the same address code. After the electronic device acquires the address code according to the tag configuration information from the beacon tag device and transmits the address code, the plurality of positioning tag devices are simultaneously activated.

In this case, in order for the positioning unit 2210 in the control unit of the electronic device to still be able to distinguish the reflected reference signals from each positioning tag device to perform the processing of calculating RTT thereon, respectively, each positioning tag device may reflect its own received rf reference signal at different time, or modulate its received rf reference signal with different modulation frequency and/or modulation pilot sequence and perform backscattering. Accordingly, the positioning unit 2210 may distinguish the reflection reference signals for corresponding processing based on reflection time related information, modulation frequency related information, and/or modulation pilot sequence related information associated with the positioning tag devices (e.g., may be obtained together with address codes of the positioning tag devices according to tag configuration information). Next, a modified example of the process of calculating the RRT by the positioning unit 2220 in the above case will be described on the basis of the above RTT example process.

First modified example of processing to calculate RRT (reflection time correlation)

In this example, activated position Tag devices Tag1-A through Tag1-C having the same address code each reflect their respective received RF reference signal at different times to provide a plurality of distinguishable reflected reference signals.

For example, the plurality of active position Tag devices Tag1-A to Tag1-C may backscatter their received RF reference signals sequentially in a predetermined order and offset in time. Fig. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of time offsets and transmission sequences set for a plurality of location tag devices having the same address code according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In the example of FIG. 11, the individual position Tag devices Tag1-A through Tag1-C in Room Room1 of an example scenario, such as that described above with reference to FIG. 3, have the same address code. Therefore, after the electronic device acquires the address code according to the Tag configuration information from the Beacon Tag device Beacon Tag1 in Room1 and transmits the address code, Tag1-a to Tag1-C are simultaneously activated. For a radio frequency reference signal transmitted by a signal source such as an electronic device, activated tags 1-A through Tag1-C are time-shifted by T in a predetermined order of tags 1-A, Tag 1-B and Tag1-C_oWhich in turn backscatter (e.g., 1ms) its received rf reference signal. That is, when one positioning tag device backscatters a signal from the electronic device, the other positioning tag devices remain silent according to the pre-configuration, without modulating any signal. Furthermore, it is preferable that a guard time T is established between the backscatter transmissions of two successive position tag devices to avoid interference with each other_g(e.g., 50 ns).

In the example shown in FIG. 11, the predetermined order, time offset T, comprising Tags 1-A, Tag 1-B and Tags 1-C_o(and optionally a guard time T)_g) Etc. the reflection time related information may be stored as additional columns in tables having the form of table (III) of fig. 6A or tables (ii.1) to (ii.3) of fig. 6B. Accordingly, when the control unit 220 of the electronic device obtains the address codes of Tag1-A, Tag 1-B and Tag1-C according to the Beacon Tag configuration information from Beacon Tag1, the above-mentioned reflection time related information of Tag1-A, Tag 1-B and Tag1-C can be obtained at the same time for reference by the positioning unit 2220 in the control unit.

In case that the above-mentioned reflection time related information is obtained, the positioning unit 2220 may be configured to obtain the reflection time related informationInformation the predetermined sequence, time offset T_o(and optionally a guard time T)_g) And so on, the signals received by the transceiver of the electronic device at the corresponding times (i.e., in the corresponding order and time interval) are respectively taken as the received signals for the corresponding activated positioning tag devices (i.e., the reflected reference signals from the activated positioning tag devices), and the processing of calculating the RRT described in the above basic example is performed, thereby determining the RRT for each positioning tag.

Second modified example of processing to calculate RRT (modulation frequency correlation)

In this example, activated position tag devices with the same address code modulate their received radio frequency reference signals with different modulation frequencies and reflect to provide a plurality of distinguishable reflected reference signals.

For example, the plurality of active position Tag devices Tag1-A through Tag1-C may modulate their received RF reference signals at different frequencies according to a preset frequency offset. FIG. 12 shows a schematic diagram of an example of frequency offsets set for multiple position tag devices having the same address code according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In the example shown in FIG. 12, each of the position Tag devices Tag1-A through Tag1-C in Room Room1 of an example scenario, such as that described above with reference to FIG. 3, have the same address code. Therefore, after the electronic device acquires the address code according to the Tag configuration information from the Beacon Tag device Beacon Tag1 in Room1 and transmits the address code, Tag1-a to Tag1-C are simultaneously activated. Then, after a signal source such as an electronic device transmits a radio frequency reference signal, the activated tags 1-A to Tag1-C generate a frequency shift f_iSine wave cos (f)_it) and the sine wave cos (f) is divided_it) is multiplied by the modulated symbol to shift the frequency of the reference signal it reflects from the frequency of the radio frequency reference signal transmitted by the electronic device (where i is 1,2,3, corresponding to Tag1-A, Tag 1-B, Tag1-C, respectively). Frequency offset f_iCan be set as f_i＝i·(f_d+f_g)，f_dIndicating and positioning labelSetting the data rates of Tag1-A to Tag1-C, f_gIs a guard frequency between the two modulation frequencies that activate the locating tag device, established to avoid mutual interference.

In the example shown in fig. 12, predetermined numbers of tags 1-A, Tag 1-B, Tag1-C (i ═ 1,2,3, corresponding to tags 1-A, Tag 1-B, Tag1-C, respectively), data rates f, and so forth are included_dProtection frequency f_gEtc. the modulation frequency related information may be stored as additional columns in tables having the form of table (III) of fig. 6A or tables (ii.1) to (ii.3) of fig. 6B. Alternatively, the frequency can also be shifted directly by f_iAs modulation frequency related information is stored in the above table.

Accordingly, when the control unit 220 of the electronic device obtains the address codes of Tag1-A, Tag 1-B and Tag1-C according to the Beacon Tag configuration information from Beacon Tag1, the above modulation frequency related information of Tag1-A, Tag 1-B and Tag1-C can be obtained at the same time for reference by the positioning unit 2220 in the control unit.

In the case where the above-mentioned modulation frequency related information is obtained, the positioning unit 2220 may activate the modulation frequency (i.e., the frequency offset f) of the positioning tag device according to the modulation frequency indicated by/obtained from the modulation frequency related information_i) The reception signal for the corresponding active positioning tag device (i.e., the reflected reference signal from the active positioning tag device) is obtained at the corresponding frequency band, and the processing of calculating the RRT described in the above basic example is performed, thereby determining the RRT for each positioning tag.

Third modified example of processing to calculate RRT (pilot sequence correlation)

In this example, activated position tag devices with the same address code modulate their received radio frequency reference signal with different pilot sequences and reflect to provide a plurality of distinguishable reflected reference signals.

For example, the plurality of active positioning Tag devices Tag1-a to Tag1-C may modulate their received rf reference signals with a plurality of preset pilot sequences, i.e. corresponding to different pilots respectivelyOf sequence

Modulates the received radio frequency reference signal. Here, orthogonal sequences such as Constant Amplitude Zero Auto Correlation (CAZAC) sequences or Walsh-Hadamard (Walsh Hadamard) sequences are employed, for example, so that the electronic devices can separate the received reflected reference signals and estimate the respective time delays. In addition, a Non-orthogonal sequence based on a Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technique may also be used as the pilot sequence, as appropriate.

