US 12,123,960 B2
Position locating system, position locating method, and position locating program
Takahiro Okano, Chiryu (JP); Takaaki Yanagihashi, Toyota (JP); Hiroaki Kiyokami, Nisshin (JP); Toru Takashima, Susono (JP); Kenta Miyahara, Okazaki (JP); and Yohei Tanigawa, Toyota (JP)
Assigned to TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Aichi-Ken (JP)
Filed by TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Aichi-ken (JP)
Filed on Oct. 18, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/503,368.
Claims priority of application No. 2020-178433 (JP), filed on Oct. 23, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0128709 A1, Apr. 28, 2022
Int. Cl. G01S 13/34 (2006.01); G01S 19/07 (2010.01); G01S 19/42 (2010.01); G06T 5/50 (2006.01); G06T 7/70 (2017.01); H04W 4/029 (2018.01)
CPC G01S 19/42 (2013.01) [G01S 19/073 (2019.08); G06T 5/50 (2013.01); G06T 7/70 (2017.01); H04W 4/029 (2018.02); G06T 2207/30252 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A position locating system for locating a current position of a mobile terminal, the position locating system comprising:
an imaging section configured to capture a surroundings image of surroundings of the mobile terminal using a camera provided at the mobile terminal;
an image acquisition section configured to acquire, over a network, images similar to the surroundings image and associated with position information regarding an imaging location;
a matching section configured to perform image matching between the surroundings image and the images acquired by the image acquisition section so as to find a single image that is a match for the surroundings image;
a position locating section configured to locate the current position from the position information associated with the single image; and
a region prediction section configured to employ a signal reception history of a GPS device provided at the mobile terminal to predict a region that has potential to include the current position in a case in which the GPS device has transitioned from an in-range state for GPS satellite signal reception to an out-of-range state for GPS satellite signal reception,
wherein the image acquisition section is configured to acquire, over the network, an image associated with position information within the region predicted by the region prediction section.