Position determination system

A position determination system, which is applied to a vehicle and determines a position of a mobile terminal carried by a user of the vehicle relative to the vehicle by performing a wireless communication with the mobile terminal, the position determination system comprising:

• at least one vehicle inside communication device positioned in a vehicle compartment of the vehicle and configured to:
• receive a wireless signal transmitted from the mobile terminal;
• and
• detect a reception strength of the wireless signal that is received as an inside device strength;
• a position determination unit configured to determine whether the mobile terminal is existing in the vehicle compartment based on the inside device strength;
• an absorber amount estimation unit configured to estimate an amount of radio wave absorbers, which exist in the vehicle compartment and absorb radio waves each having a frequency band used in the wireless communication, the amount of radio wave absorbers being estimated based on at least one of a reception state of the wireless signal in the at least one vehicle communication device or a detection result of a sensor equipped to the vehicle;
• and
• a threshold adjusting unit configured to adjust, based on an estimation result of the absorber amount estimation unit, an inside determination value which is a threshold referred by the position determination unit to determine that the mobile terminal is existing in the vehicle compartment,
• wherein
• the position determination unit determines that the mobile terminal is existing in the vehicle compartment in response to the inside device strength being equal to or greater than the inside determination value adjusted by the threshold adjusting unit,
• the at least one vehicle inside communication device includes a plurality of vehicle inside communication devices,
• one of the plurality of vehicle inside communication devices is configured to operate as a transmitter which transmits the wireless signal including transmission source information,
• at least one of the remaining of the plurality of vehicle inside communication devices is configured to operate as a receiver,
• the receiver is configured to:
• receive, as an inside device transmission signal, the wireless signal transmitted from the transmitter;
• detect a reception strength of the inside device transmission signal;
• and
• report the detected reception strength of the inside device transmission signal to the absorber amount estimation unit,
• the absorber amount estimation unit acquires, as an index indicating the amount of radio wave absorbers existing in the vehicle compartment, the reception strength of the inside device transmission signal which is detected by the receiver,
• the threshold adjusting unit sets the inside determination value in a manner that the inside determination value decreases with a decrease of the reception strength of the inside device transmission signal acquired by the absorber amount estimation unit, and
• the plurality of vehicle inside communication devices are disposed in the vehicle compartment in a manner that each vehicle inside communication device is out of a viewable range of each of the remaining of the plurality of vehicle inside communication devices.

A position determination system, which is applied to a vehicle and determines a position of a mobile terminal carried by a user of the vehicle relative to the vehicle by performing a wireless communication with the mobile terminal, the position determination system comprising:

• at least one vehicle inside communication device positioned in a vehicle compartment of the vehicle and configured to:
• receive a wireless signal transmitted from the mobile terminal;
• and
• detect a reception strength of the wireless signal that is received as an inside device strength;
• a position determination unit configured to determine whether the mobile terminal is existing in the vehicle compartment based on the inside device strength;
• an absorber amount estimation unit configured to estimate an amount of radio wave absorbers, which exist in the vehicle compartment and absorb radio waves each having a frequency band used in the wireless communication, the amount of radio wave absorbers being estimated based on at least one of a reception state of the wireless signal in the at least one vehicle communication device or a detection result of a sensor equipped to the vehicle;
• and
• a threshold adjusting unit configured to adjust, based on an estimation result of the absorber amount estimation unit, an inside determination value which is a threshold referred by the position determination unit to determine that the mobile terminal is existing in the vehicle compartment,
• wherein
• the position determination unit determines that the mobile terminal is existing in the vehicle compartment in response to the inside device strength being equal to or greater than the inside determination value adjusted by the threshold adjusting unit,
• the absorber amount estimation unit adopts, as the sensor, at least one of a seat sensor configured to detect a seating state of an occupant on a seat, a seatbelt sensor configured to detect a wearing state of a seatbelt, or an on-board camera disposed in the vehicle compartment to capture an image of an entire inside area of the vehicle compartment,
• the absorber amount estimation unit specifies, based on the detection result of the sensor, the amount of occupants existing in the vehicle compartment as the index indicating the amount of radio wave absorbers existing in the vehicle compartment,
• the threshold adjusting unit sets the inside determination value in a manner that the inside determination value decreases with an increase of the amount of the occupants specified by the absorber amount estimation unit,
• the at least one vehicle inside communication device includes a plurality of vehicle inside communication devices,
• each of the plurality of vehicle inside communication devices is disposed in the vehicle compartment at a position different from one another,
• the absorber amount estimation unit specifies a seating position of each occupant in the vehicle compartment based on at least one of a detection result of the seat sensor, a detection result of the seatbelt sensor, or an image captured by the on-board camera disposed in the vehicle compartment, and
• the position determination unit is configured to:
• calculate, for the inside device strength acquired in each of the plurality of vehicle inside communication devices, an inside device strength representative value, which is a representative value of the reception strength of the wireless signal transmitted from the mobile terminal in the vehicle compartment, with use of a value to which a correction amount corresponding to the seating position specified by the absorber amount estimation unit and a position of each of the plurality of vehicle inside communication devices in the vehicle compartment is assigned;
• and
• determine the position of the mobile terminal with use of the inside device strength representative value instead of the inside device strength.