At this time, the reflected reference signal y received by the transceiver of the electronic device_d(t) has the form:

here, a relatively complex circuit is provided for the tag positioning apparatus, a symbol modulation period consistent with the electronic device can be generated, and if the radio frequency reference signal transmitted by the electronic device is x (t) 1, then:

in this example, with

The pilot sequence related information of the corresponding different pilot sequences modulated with respect to Tag1-A, Tag 1-B, Tag1-C may be stored as additional columns in tables having the form of table (III) of fig. 6A or tables (ii.1) to (ii.3) of fig. 6B.

Accordingly, when the control unit 220 of the electronic device obtains the address codes of Tag1-A, Tag 1-B and Tag1-C according to the Beacon Tag configuration information from Beacon Tag1, the above-mentioned pilot sequence related information of Tag1-A, Tag 1-B and Tag1-C can be obtained at the same time for the reference of the positioning unit 2220 in the control unit.

In the case of obtaining the above-mentioned pilot sequence related information, the positioning unit 2220 may extract the received signal for the corresponding active positioning tag device (i.e., the reflected reference signal from the active positioning tag device) from the reflected reference signal in the form of equation (9) or (10) by using the pilot sequence of the active positioning tag device indicated by the pilot sequence related information

Or

And the process of calculating the RRT described in the basic example above is performed to determine the RRT for each location tag.

Example of positioning based on RRT

Assume that the positioning unit 2220 calculates the RRT of Tagi by an exemplary process such as that described above

It can obtain the distance between the electronic device and Tagi by using the following formula:

where c represents the speed of light.

Based on the distances calculated for Tag1-A to Tag1-C, the planar positions (x) of Tag1-A to Tag1-C were combined₁,y₁)、(x₂,y₂) And (x)₃,y₃) The planar position (x) of the electronic device is calculated, for example, by Trilateration (Trilateration) by solving equation (12) below₀,y₀)：

In the present example, the position information about the planar position of Tag1-A, Tag 1-B, Tag1-C can be stored as an additional column in a table having the form of table (III) of FIG. 6A or tables (II.1) to (II.3) of FIG. 6B. Accordingly, when the control unit 220 of the electronic device acquires the address codes of Tag1-A, Tag 1-B and Tag1-C according to the Beacon Tag configuration information from Beacon Tag1, the above-mentioned location information of Tag1-A, Tag 1-B and Tag1-C can be simultaneously obtained for reference by the positioning unit 2220 in the control unit.

In this way, the positioning unit 2220 enables positioning of the electronic device.

The configuration example of the control unit 220 and the exemplary processing implemented by the configuration information acquisition unit 2210 and the positioning unit 2220 included therein are described above in connection with the specific example. Note that the configuration examples of the control unit and the example processing of the related units provided here are only for the purpose of helping those skilled in the art understand further details of the embodiments of the present disclosure, and are not intended to constitute any limitation on the functions or processing of the electronic device and the control unit thereof and the like described in [ basic configuration example of 2.1 electronic device ] heretofore.

<3. configuration example of electronic device capable of serving as beacon tag apparatus >

Fig. 13 is a block diagram showing one configuration example of an electronic device capable of functioning as a beacon tag apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 13, the electronic device 1300 may include a receiving unit 1310, a control unit 1320, a configuration information providing unit 1320, and an optional storage unit 1330.

Here, the various units of the electronic device 1300 may be included in a processing circuit. It is noted that the electronic device 1300 may include one processing circuit or may include a plurality of processing circuits. Further, the processing circuitry may include various discrete functional units to perform various different functions and/or operations. It should be noted that these functional units may be physical entities or logical entities, and that units called differently may be implemented by the same physical entity. Further, the electronic device 1300 capable of functioning as a beacon tag device may have, for example, the basic function and physical configuration of a tag device such as an RFID tag, and functional modules and processes thereof related to the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below with emphasis on the basic function of a tag device such as an RFID tag.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the receiving unit 1310 of the electronic device 1300 may receive an address code from a user device such as the electronic device 200 described above with reference to fig. 2 and read the address code by means such as existing energy detection and identification (e.g., the receiving unit 1310 may have an energy detection and identification module). When the receiving unit 1310 of the electronic apparatus 1300 receives the address code of the electronic apparatus 1300 itself, the electronic apparatus 1300 is controlled to enter the active state from the sleep state. After the electronic device 1300 is activated, the configuration information providing unit 1320 may provide, to the user equipment, tag configuration information for the location tag device in the area where the electronic device 1300 is located (the information is pre-stored in the storage unit 1330, for example) in an appropriate manner, so that the user equipment can obtain the address code of the location tag device in the area where the electronic device 1300 is located according to the tag configuration information.

With the beacon tag device of the embodiment of the present disclosure, such as the electronic device 1300, the user equipment may activate the beacon tag device in its vicinity first, and then obtain tag configuration information from the activated beacon tag device to obtain the address code of the nearby positioning tag device, thereby reducing the number of address codes of positioning tags to be transmitted by the user equipment, reducing the processing load, and facilitating an increase in positioning speed.

Further details regarding the electronic device 1300 and its various elements capable of functioning as a beacon tag apparatus are described below in connection with specific examples.

(example of Address code of beacon tag device)

Each beacon tag device, including electronic device 1300, has a unique address code (ID), which may be formed, for example, from a string of binary bit sequences, and may have the form of a length-9 bit sequence {101001011} such as that shown in fig. 4.

Preferably, the electronic device 1300 has a different address code from another electronic device adjacent to the electronic device 1300, which can function as a beacon tag apparatus. For example, when the electronic device 1300 is used as the Beacon Tag device Beacon Tag1 in the Room1 in the example shown in fig. 3, it has a different address code from the Beacon Tag devices Beacon Tag2 and Beacon Tag3 of the rooms Room2 and Room 3.

Further, the electronic device 1300 and another electronic device that is not adjacent to the electronic device 1300 and is capable of functioning as a beacon tag apparatus may have the same address code. For example, in a preferred embodiment, adjacent beacon tag devices of the plurality of beacon tag devices may have different address codes. For example, when electronic device 1300 is in Area1 shown in fig. 5, it may have the same address code as one of the beaconing tag devices in Area 2. With this preferred arrangement, the number of address codes of the beacon tag devices acquired and/or transmitted by the user equipment can be reduced, thereby further reducing the processing load and/or increasing the positioning speed.

(example processing to provide tag configuration information)

After the electronic device 1300 is activated by the address code transmitted by the user equipment, the configuration information providing unit 1320 may provide the user equipment with the tag configuration information for the location tag device in the area where the electronic device 1300 is located in an appropriate manner.

As an example, the receiving unit 1310 of the electronic device 1300 may receive a predetermined radio frequency reference signal transmitted by the user equipment as a signal source (or by another signal source). At this time, the configuration information providing unit 1320 modulates the tag configuration information stored in the storage unit 1330 onto the received radio frequency reference signal, and sends out the modulated radio frequency signal (i.e., a reflection signal) through backscattering for the user equipment to receive, so that the user equipment obtains the tag configuration information through demodulation processing or the like according to the reflection signal, and further obtains the address code of the positioning tag device in the area where the electronic device 1300 is located according to the tag configuration information.

