Receiving device

Abstract

To specify the location of a terminal device more accurately in a receiving device that receives radio waves from the terminal device. [Solution] The receiving device 1 comprises first and second receiver sets 11, 12 having one or more receivers that receive radio waves from the terminal device 2, which are respectively positioned at first and second positions in the direction of movement of the user 3 at a gate through which the user 3 carrying the terminal device 2 passes, a shielding member set having one or more shielding members that prevent the direct waves of the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 from reaching the antenna of at least one of the receivers possessed by the first and second receiver sets 11, 12, an identification unit 14 that identifies the position of the terminal device 2 based on the difference in intensity of the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 and received by the first and second receiver sets 11, 12, and an output unit 15 that outputs the identification results.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a receiving device that receives radio waves transmitted from a terminal device in order to identify the location of the terminal device. [Background technology]

[0002] BACKGROUND ART Conventionally, the location of a terminal device is identified by receiving radio waves transmitted from the terminal device using a plurality of receivers (see, for example, Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] International Publication No. 2020 / 080314 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, if radio waves stronger than expected are transmitted to the antenna of some of the multiple receivers that receive radio waves transmitted from the terminal device, the location determination results may be inappropriate.

[0005] The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and aims to receive radio waves in a receiving device that receives radio waves transmitted from a terminal device in order to determine the location of the terminal device, so that the location can be determined more accurately. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a receiving device according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises first and second receiver sets having one or more receivers that receive radio waves transmitted from the terminal device, which are arranged at first and second positions, respectively, in the direction of movement of the user at a gate through which a user carrying a terminal device that transmits radio waves passes, and a shielding member set having one or more shielding members that prevent the direct waves of the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device from reaching the antenna of at least one receiver possessed by the first and second receiver sets, and the position of the terminal device is determined based on the difference in strength of the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and received by the first and second receiver sets.

[0007] This configuration can prevent direct waves of radio waves transmitted from a terminal device from reaching at least one receiver antenna, thereby preventing unexpectedly strong direct waves from being received by the receiver antenna, and enabling more accurate location of the terminal device.

[0008] In addition, in a receiving device according to one aspect of the present invention, the shielding member set may have one or more first shielding sections having a pair of plate-shaped shielding members arranged opposite each other for guiding radio waves transmitted from a terminal device to one or more receiver antennas possessed by a first receiver set, and one or more second shielding sections having a pair of plate-shaped shielding members arranged opposite each other for guiding radio waves transmitted from a terminal device to one or more receiver antennas possessed by a second receiver set.

[0009] With this configuration, radio waves transmitted from the terminal device are received by the antenna via the first shield section and the second shield section, preventing unexpectedly strong direct waves from being received by the receiver antenna, thereby enabling the location of the terminal device to be determined more accurately.

[0010] In addition, in a receiving device according to one aspect of the present invention, in a planar view, a first angle, which is the angle between the direction from the antenna-side end toward the opposite end of a pair of plate-shaped shielding members that the first shielding section has, and a first direction, which is the direction from the first position toward the second position, may be 100 degrees or more and 170 degrees or less, and a second angle, which is the angle between the direction from the antenna-side end toward the opposite end of a pair of plate-shaped shielding members that the second shielding section has, and the first direction, may be 10 degrees or more and 80 degrees or less.

[0011] With this configuration, even if a pair of partition plates that form the gate passage are made of a material that reflects radio waves, such as metal, the effects of multipath of radio waves reflected by the partition plates can be reduced.

[0012] In addition, in a receiving device according to one aspect of the present invention, the shielding member set may have one or more shielding members that prevent direct waves of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device from reaching the antennas of one or more receivers in the first receiver set when a user carrying the terminal device moves in a first direction, which is a direction from a first position to a second position, and approaches the first receiver set.

[0013] This configuration prevents a user carrying a terminal device and moving in a first direction from mistakenly determining that the terminal device is near the gate, even though the user is still far away from the gate, due to the increased strength of the radio waves received by the first receiver set.

