The present invention relates to a method for getting loca- tion information to a mobile device as defined in the pream ^¬ ble of claim 1 and a system for getting location information to a mobile device as defined in the preamble of claim 6.

BACKGROUD OF THE INVENTION

Typical method today to get to know the position or location of the mobile device is to try to locate the mobile device using either GPS or telecommunication network or other means which are mainly based on the idea that the location of the mobile device is detected from outside.

The innovation presented here is based on the opposite idea. The main idea is not to try to locate the mobile device from outside, but on the contrary, the location will tell its lo ^¬ cation in a certain way to the mobile device close to the location. The mobile device has also some intelligence to make the needed analysis to analyze and deduce the actual location of the mobile device. The deduced location informa ^¬ tion can be provided also to the other applications in the mobile device.

The location information can be used in the mobile device for different applications - like maps, just to mention one area as an example - geographical maps, city maps, building indoor maps or similar. The location information got using the method described in this innovation can also be communi ^¬ cated to other applications in the mobile device or wire- lessly to other service providers who then are able to offer their location based services to the mobile device if the user has authorized them to do so. A prior-art system providing electronic services is de ^¬ scribed in patent specification FI 115369 B. In this patent specification is described a method to provide electronic services to a mobile device, including also the global posi- tion information, to the mobile device. The mobile device can get the said global position information using short distance communication.

The method described in the patent specification has anyhow many problems. Main problem is when using the Bluetooth system it is difficult to know the actual location if there are several devices at the range of the mobile device having different location information. Also the pairing process can be complicated and takes time.

One mobile device location detection system according to prior art is presented in an international patent publica ^¬ tion No. WO2012160560 (Al ) . The publication shows a computerized method of identifying a location of mobile devices. The method comprises providing to a mobile device a mapping dataset which defines a plurality of physical locations of a plurality of beacon devices, receiving at the mobile device at least one distinct signal transmitted from at least one beacon device, extracting from each distinct signal an iden- tifier of a beacon device, matching between the identifier and one of the physical locations using the mapping dataset, and identifying a location of the mobile device according to the matching. A disadvantage of the solution of WO2012160560 (Al ) is that the mobile device needs for every location a location spe ^¬ cific mapping dataset that has to be prepared location spe ^¬ cifically and somehow to be transferred to the mobile device The installation of the mapping dataset to the mobile device is very complicated since the mobile device and a server have to communicate with each other in order to enable the transfer of the mapping dataset. If the user has not in- stalled a map of a specific location in advance the mobile location method does not work at that location. In addition this solution needs a lot of updating of the mapping data- sets because changes take place all the time. There are also massive number of innovations which try to detect the location of the mobile device indoors. These pri ^¬ or-art systems detecting the location indoors are anyhow very complicated and the implementation needs a lot of de ^¬ velopment and co-operation from many stake holders, like op- erators, IC manufacturers and mobile device manufacturers, and therefore it will take a lot time to develop the ser ^¬ vices and the development is also very slow.

The presented invention solves the problems and disadvan- tages mentioned above.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The object of the invention is to provide a simple, economi ^¬ cal and fast way to implement the method and the system to locate a mobile device in a certain location indoors or out ^¬ doors to provide the location specific services to the user of the mobile device if she or he wants them.

The method and system or shorter the solution according to the invention have several advantages. One advantage is that the method and system according to the invention are opera ^¬ tor independent as well all the hardware and software tech ^¬ nology elements needed are readily available. Another advan- tage is that the detection and analysis can happen continu ^¬ ously in real time as the mobile device is moving and nodes are detected or disappear from the proximity of the mobile device. A further advantage is flexibility, so the user can easily set the mobile device and application to detect the location automatically and continuously or as needed. Still further advantage is that the solution according to the invention is very cost competitive, simple, easy and fast to implement and can be used in all kinds of buildings or structures inside or outside. The solution needs only one time installation of the application to the mobile device, and one standard application works in all locations without any location specific actions needed from user or operator, and there is no need to have any mapping datasets to be transferred to the mobile device. Location information is an essential part of the identification of the node and this enables to get the location information directly from the ID This means also that a minimum maintenance is needed. Still a further advantage is that the method and system is very robust since the effect of one node being out of service would be minimum. And one more advantage is the fact that the method can also be integrated to be a part of e.g. auto ^¬ mated systems like warehouse systems or other systems trans ^¬ porting material or people.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following, the invention will be described in detail by the aid of examples by referring to the attached simpli ^¬ fied and schematic drawings, wherein

Fig. 1 shows the system configuration in a simplified and diagrammatic way, and Fig. 2 shows an example of one of the many possible appli ^¬ cation areas in a simplified and diagrammatic way.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Fig.l shows the system configuration and Fig. 2 shows an example of one of the many possible application areas. In Fig. 1 a mobile device 10 having an application 40 and means to communicate with short distance 30 or long distance 50 wire ^¬ less communication method is communicating with the node 20 using short distance communication - typical example is the Bluetooth technology (BT) . Short distance is typically from 0-200 meters and long distance over 200 meters.