The configuration information providing unit 1320 may change the impedance of an antenna of an electronic device as a beacon tag apparatus according to tag configuration information to be transmitted, for example, to thereby change the backscattered radio frequency signal so as to implement the above modulation processing. For example, the configuration information providing unit 1320 may transmit tag configuration information to be transmitted by changing the phase or amplitude of the reflected signal, i.e., by using the modulation signal e corresponding to the tag configuration information^jθ(t)The reflected signal is modulated. The configuration information providing unit 1320 may implement a specific modulation process in various conventional manners, which will not be described herein.

As an example, the tag configuration information stored in the storage unit 1330 and issued by the configuration information providing unit 1320 may include, for example, a number of a set of location tag devices within an area in which the electronic device 1300 is located. The tag configuration information stored in the storage unit 1330 may have, for example, the form of one of tables (ii.1) to (ii.3) in fig. 6A or 6B. For example, the Tag configuration information may be a length-3 bit sequence {101}, which represents the number of the set of location Tag devices { Tag2-A, Tag2-B, Tag2-C }. After obtaining the tag configuration information in the form of the number of the set provided by the configuration information providing unit 1320, the ue may send the tag configuration information to the base station, and receive the address code of each positioning tag device in the positioning tag set corresponding to the number from the base station.

Alternatively, the tag configuration information stored in the storage unit 1330 and issued by the configuration information providing unit 1320 may include a different address code for each location tag device within the area in which the electronic device 1300 is located. At this time, the tag configuration information stored in the storage unit 1330 may have the form of one of tables (ii.1) to (ii.3) of fig. 6B, for example. For example, the tag configuration information may include a plurality of bit sequences of length 9, each bit sequence representing an address code indicating where to locate the tag device. In this case, after the user equipment obtains the tag configuration information provided by the configuration information providing unit 1320, the address code of each location tag device included therein may be directly read.

As an example, the tag configuration information provided by the configuration information providing unit 1320 may include the same address code of each location tag device within the area in which the electronic device 1300 is located.

In this case, the tag configuration information preferably further includes modulation frequency, modulation pilot sequence and/or reflection time related information of the positioning tag device in the area where the electronic apparatus 1300 is located. The modulation frequency-related information may, for example, indicate an offset between modulation frequencies used by respective positioning tag devices within an area in which the electronic device 1300 is located to modulate respective received radio frequency reference signals. In addition, the information related to the modulated pilot sequence may indicate, for example, the modulated pilot sequences to be used by the respective positioning tag devices in the area where the electronic device 1300 is located to modulate the respective received radio frequency reference signals. The reflection time related information may indicate, for example, an offset between times at which respective positioning tag devices within an area in which the electronic device 1300 is located are to reflect respective received radio frequency reference signals.

In addition, optionally, the tag configuration information may further include location information of a location tag device in an area where the electronic device 1300 is located.

The above-mentioned optional modulation frequency, modulation pilot sequence and/or reflection time related information and optional position information may be stored in the storage unit 1330 in the form of an additional column such as one of tables (ii.1) to (ii.3) of fig. 6B.

(example of interacting with user Equipment for channel estimation processing)

As described hereinbefore, in order to enable the user equipment to implement demodulation of the reflected signal, in a preferred example, the electronic device serving as the user equipment may estimate in advance the channel experienced by the backscattered signal from the active beacon tag device, including describing the ambient reflected channel and the beacon tag device reflected channel with reference to fig. 9 and 10 (such as implemented by the control unit of the electronic device shown in fig. 8).

For this, the electronic device 1300 capable of functioning as a beacon tag apparatus can perform various interactions with the user equipment regarding channel estimation according to the preset. For example, the electronic device 1300 may first enter a silent mode after activation as the beacon Tag apparatus Tag shown in fig. 8, when the configuration information providing unit 1320 does not modulate any signal. The quiet-period may be preset (e.g., 16 mus) and known to both the electronic device 1300 and the user equipment side. During which the user equipment estimates the ambient reflected channel using the radio frequency reference signal x (t) in the manner described above with reference to figure 8. Next, after the quiet period is over, the electronic device 1300 may start to modulate and reflect the radio frequency reference signal x (t) from the user equipment by using the configuration information providing unit 1320, as shown in the beacon Tag apparatus Tag shown in fig. 9. At this time, the configuration information providing unit 1320 uses a pilot signal known by the user equipment side

The modulation is performed so that the user equipment side estimates the channel parameters reflected by the electronic equipment 1300. The channel estimation time may be preset (e.g., 32 μ s) and known at both the electronic device 1300 and the user equipment side. In this manner, the electronic device 1300 may interact with the user equipment to complete a channel estimation process for the electronic device 1300 for use by the user equipment in subsequently demodulating the reflected signal from the electronic device 1300.

After the electronic device 1300 interacts with the user equipment to complete the channel estimation process, such as in the manner described above, the electronic device 1300 may transmit the tag configuration information to be transmitted by changing the phase or amplitude of the reflected signal, i.e., by using the modulated signal e corresponding to the tag configuration information^jθ(t)The reflected signal is modulated so that the user equipment demodulates in a suitable manner to obtain the tag configuration information therein.

The above describes a configuration example of the electronic device 1300 capable of serving as a beacon tag apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Note that the electronic device 1300 of the present embodiment can interact with the electronic device on the user equipment side described above with reference to fig. 2 to 12, and therefore, it can realize all the functions and processes of the beacon tag apparatus referred to in <2. configuration example of the electronic device on the user equipment side > and obtain all the benefits, and the description thereof will not be repeated.

<4. example of configuration of electronic apparatus capable of being used as positioning tag device >

Fig. 14 is a block diagram showing one configuration example of an electronic device capable of functioning as a beacon tag apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 14, the electronic device 1400 may include a receiving unit 1410 and a reflected reference signal providing unit 1420.

Here, various units of the electronic device 1400 may be included in the processing circuit. It should be noted that the electronic device 1400 may include one processing circuit or may include a plurality of processing circuits. Further, the processing circuitry may include various discrete functional units to perform various different functions and/or operations. It should be noted that these functional units may be physical entities or logical entities, and that units called differently may be implemented by the same physical entity. Further, the electronic apparatus 1400 capable of functioning as a location tag device may have, for example, the basic function and physical configuration of a tag device such as an RFID tag, and functional modules and processes thereof related to the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below with emphasis on the basic function of a tag device such as an RFID tag.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the receiving unit 1410 of the electronic device 1400 may receive an address code from a user device, such as the electronic device 200 described above with reference to fig. 2, and read the address code by means such as existing energy detection and identification. When the receiving unit 1410 receives the address code of the electronic device 1400 itself, the electronic device 1400 may enter the active state from the sleep state. As an example, the receiving unit 1410 may receive a predetermined radio frequency reference signal transmitted by the user equipment as a signal source (or by another signal source). After the electronic device 1400 is activated, the reflected reference signal providing unit 1420 may emit the reflected rf reference signal (i.e., emit a reflected reference signal), for example, by backscattering, for the user equipment to locate based on the reflected reference signal.

(example of Address code for positioning tag device)

Each location tag device, including electronic apparatus 1400, has a unique address code (ID), which may be formed, for example, from a string of binary bit sequences, and may have the form of a length-9 bit sequence {101001011} such as that shown in fig. 4.