[0014] In addition, in a receiving device according to one aspect of the present invention, the shielding member set may have one or more shielding members that prevent direct waves of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device from reaching the antennas of one or more receivers in the second receiver set when a user carrying the terminal device moves in a second direction, which is a direction from the second position toward the first position, and approaches the second receiver set.

[0015] With this configuration, it is possible to prevent a similar erroneous determination even when the user is moving in the second direction.

[0016] In addition, in a receiving device according to one aspect of the present invention, the shielding member set may have one or more shielding members that prevent direct waves of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device from reaching the antennas of one or more receivers in the second receiver set when a user carrying the terminal device moves in a first direction, which is a direction from a first position to a second position, and passes through a gate.

[0017] This configuration prevents a user carrying a terminal device and moving in a first direction from being mistakenly determined to not be near the first location of the gate, even though the user is near the first location of the gate, due to the increased strength of the radio waves received by the second receiver set.

[0018] In addition, in a receiving device according to one aspect of the present invention, the shielding member set may have one or more shielding members that prevent direct waves of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device from reaching the antennas of one or more receivers in the first receiver set when a user carrying the terminal device moves in a second direction, which is a direction from the second position toward the first position, and passes through a gate.

[0019] With this configuration, it is possible to prevent a similar erroneous determination even when the user is moving in the second direction.

[0020] In addition, a receiving device according to one aspect of the present invention may further include an identification unit that identifies the location of the terminal device based on the difference in strength of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and received by the first and second receiver sets, and an output unit that outputs information regarding the location of the terminal device identified by the identification unit.

[0021] With this configuration, the receiving device can also identify the location of the terminal device. [Effects of the Invention]

[0022] According to one aspect of the present invention, a receiving device can properly receive radio waves from a terminal device for location identification, and as a result, by using the radio waves received in this manner, it becomes possible to more accurately identify the location of the terminal device. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0023] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a receiving device according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 2] FIG. 10 is a plan view showing an example of the arrangement of the receiver and the shielding member according to the embodiment. [Figure 3] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the directivity of a terminal device according to the embodiment; [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is a plan view showing an example of the arrangement of the receiver and the shielding member according to the embodiment. [Figure 5] FIG. 10 is a plan view showing an example of the arrangement of the receiver and the shielding member according to the embodiment. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view showing another example of the arrangement of the shielding member in the embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0024] The receiving device according to the present invention will be described below using an embodiment. In the following embodiments, components with the same reference numerals are the same or equivalent, and repeated description may be omitted. The receiving device according to this embodiment receives radio waves transmitted from a terminal device and, when using the reception results to identify the location of the terminal device, prevents unexpectedly strong direct waves from being received by the receiver antenna, thereby enabling the location of the terminal device to be identified more accurately.

[0025] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a receiving device 1 according to this embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an example of the arrangement of receivers 21a-21d, 22a-22d, and shield members 31a, 31b, 32a, and 32b at gate 5. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, receiving device 1 includes a first receiver set 11, a second receiver set 12, and a shield member set 13, and may further include an identification unit 14 and an output unit 15, as necessary. If receiving device 1 does not include the identification unit 14 or the output unit 15, information such as the intensity of radio waves received by first and second receiver sets 11 and 12 may be provided to an external device, and processing such as identification of the location of terminal device 2 may be performed in the external device. The first and second receiver sets 11 and 12 receive radio waves transmitted from terminal device 2 carried by user 3 passing through gate 5. The user 3 passing through the gate 5 may be a user 3 in the vicinity of the gate 5, such as a user 3 approaching the gate 5, a user 3 passing through the gate 5, or a user 3 exiting the gate 5. The gate 5 may be, for example, an automatic ticket gate at a station or the like, or a security gate that is passed through when entering or leaving a building, company, event venue, or the like.