The mobile device 10 also has the user interface 15 means to communicate with the user using touch of a part of a body, voice, visual, smell or even some electronic or bioelectron- ics system integrated temporarily or permanently into the body of the user to act as an interface to material world or communication between other bodies.

The movable or permanently installed node 20 has typically, as a minimum, the means to communicate using the short dis ^¬ tance communication 30. Long distance 50 communication capability is a benefit which enables typically more flexible update of the information in the node. The node 20 typically advertises itself for the detection purposes. The node 20 has a unique detectable identifier 25, name or ID, which the mobile device 10 can scan and detect without any special ac ^¬ tions. The ID 25 includes, as a minimum, two same or differ- ent location data coded directly into its data fields. The information in ID 25 can be in fixed fields or as parameter values . The location datum is typically global position code spe ^¬ cific to the location including the height information.

The location data can also be higher concept location datum, or a piece of information, like a floor level code in a building, a room code in a building or corridor, an area section at the stadium or parking hall, a seat row in a theater or even a building address just to mention some examples .

The ID 25 also has a special method specific code with which it is possible to know by the application 40 in the mobile device 10 selecting the nodes that the node is a valid node and the location data in the node ID fulfill the pre-set re- quirements. The said code would include also the information of the communication distance capability of the node. Part or all of the ID 25 data can be encrypted.

So the ID 25 can at the same time include different types of location specific high level concept pieces of information like, country, state, city, name of the building, floor id, room id, area id, corridor id, name of the place, type of the place, name of the company, street address, postcode, phone number, URL, internet address, shelf number, id of the object etc. Therefore, if the short distance communication is activated in the mobile device 10, comprehensive location related information is available to the mobile device 10 at the proximity of the node 20 without any special actions needed from the user or the mobile device 10.

The proximity distance depends on the communication capabil ^¬ ity of the short distance communication technology used as well as on the possible limitations coming from the physical structures or any possible disturbances at the location it ^¬ self where the nodes 20 are installed. The accuracy of the location information got to the mobile device 10 depends on the available proximity distance, number and placement of the nodes 20 used as well as of the number or amount of the pieces of the location information, or data, available in the identification. Typically only the most accurate piece of the location information in the ID 25 has multiple datum, two or more pieces. The same short-distance communication technology can have different proximity - communication dis ^¬ tance capability - versions and it is important also to be able to separate the versions from each other. The communi ^¬ cation capability information of the node 20 can also be in the ID 25.

To be able to know the location of the mobile device 10 in ^¬ side the building in different places the method includes that several nodes 20, having two or more global or high level concept location datum coded into their IDs 25, are placed in a certain way in the area outdoors or inside the building .

The way the nodes 20 are placed depends on the space, the short distance communication technology used and the accu- racy wanted. Inside the building the technology used would be typically Bluetooth with about 10 meter short distance communication capability. If shorter communication distance is required the communication distance can be weakened. An essential part of the method and system is the applica ^¬ tion software 40 in the mobile device 10. The application 40 can detect, analyze and deduce the location of the mobile device 10 based on the available information in the identi- fication of the node 20 or nodes and the available pieces of the location information in them as well taking into account the strength of the field of detected nodes. The following Table 1 will summarize the main process to get the location information from the node 20 or nodes to the mobile device 10.