The electronic device 1400 as a locating tag device and other locating tag devices within the same beacon tag device's area may have different address codes. For example, when electronic device 1400 is used as location Tag device Tag1-A in Room1 in the example shown in FIG. 3, J, i.e., in the area of Beacon Tag device Beacon Tag1, when electronic device 1400 and the other location Tag devices Tag 1-B, Tag1-C of that area have different address codes, such as shown in Table (III) of FIG. 6A or Table (II.1) of FIG. 6B. In this case, the user equipment may sequentially transmit the address codes of the location tag devices to sequentially activate the respective location tag devices.

Alternatively, to speed up the positioning, the electronic device 1400 as the positioning tag device and other positioning tag devices within the same beacon tag device's area may have the same address code. In this case, the user equipment will simultaneously activate the respective location tag means when transmitting the address code. At this time, each of the location tag devices provides the reflected reference signals in a specific manner set in advance so that the reflected reference signals are distinguishable to the user equipment.

(example processing to provide a reflected reference Signal)

For example, when the electronic device 1400, which is a positioning tag apparatus, and other positioning tag apparatuses (which are in the same beacon tag apparatus area as the electronic device 1400) have the same address code, in order to make the reflected reference signals from the respective positioning tag apparatuses distinguishable for the user equipment, the reflected reference signal providing unit 1420 of the electronic device 1400 provides the reflected reference signals in a preset specific manner.

As an example, the reflected reference signal providing unit 1420 may reflect the received radio frequency reference signal at a predetermined time. Further, optionally, the reflected reference signal providing unit 1420 may modulate the received radio frequency reference signal with a predetermined modulation frequency and/or modulation pilot sequence and perform reflection. The reflection reference signal providing unit 1420 may change the impedance of the antenna of the electronic device serving as the positioning tag device according to the settings regarding modulation or reflection, for example, to thereby change the backscattered radio frequency signal, thereby implementing the above-described modulation or reflection processing. The reflected reference signal providing unit 1420 may implement a specific modulation process in various conventional manners, which will not be described herein.

In this case, the user equipment may additionally obtain reflection time, modulation frequency and/or modulation pilot sequence related information of each positioning tag device while obtaining address codes of the positioning tag devices according to the beacon tag device. Therefore, when a plurality of positioning tag devices including the electronic device 1400 are activated simultaneously to emit a plurality of reflected reference signals, the user equipment can distinguish or separate the reflected reference signals from the respective positioning tag devices according to the obtained reflection time, modulation frequency and/or modulation pilot sequence related information.

Further details of these examples will be described below.

Example of reflection time correlation

In this example, the electronic device 1400 acts as an active position determination Tag device Tag1-A that reflects its respective received RF reference signal at different times (e.g., by a reflected reference signal providing unit) than active position determination Tag devices Tag 1-B and Tag1-C having the same address code, respectively, to provide a plurality of distinguishable reflected reference signals.

For example, a plurality of activated location Tag devices Tag1-A through Tag1-C may be time-shifted T in a predetermined order of Tag1-A, Tag 1-B and Tag1-C in a manner such as that shown in FIG. 11_o(e.g., 1ms) backscatter it in turnA received radio frequency reference signal. Furthermore, it is preferable that a guard time T is established between the backscatter transmissions of two successive position tag devices to avoid interference with each other_g(e.g., 50 ns).

At this time, the above predetermined sequence, time offset T is included_o(and optionally a guard time T)_g) Etc. may be stored as additional columns in a table having the form of table (III) of fig. 6A or tables (ii.1) through (ii.3) of fig. 6B for retrieval by the user equipment and discrimination or separation of reflected reference signals from the various location tag devices based on such reflected time-related information.

Examples of modulation frequency correlation

In this example, the electronic device 1400 acts as the active position Tag devices Tag1-A, and modulates and reflects the received RF reference signals with different modulation frequencies (e.g., by the reflected reference signal providing unit) to provide a plurality of distinguishable reflected reference signals, respectively, as compared to the active position Tag devices Tag 1-B and Tag1-C having the same address code.

For example, the plurality of active position Tag devices Tag1-A through Tag1-C may be offset by a preset frequency f via a manner such as that shown in FIG. 12_iThe received radio frequency reference signals are modulated at different frequencies. Activated Tag1-A to Tag1-C produce a frequency shift f_iSine wave cos (f)_it) and the sine wave cos (f) is divided_it) is multiplied by the modulated symbol to shift the frequency of the reference signal it reflects from the frequency of the radio frequency reference signal transmitted by the user equipment (where i is 1,2,3, corresponding to Tag1-A, Tag 1-B, Tag1-C, respectively). Frequency offset f_iCan be set as f_i＝i·(f_d+f_g)，f_dIndicating the data rate, f, of the positioning Tag devices Tag1-A to Tag1-C_gIs a guard frequency between the two modulation frequencies that activate the locating tag device, established to avoid mutual interference.

At this time, predetermined numbers (i ═ 1,2,3, respectively corresponding to Tag1-A, Tag 1-B, Tag1-C are included (i ═ 1,2,3, respectively)Tag1-A, Tag 1-B, Tag 1-C), data rate f_dProtection frequency f_gEtc. (alternatively, directly including the frequency offset f)_iModulation frequency-related information) may be stored as additional columns in a table having the form of table (III) of fig. 6A or tables (ii.1) through (ii.3) of fig. 6B for retrieval by the user equipment and discrimination or separation of reflected reference signals from various location tag devices based on such modulation frequency-related information.

Examples of modulation sequence correlation

In this example, the electronic device 1400 acts as the active position determination Tag devices Tag1-A, and modulates and reflects the received RF reference signals with different pilot sequences (e.g., by the reflected reference signal providing unit) to provide a plurality of distinguishable reflected reference signals, respectively, as compared to the active position determination Tag devices Tag 1-B and Tag1-C having the same address code.

For example, the plurality of active positioning Tag devices Tag1-a to Tag1-C may modulate their received rf reference signals with a plurality of preset pilot sequences, i.e. with different pilot sequences respectively

Modulates the received radio frequency reference signal. Here, for example, an orthogonal sequence such as a CAZAC sequence or a Walsh-Hadamard (Walsh Hadamard) sequence is employed. In addition, non-orthogonal sequences based on the NOMA technique may also be used as pilot sequences, where appropriate.

At this time, pilot sequence related information indicating pilot sequences used by each of tags 1-A, Tag 1-B, Tag1-C may be stored as additional columns in a table having the form of table (III) of fig. 6A or tables (ii.1) through (ii.3) of fig. 6B for the user equipment to acquire and distinguish or separate the reflected reference signals from the respective positioning Tag devices based on such pilot sequence related information.

The above describes a configuration example of the electronic apparatus 1400 capable of being used as a positioning tag device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Note that the electronic device 1400 of the present embodiment can interact with the electronic device on the user equipment side described above with reference to fig. 2 to 12 and the electronic device capable of functioning as a beacon tag apparatus described above with reference to fig. 13, and therefore, it can realize all functions and processes of the positioning tag apparatus and obtain all benefits involved in <2. configuration example of electronic device on the user equipment side > and <3. configuration example of electronic device functioning as a beacon tag apparatus >, and the description thereof will not be repeated here.

<5. example of information interaction Process >

Next, an example of an information interaction process of the embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to fig. 15.

Fig. 15 is an exemplary diagram illustrating an information interaction procedure according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in which user equipment UE, Beacon Tag device Beacon Tag, and location Tag devices Tag1 and Tag in an area where the Beacon Tag is located are schematically illustrated, and possible location Tag devices Tag2, …, Tag-1, and the like are omitted. In this example, the location Tag devices Tag1, …, Tagn have different address codes.

As shown in fig. 15, in step S1501, the user equipment UE transmits an address code of the Beacon Tag device Beacon Tag to activate the Beacon Tag. After the Beacon Tag enters the active state, the Tag configuration information is provided to the UE in step S1502. The Beacon Tag may implement the providing step by modulating and backscattering a radio frequency reference signal transmitted by the UE or other signal source, for example. And the UE obtains the address codes and the position information of the positioning Tag devices Tag1, … and Tagn in the area of the Beacon Tag based on the obtained Tag configuration information. The UE may receive the address code and the location information from the base station based on the tag configuration information, for example, or may directly read the address code and the location information therefrom when the tag configuration information includes the related information.

Next, in step S1503-1, the UE transmits the address code of the obtained location Tag device Tag1 to activate the Tag 1. Tag1 after entering the active state may reflect a radio frequency reference signal, such as from the UE or other signal source, to issue a reflected reference signal to the UE in step S1504-1. The UE may proceed similarly for location Tag devices Tag2, …, Tagn in turn. After the UE completes the processes of S1503-n and S1504-n similar to steps S1503-1 and S1504-1, respectively, with respect to Tagn, the positioning process may be performed based on the reflected reference signals received from the respective positioning Tag devices Tag1, …, Tagn. As an example, the UE may calculate RTTs of the respective reflected reference signals and estimate distances between the UE and the corresponding positioning tag devices, thereby determining the location of the UE, for example, by a multipoint positioning method, in combination with location information of the positioning tag devices.

The example flow shown in fig. 15 can be implemented by the electronic device 200 on the user equipment side, the electronic device 1300 capable of serving as the beacon tag apparatus, and the electronic device 1400 capable of serving as the positioning tag apparatus, which are described above with reference to fig. 1 to 14, and thus the advantages and benefits described in the configuration examples of the above respective electronic devices can be obtained, and will not be described further herein.

The above describes a configuration example of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Note that some or all of these configuration examples may be combined with each other to provide a corresponding positioning system. For example, a plurality of beacon tag devices and a positioning tag device associated with each beacon tag device can be provided (and optionally appropriate information stored in a base station capable of interacting with the user equipment) in the manner described above in the example application scenario with reference to fig. 3, thereby constituting a positioning system suitable for the user equipment.

<6. method example >

The method performed in the electronic device according to the embodiment of the present disclosure will be described next in detail. Note that these method implementations correspond to the device configuration examples described above with reference to fig. 1 to 15, and therefore the respective details and benefits of the above device configuration examples are suitably applicable to the following method embodiments.

[6.1 user Equipment side method embodiment ]

Fig. 16 is a flowchart illustrating a process example of a positioning method on a user equipment side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which may be implemented by, for example, the electronic device 200 (which may include, for example, the functional unit of the electronic device described with reference to fig. 8) on the user equipment side described with reference to fig. 2.

As shown in fig. 16, in step S1601, address codes of a plurality of beacon tag devices are transmitted to sequentially activate the beacon tag devices in the vicinity of the electronic apparatus. Next, in step S1602, tag configuration information is obtained from each active beacon tag device, and an address code of a positioning tag device in an area where the beacon tag device is located is obtained according to the tag configuration information. Next, in step S1603, the obtained address code of each location tag device is transmitted to activate the corresponding location tag device. In step S1604, a reflected reference signal obtained by each activated position tag device reflecting the rf reference signal may be obtained, and the electronic device may be located by using the reflected reference signal.

Optionally, the method for positioning may further include: address codes of the plurality of beacon tag devices are received in advance from a base station.

Alternatively, the tag configuration information obtained from the active beacon tag device in step S1602 may include the number of the set of locating tag devices within the area in which the beacon tag device is located. At this time, the address code of each location tag device in the set may be received from the base station according to the number.

Optionally, the tag configuration information obtained from the activated beacon tag device in step S1602 includes an address code of each positioning tag device within the area in which the beacon tag device is located.

In one example, adjacent beacon tag devices of the plurality of beacon tag devices have different address codes. Optionally, at least two non-adjacent beacon tag devices of the plurality of beacon tag devices have the same address code.

Optionally, in the method for positioning, for a positioning tag device near a boundary of an area where two adjacent active beacon tag devices are located, tag configuration information related to the positioning tag device may be obtained from the two adjacent active beacon tag devices, respectively.

Alternatively, a plurality of positioning tag devices within an area in which one beacon tag device is located have different address codes, and in the method for positioning, the address codes of the plurality of positioning tag devices are sequentially transmitted to sequentially activate the plurality of positioning tag devices.

Alternatively, a plurality of positioning tag devices within an area in which one beacon tag device is located have the same address code, and in the method for positioning, the same address code is transmitted simultaneously to activate the plurality of positioning tag devices simultaneously.

In this case, in the method for positioning, a plurality of reflected reference signals obtained by modulating and reflecting the radio frequency reference signal by the plurality of positioning tag devices after activation respectively using different modulation frequencies and/or modulation pilot sequences are optionally received. At this time, the method for positioning further includes: the modulation frequency and/or the modulated pilot sequence of each of the plurality of positioning tag devices is also obtained according to tag configuration information obtained from the one beacon tag device.

Further, alternatively, in the method for positioning, a plurality of the reflected reference signals, which are reflected by the plurality of positioning tag devices respectively at different times after activation, are received. At this time, the method for positioning further includes: the time of each of the plurality of position-locating tag devices is also obtained in accordance with tag configuration information obtained from the one beacon tag device.

Optionally, the method for positioning further comprises: according to the tag configuration information obtained from each active beacon tag device, also obtaining the location information of the positioning tag device in the area where the beacon tag device is located; calculating the distance between each activated positioning tag device and the electronic equipment by using the arrival time of the reflected reference signal of the activated positioning tag device; and determining the position of the electronic equipment according to the position information of each activated positioning label device and the distance between each activated positioning label device and the electronic equipment.

Further, optionally, the method for positioning further comprises: and transmitting the radio frequency reference signal.

Further, alternatively, when there are a plurality of electronic devices, the plurality of electronic devices may sequentially perform the above-described method for positioning according to the scheduling of the base station to sequentially activate the beacon tag devices in the vicinity of each of the electronic devices and perform the related processing. Alternatively, a plurality of said electronic devices may each operate in D2D mode and sequentially perform the above-described method for locating by distributed scheduling to sequentially activate beacon tag devices in the vicinity of each said electronic device and perform related processing.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the main body performing the above method may be the electronic device 200 (including the functional unit of the electronic device described with reference to fig. 8) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and thus various aspects of the embodiments of the electronic device 200 and the functional unit thereof described in the foregoing are applicable thereto.

[6.2 beacon tag device side method embodiment ]

Fig. 17 is a flowchart illustrating a process example of a method for positioning at a beacon tag device side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which may be implemented by, for example, the electronic device 1300 capable of functioning as a beacon tag device described with reference to fig. 13.

As shown in fig. 17, in step S1701, the electronic apparatus may be brought from the sleep state into the active state upon receiving an address code of the electronic apparatus from the user apparatus. Next, in step S1702, providing tag configuration information to the user equipment, so that the user equipment obtains an address code of a tag positioning device in an area where the electronic equipment is located according to the tag configuration information.