Detect by a mobile device the identification of the

node and analyze the pieces of location information coded into the identification

Deduce the location of the mobile device based on the pieces of location information got from the identification of the node or nodes. Optionally use also

field strength information

Table 1

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Fig. 2 shows a corridor having several about seven meters wide rooms in a building which could be a shopping center or car park or office building or hospital or hotel or airport or a similar structure. To get about 10 meters continuous accuracy, which is normally accurate enough inside buildings, the Bluetooth technology based the nodes 20 capable to com ^¬ municate within 10 meters distance can be placed so that the distance between the nodes 20 is little bit less than 10 me ^¬ ters. In this kind of a case the mobile device 10 will see at least two nodes 20 simultaneously. In this example the nodes 20 have at a minimum three differ ^¬ ent pieces of "room number" location information coded into their ID 25 in addition to possible other pieces of high level concept location information or global position codes. First in the order is the location of the previous node 20, then the actual location of the said node 20 and then as third is the location of the next node 20. As a simple exam ^¬ ple, lets mark the rooms as room 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105 etc.

Then the node 20-102 placed in front of the room 102 will have high level concept pieces of location information 101,

102, 103; the node 20-103 placed in front of the room 103 will have high level concept pieces of location information 102, 103, 104; and the node 20-104 placed in front of the room 104 will have high level concept pieces of location information 103, 104, 105.

Now the mobile device 10 located at the proximity of the node 20-103 can detect either only node 20-103 or nodes 20-

103, 20-102 and even 20-104. Depending on the number of the detected nodes, and the available location data in the ID 25 of the nodes, the application 40 in the mobile device 10 can deduce the closest node without any further need to communi- cate with the nodes and therefore can decide the location of the mobile device 10 very fast and accurately.

In this simple example the application in the mobile device 10 would decide the location in the following way:

In case the mobile device 10 can detect only the node 20-103 then the location would be the middle location datum in the node 20-103. In case the mobile device 10 can detect two separate nodes the application 40 would analyze the sequence of the pieces of the location information and select the middle one of the information in the node which matches one of the lowest or highest piece of location information in the another detected node.

In case three separate nodes are detected the application 40 would select the piece of location information which could be available in all IDs 25 of the nodes.

The previous corridor example is also almost identical for example to detect automatically the floor level of the building which can then be used for example for guidance ap ^¬ plications. In case the floor level as well the room number would be of interest at the same time then the ID 25 would have also the pieces of floor information in it on top of the pieces of the room numbers.

There can also be more nodes 20 placed in the proximity of the mobile device 10. The number of the nodes 20, the number and the sequence of the different pieces of location infor ^¬ mation coded into the ID 25 are dependant of the accuracy of the location needed and the needs of the services to be pro ^¬ vided. In all cases the decision logic, optimally global and generic, to decide the location of the mobile device 10, is inbuilt into the application 40 in the mobile device 10 de ^¬ tecting the nodes 20 and deciding and managing the location.

The detection and analysis can happen continuously in real time as the mobile device 10 is moving and nodes 20 are de- tected or disappear from the proximity of the mobile device 10.

The optimum system would consist of one or multiple very low cost and simple wirelessly, or by some other means, program ^¬ mable nodes 20 based on Bluetooth or similar technology. The nodes 20 could be small stand alone, long lasting battery operated or connected to power supply, devices which are very easy to install into the structures for fast system setup. The needed Bluetooth or similar technology and the innovation presented here can also be integrated into the other devices used in buildings, like vending machines, ATM machines, electronic LED lamps, fire detectors, people flow detectors, electronic locks or similar devices which natu- rally have the power supply available and stay long times in the position they are installed in.

The standard global application 40 to the mobile device 10 can be downloadable to different platforms from the applica- tion sites of the different manufacturers or service provid ^¬ ers. The application 40 can also be service or solution spe ^¬ cific. Typically the user would control the application and decide when he or she wants to get to know the location and possibly activate the services available based on that loca- tion. So the user could set the mobile device 10 and appli ^¬ cation 40 to detect the location automatically and continu ^¬ ously or as needed.

It is clear to the expert that the method and system accord- ing to the invention is very cost competitive, simple, easy and fast to implement and can be used in all kinds of build ^¬ ings or structures inside or outside to know the position of the mobile device 10 with reasonable accuracy for most of the everyday needs .

This method and system is also very robust since the effect of one node 20 being out of service would be minimum. In critical cases two or more nodes 20 with the same location information can be used without any changes to the applica ^¬ tion logic. This method can also be integrated to be part of e.g. auto ^¬ mated systems like warehouse systems or other systems trans ^¬ porting material or people. For example bus stops or taxi stands could have the location information available to the mobile device 10 to be utilized when requesting the transportation service.

It is obvious to the person skilled in the art that the in ^¬ vention is not restricted to the example and embodiments de ^¬ scribed above but that it may be varied within the scope of the claims presented below.