Alternatively, the current electronic device in the method for positioning and another said electronic device adjacent to said electronic device may have different address codes.

Further, optionally, the current electronic device in the method for positioning and another said electronic device not adjacent to said electronic device may have the same address code.

Alternatively, the tag configuration information provided in step S1702 may include the number of the set of positioning tag devices in the area where the electronic equipment device is located.

Alternatively, the tag configuration information provided in step S1702 may include a different address code for each positioning tag device in the area where the electronic apparatus is located.

Alternatively, the tag configuration information provided in step S1702 may include the same address code of each positioning tag device within the area in which the electronic device is located.

In this case, preferably, the tag configuration information further includes a modulation frequency, a modulation pilot sequence and/or reflection time related information of a positioning tag device in an area where the electronic device is located. As an example, the modulation frequency related information may indicate an offset between modulation frequencies used by respective positioning tag devices within an area in which the electronic device is located to modulate respective received radio frequency reference signals. As an example, the modulated pilot sequence related information may indicate modulated pilot sequences used by respective positioning tag devices in an area in which the electronic device is located to modulate respective received radio frequency reference signals. As an example, the reflection time related information indicates an offset between times at which respective positioning tag devices within an area of the electronic equipment are to reflect respective received radio frequency reference signals.

Further, optionally, the tag configuration information provided in step S1702 may further include location information of a positioning tag device in the area where the electronic apparatus is located.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the subject performing the above method may be the electronic device 1300 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and thus various aspects of the foregoing regarding the embodiment of the electronic device 1300 are applicable thereto.

[6.3 method example for positioning the label device side ]

Fig. 18 is a flowchart illustrating a process example of a method for positioning at a side of a positioning tag device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which may be implemented by the electronic apparatus 1400 capable of being used as a positioning tag device described with reference to fig. 14, for example.

As shown in fig. 18, in step S1801, when an address code of the electronic device is received from the user equipment, the electronic device is brought from the sleep state to the active state. Next, in step S1802, the received radio frequency reference signal is reflected for the ue to perform positioning based on the reflected reference signal.

Optionally, in step S1802, the received radio frequency reference signal may be modulated and reflected by using a predetermined modulation frequency and/or modulation pilot sequence.

Alternatively, in step S1802, the received radio frequency reference signal may be reflected at a predetermined time.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the subject performing the above method may be an electronic device 1400 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and thus various aspects of the foregoing regarding the embodiment of the electronic device 1400 are applicable thereto.

<7. application example >

The techniques of this disclosure can be applied to a variety of products.

For example, the electronic apparatus 200 on the user apparatus side may be various user apparatuses, which may be implemented as a mobile terminal such as a smartphone, a tablet Personal Computer (PC), a notebook PC, a portable game terminal, a portable/cryptographic dog-type mobile router, and a digital camera, or a vehicle-mounted terminal such as a car navigation apparatus. The user equipment may also be implemented as a terminal (also referred to as a Machine Type Communication (MTC) terminal) that performs machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. Further, the user equipment may be a wireless communication module (such as an integrated circuit module including a single die) mounted on each of the user equipments described above.

In addition, the electronic device 1300 capable of functioning as a beacon Tag apparatus and the electronic device 1400 capable of functioning as a location Tag apparatus may be implemented as Tag apparatuses such as passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags (tags). The tag device is in a dormant state at ordinary times and does not transmit signals; which backscatter (also sometimes referred to herein as reflection) the radio frequency signal from the signal source to the reader only after waking up or activation. In backscattering the radio frequency signal, the tag device alters the backscattered radio frequency signal, such as by changing its antenna impedance, in accordance with the information to be transmitted, thereby effecting modulation of the reflected radio frequency signal.

[ application example with respect to user Equipment ]

(first application example)

Fig. 19 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a smartphone 2000 to which the technique of the present disclosure can be applied. The smartphone 2000 includes a processor 2001, a memory 2002, a storage device 2003, an external connection interface 2004, a camera device 2006, sensors 2007, a microphone 2008, an input device 2009, a display device 2010, a speaker 2011, a wireless communication interface 2012, one or more antenna switches 2015, one or more antennas 2016, a bus 2017, a battery 2018, and an auxiliary controller 2019.

The processor 2001 may be, for example, a CPU or a system on a chip (SoC), and controls functions of an application layer and another layer of the smartphone 2000. The memory 2002 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 2001. The storage device 2003 may include a storage medium such as a semiconductor memory and a hard disk. The external connection interface 2004 is an interface for connecting an external device such as a memory card and a Universal Serial Bus (USB) device to the smartphone 2000.

The image pickup device 2006 includes an image sensor such as a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) and a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS), and generates a captured image. The sensors 2007 may include a set of sensors such as a measurement sensor, a gyro sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an acceleration sensor. The microphone 2008 converts sound input to the smartphone 2000 into an audio signal. The input device 2009 includes, for example, a touch sensor, a keypad, a keyboard, a button, or a switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 2010, and receives an operation or information input from a user. The display device 2010 includes a screen, such as a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and an Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display, and displays an output image of the smartphone 2000. The speaker 2011 converts an audio signal output from the smartphone 2000 into sound.

The wireless communication interface 2012 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as LTE and LTE-advanced) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 2012 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 2013 and RF circuitry 2014. The BB processor 2013 can perform, for example, encoding/decoding, modulation/demodulation, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 2014 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive a wireless signal via the antenna 2016. The wireless communication interface 2012 may be a chip module on which the BB processor 2013 and the RF circuit 2014 are integrated. As shown in fig. 19, the wireless communication interface 2012 may include a plurality of BB processors 2013 and a plurality of RF circuits 2014. Although fig. 19 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 2012 includes multiple BB processors 2013 and multiple RF circuits 2014, the wireless communication interface 2012 may also include a single BB processor 2013 or a single RF circuit 2014.

Further, the wireless communication interface 2012 may support another type of wireless communication scheme, such as a short-range wireless communication scheme, a near field communication scheme, and a wireless Local Area Network (LAN) scheme, in addition to the cellular communication scheme. In this case, the wireless communication interface 2012 may include the BB processor 2013 and the RF circuit 2014 for each wireless communication scheme.

Each of the antenna switches 2015 switches the connection destination of the antenna 916 among a plurality of circuits (e.g., circuits for different wireless communication schemes) included in the wireless communication interface 2012.

Each of the antennas 2016 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and is used for transmitting and receiving wireless signals by the wireless communication interface 2012. As shown in fig. 19, the smartphone 2000 may include multiple antennas 2016. Although fig. 19 shows an example in which the smartphone 2000 includes a plurality of antennas 2016, the smartphone 2000 may also include a single antenna 2016.

Further, the smartphone 2000 may include an antenna 2016 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 2015 may be omitted from the configuration of the smartphone 2000.

The bus 2017 connects the processor 2001, the memory 2002, the storage device 2003, the external connection interface 2004, the image pickup device 2006, the sensor 2007, the microphone 2008, the input device 2009, the display device 2010, the speaker 2011, the wireless communication interface 2012, and the auxiliary controller 2019 to each other. The battery 2018 provides power to the various blocks of the smartphone 2000 shown in fig. 19 via a feed line, which is partially shown in the figure as a dashed line. The supplementary controller 2019 operates the minimum necessary functions of the smartphone 2000 in, for example, a sleep mode.

In the smartphone 2000 shown in fig. 19, the transceiver 210 in the electronic device 200 described hereinbefore with reference to fig. 2 may be implemented by a wireless communication interface 2012. At least a part of the functions of the control unit 220 in the electronic apparatus 200 may be implemented by the processor 2001 or the auxiliary controller 2019. For example, the processor 2001 or the auxiliary controller 2019 may perform at least a part of the functions of the control unit 220, such as implementing positioning processing based on a reflected reference signal or the like, by executing instructions stored in the memory 2002 or the storage device 2003. Further, the storage unit 230 in the electronic apparatus 200 may be realized by the memory 2002 or the storage device 2003.

(second application example)

Fig. 20 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a car navigation device 2120 to which the technique of the present disclosure can be applied. Car navigation device 2120 includes a processor 2121, memory 2122, a Global Positioning System (GPS) module 2124, sensors 2125, a data interface 2126, a content player 2127, a storage medium interface 2128, an input device 2129, a display device 2130, speakers 2131, a wireless communication interface 2133, one or more antenna switches 2136, one or more antennas 2137, and a battery 2138.

The processor 2121 may be, for example, a CPU or an SoC, and controls a navigation function and another function of the car navigation device 2120. The memory 2122 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 2121.

The GPS module 2124 measures the position (such as latitude, longitude, and altitude) of the car navigation device 2120 using GPS signals received from GPS satellites. The sensors 2125 may include a set of sensors, such as a gyro sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an air pressure sensor. The data interface 2126 is connected to, for example, the in-vehicle network 2141 via a terminal not shown, and acquires data generated by the vehicle (such as vehicle speed data).

The content player 2127 reproduces content stored in a storage medium (such as a CD and a DVD) inserted into the storage medium interface 2128. The input device 2129 includes, for example, a touch sensor, a button, or a switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 2130, and receives an operation or information input from a user. The display device 2130 includes a screen such as an LCD or OLED display, and displays an image of a navigation function or reproduced content. The speaker 2131 outputs the sound of the navigation function or the reproduced content.

The wireless communication interface 2133 supports any cellular communication schemes (such as LTE and LTE-advanced) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 2133 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 2134 and RF circuitry 2135. The BB processor 2134 may perform, for example, encoding/decoding, modulation/demodulation, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 2135 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receives a wireless signal via the antenna 2137. The wireless communication interface 2133 may also be one chip module on which the BB processor 2134 and the RF circuit 2135 are integrated. As shown in fig. 20, the wireless communication interface 2133 may include a plurality of BB processors 2134 and a plurality of RF circuits 2135. Although fig. 20 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 2133 includes a plurality of BB processors 2134 and a plurality of RF circuits 2135, the wireless communication interface 2133 may also include a single BB processor 2134 or a single RF circuit 2135.

Further, the wireless communication interface 2133 may support another type of wireless communication scheme, such as a short-range wireless communication scheme, a near field communication scheme, and a wireless LAN scheme, in addition to the cellular communication scheme. In this case, the wireless communication interface 2133 may include a BB processor 2134 and RF circuitry 2135 for each wireless communication scheme.

Each of the antenna switches 2136 switches a connection destination of the antenna 2137 among a plurality of circuits (such as circuits for different wireless communication schemes) included in the wireless communication interface 2133.

Each of the antennas 2137 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna), and is used for the wireless communication interface 2133 to transmit and receive wireless signals. As shown in fig. 20, the car navigation device 2120 may include a plurality of antennas 2137. Although fig. 20 shows an example in which the car navigation device 2120 includes the plurality of antennas 2137, the car navigation device 2120 may include a single antenna 2137.

Further, the car navigation device 2120 may include an antenna 2137 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 2136 may be omitted from the configuration of the car navigation device 2120.

The battery 2138 supplies power to the respective blocks of the car navigation device 2120 shown in fig. 20 via a feeder line, which is partially shown as a dotted line in the drawing. The battery 2138 accumulates electric power supplied from the vehicle.

In the car navigation device 2120 shown in fig. 20, the transceiver 210 in the electronic device 200 described hereinbefore with reference to fig. 2 may be implemented by the wireless communication interface 2133. At least a portion of the functions of the control unit 220 in the electronic device 200 may be implemented by the processor 2121. For example, the processor 2121 may perform at least a portion of the functions of the control unit 220 by executing instructions stored in the memory 2122, such as implementing a positioning process based on reflected reference signals, and so forth. In addition, the storage unit 230 in the electronic device 200 may be implemented by the memory 2122.

The techniques of this disclosure may also be implemented as an in-vehicle system (or vehicle) 2140 that includes one or more blocks of a car navigation device 2120, an in-vehicle network 2141, and a vehicle module 2142. The vehicle module 2142 generates vehicle data (such as vehicle speed, engine speed, and fault information) and outputs the generated data to the on-board network 2141.

The preferred embodiments of the present disclosure are described above with reference to the drawings, but the present disclosure is of course not limited to the above examples. Various changes and modifications within the scope of the appended claims may be made by those skilled in the art, and it should be understood that these changes and modifications naturally will fall within the technical scope of the present disclosure.

For example, the units shown in the functional block diagrams in the figures as dashed boxes each indicate that the functional unit is optional in the corresponding apparatus, and the respective optional functional units may be combined in an appropriate manner to implement the required functions.

For example, a plurality of functions included in one unit may be implemented by separate devices in the above embodiments. Alternatively, a plurality of functions implemented by a plurality of units in the above embodiments may be implemented by separate devices, respectively. In addition, one of the above functions may be implemented by a plurality of units. Needless to say, such a configuration is included in the technical scope of the present disclosure.

In this specification, the steps described in the flowcharts include not only the processing performed in time series in the described order but also the processing performed in parallel or individually without necessarily being performed in time series. Further, even in the steps processed in time series, needless to say, the order can be changed as appropriate.

The basic principles of the present disclosure have been described above in connection with specific embodiments, but it should be noted that it will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or any of the steps or components of the method and apparatus of the present disclosure may be implemented in any computing device (including processors, storage media, etc.) or network of computing devices, in hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof, which can be implemented by those skilled in the art using basic circuit design knowledge or basic programming skills of the present disclosure after reading the description of the present disclosure.

Moreover, the present disclosure also provides a program product storing machine-readable instruction codes. The instruction codes are read and executed by a machine, and can execute the method according to the embodiment of the disclosure.

Accordingly, a storage medium carrying the above-described program product having machine-readable instruction code stored thereon is also included in the disclosure of the present disclosure. Including, but not limited to, floppy disks, optical disks, magneto-optical disks, memory cards, memory sticks, and the like.

In the case where the present disclosure is implemented by software or firmware, a program constituting the software is installed from a storage medium or a network to a computer having a dedicated hardware configuration, and the computer can execute various functions and the like when various programs are installed.

Further, the present disclosure may have a configuration as described below.

(1) An electronic device, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to:

transmitting address codes of a plurality of beacon tag devices to sequentially activate the beacon tag devices in the vicinity of the electronic device;

obtaining tag configuration information from each active beacon tag device, and obtaining an address code of a positioning tag device in an area where the beacon tag device is located according to the tag configuration information;

transmitting the obtained address code of each positioning label device to activate the corresponding positioning label device;

and obtaining a reflection reference signal obtained by reflecting the radio frequency reference signal by each activated positioning label device, and positioning the electronic equipment by using the reflection reference signal.

(2) The electronic device of (1), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: address codes of the plurality of beacon tag devices are received in advance from a base station.

(3) The electronic device of (1) or (2), wherein the tag configuration information obtained from activating a beacon tag device includes a number of a set of locating tag devices within an area in which the beacon tag device is located.

(4) The electronic device of (3), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: and receiving the address code of each positioning label device in the set from the base station according to the number.

(5) The electronic device according to (2), wherein a plurality of the electronic devices sequentially activate beacon tag apparatuses in the vicinity of each of the electronic devices according to a schedule of a base station.

(6) The electronic device of (1), further comprising:

a storage unit configured to store address codes of the plurality of beacon tag devices in advance.

(7) The electronic device of (6), wherein the tag configuration information obtained from activating a beacon tag device includes an address code of each positioning tag device within an area in which the beacon tag device is located.

(8) The electronic device of (6), wherein a plurality of the electronic devices each operate in D2D mode and sequentially activate beacon tag means in the vicinity of the electronic device through distributed scheduling.

(9) The electronic device of (1), wherein adjacent beacon tag devices of the plurality of beacon tag devices have different address codes.

(10) The electronic device of (1), wherein at least two non-adjacent beacon tag devices of the plurality of beacon tag devices have the same address code.

(11) The electronic device of (1), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: for a positioning tag device near the boundary of the areas where two adjacent active beacon tag devices are located, tag configuration information related to the positioning tag device is obtained from each of the two adjacent active beacon tag devices.

(12) The electronic device of (1), wherein a plurality of positioning tag devices within an area in which one beacon tag device is located have different address codes, and the processing circuit is configured to: and sequentially sending the address codes of the plurality of positioning label devices so as to sequentially activate the plurality of positioning label devices.

(13) The electronic device of (1), wherein a plurality of positioning tag devices within an area in which one beacon tag device is located have the same address code, and the processing circuit is configured to: and simultaneously transmitting the same address code to simultaneously activate the plurality of positioning label devices.

(14) The electronic device of (13), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: and receiving a plurality of reflected reference signals obtained by modulating the radio frequency reference signals and reflecting the radio frequency reference signals by the plurality of positioning label devices respectively by using different modulation frequencies and/or modulation pilot sequences after activation.

(15) The electronic device of (14), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: the modulation frequency and/or the modulated pilot sequence of each of the plurality of positioning tag devices is also obtained according to tag configuration information obtained from the one beacon tag device.

(16) The electronic device of (13), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: receiving a plurality of the reflected reference signals respectively reflected by the plurality of positioning label devices at different times after activation.

(17) The electronic device of (16), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: the time of each of the plurality of position-locating tag devices is also obtained in accordance with tag configuration information obtained from the one beacon tag device.

(18) The electronic device of (1), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: based on the tag configuration information obtained from each active beacon tag device, location information of a positioning tag device within the area in which the beacon tag device is located is also obtained.

(19) The electronic device of (18), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: and calculating the distance between each activated positioning label device and the electronic equipment by using the arrival time of the reflected reference signal of the activated positioning label device.

(20) The electronic device of (19), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: and determining the position of the electronic equipment according to the position information of each activated positioning label device and the distance between each activated positioning label device and the electronic equipment.

(21) The electronic device of (1), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: and transmitting the radio frequency reference signal.

(22) An electronic device, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to:

when receiving an address code of the electronic equipment from user equipment, enabling the electronic equipment to enter an active state from a dormant state; and

and providing label configuration information to the user equipment so that the user equipment obtains the address code of the positioning label device in the area where the electronic equipment is located according to the label configuration information.

(23) The electronic device of (22), wherein the electronic device has a different address code from another of the electronic devices adjacent to the electronic device.

(24) The electronic device of (22), wherein the electronic device has the same address code as another electronic device not adjacent to the electronic device.

(25) The electronic device of (22), wherein the tag configuration information includes a number of a set of location tag devices within an area in which the electronic device is located.

(26) The electronic device of (22), wherein the tag configuration information includes a different address code for each location tag device within an area in which the electronic device is located.

(27) The electronic device of (22), wherein the tag configuration information includes the same address code of each location tag apparatus within the area in which the electronic device is located.

(28) The electronic device according to (27), wherein the tag configuration information further includes modulation frequency, modulation pilot sequence and/or reflection time related information of a positioning tag device in an area where the electronic device is located.

(29) The electronic device of (28), wherein the modulation frequency-related information indicates an offset between modulation frequencies used by respective positioning tag apparatuses within an area in which the electronic device is located to modulate respective received radio frequency reference signals.

(30) The electronic device of (28), wherein the information related to modulated pilot sequences indicates modulated pilot sequences used by each positioning tag apparatus in the area of the electronic device to modulate the respective received radio frequency reference signals.

(31) The electronic device of (28), wherein the reflection time related information indicates an offset between times at which respective positioning tag apparatuses within an area in which the electronic device is located are to reflect respective received radio frequency reference signals.

(32) The electronic device according to (26) or (27), wherein the tag configuration information further includes location information of a location tag device in an area where the electronic device is located.

(33) An electronic device, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to:

reflecting the received radio frequency reference signal for positioning by the user equipment based on the reflected reference signal.

(34) The electronic device of (33), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: the received radio frequency reference signal is modulated and reflected using a predetermined modulation frequency and/or modulation pilot sequence.

(35) The electronic device of (33), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: the received radio frequency reference signal is reflected at a predetermined time.

(36) A method for positioning, comprising:

(37) A method for positioning, comprising:

when receiving an address code of the electronic equipment from the user equipment, enabling the electronic equipment to enter an activated state from a dormant state; and

and sending label configuration information to the user equipment so that the user equipment obtains the address code of the positioning label device in the area where the electronic equipment is located according to the label configuration information.

(38) A method for positioning, comprising:

(39) A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a program that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform the method according to any one of (36) to (38).

Although the embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, it should be understood that the above-described embodiments are merely illustrative of the present disclosure and do not constitute a limitation of the present disclosure. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the above-described embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, the scope of the disclosure is to be defined only by the claims appended hereto, and by their equivalents.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to:

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: address codes of the plurality of beacon tag devices are received in advance from a base station.

3. The electronic device of claim 1 or 2, wherein the tag configuration information obtained from activating a beacon tag device includes a number of a set of locating tag devices within an area in which the beacon tag device is located.

4. The electronic device of claim 3, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: and receiving the address code of each positioning label device in the set from the base station according to the number.

5. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein a plurality of said electronic devices activate beacon tag means in the vicinity of each of said electronic devices in turn according to a schedule of a base station.

6. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising:

7. The electronic device of claim 6, wherein the tag configuration information obtained from activating a beacon tag device includes an address code of each locating tag device within the area in which the beacon tag device is located.

8. The electronic device of claim 6, wherein a plurality of the electronic devices each operate in D2D mode and sequentially activate beacon tag means in the vicinity of the electronic device through distributed scheduling.

9. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein adjacent beacon tag devices of the plurality of beacon tag devices have different address codes.

10. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein at least two non-adjacent beacon tag devices of the plurality of beacon tag devices have the same address code.