[0026] 1 illustrates a situation in which the user 3 is holding the terminal device 2 in his / her hand, the user 3 carrying the terminal device 2 may mean, for example, that the terminal device 2 moves in accordance with the movement of the user 3, and the user 3 does not necessarily have to be holding the terminal device 2 in his / her hand. The terminal device 2 may be placed in, for example, a pocket or a bag of the user 3's clothes. Also, while FIG. 1 illustrates a case in which the receiving device 1 receives radio waves from one terminal device 2 carried by one user 3, the receiving device 1 may receive radio waves from, for example, multiple terminal devices 2 carried by multiple users 3.

[0027] The terminal device 2 may be, for example, a mobile information terminal with a communication function, such as a smartphone, a tablet terminal, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a laptop computer, or a transceiver, or may be other devices. The terminal device 2 transmits radio waves. The radio waves transmitted by the terminal device 2 may include, for example, a user identifier identifying the user 3 carrying the terminal device 2. The user identifier may be, for example, the user's telephone number, an address such as an email address, or a name, or a character string unique to the user. Furthermore, a device identifier identifying the terminal device 2 may be used as the user identifier of the user carrying the terminal device 2. The terminal identifier may be, for example, a device address or a character string unique to the device. The device address may be, for example, a physical address such as a MAC address, or other address. Furthermore, the radio waves transmitted by the terminal device 2 may also include, for example, authentication information used to authenticate the terminal device 2. When the authentication information is also included in the radio waves, for example, the receiving device 1 may identify the location of the terminal device 2 and also authenticate the terminal device 2 using the authentication information. In this embodiment, a case where authentication of the terminal device 2 is not performed will be mainly described.

[0028] The first receiver set 11 has one or more receivers that receive radio waves transmitted from a terminal device 2 carried by a user 3 passing through the gate 5. Each of the one or more receivers receives radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2. The first receiver set 11 may be located, for example, at a first receiving position.

[0029] The second receiver set 12 has one or more receivers that receive radio waves transmitted from a terminal device 2 carried by a user 3 passing through the gate 5. Each of the one or more receivers receives radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2. The second receiver set 12 may be placed, for example, at a second receiving position that is different from the first receiving position. Note that the second receiver set 12 may be the same as the first receiver set 11 except for the position at which it is placed.

[0030] From the viewpoint of realizing more accurate location identification of the terminal device 2, it is preferable that the first receiver set 11 has multiple receivers, and it is preferable that the second receiver set 12 has multiple receivers. As shown in FIG. 1, for example, the first receiver set 11 may have four receivers 21a to 21d, and the second receiver set 12 may have four receivers 22a to 22d, but the number of receivers included in the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12 may be one to three, or may be five or more. Note that when there is no particular need to distinguish between the multiple receivers 21a to 21d, they may also be referred to as receivers 21. The same applies to other configurations. It is assumed that each of the receivers 21 and 22 included in the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12 is capable of acquiring the strength of received radio waves.

[0031] If the first receiver set 11 has multiple receivers 21, the first receiving position may be, for example, the position of the center of gravity of multiple antennas for the multiple receivers 21. More specifically, the position of the antenna for each receiver 21 may be identified, and the center of gravity of the identified multiple antenna positions may be set as the first receiving position. The multiple antennas of the multiple receivers 21 may be located close to each other, or may be located far apart. Even in the latter case, it is preferable that the multiple antennas of the multiple receivers 21 are located within a range from the first receiving position to the second receiving position. The same applies to the second receiving position of the second receiver set 12.

[0032] The receivers 21 and 22 may or may not include a wireless receiving device such as an antenna for receiving radio waves. The receivers 21 and 22 may be realized by hardware or software such as a driver that drives the receiving device.

[0033] Furthermore, the first and second receiver sets 11, 12 are assumed to be located at first and second positions, respectively, in the moving direction of the user 3 at the gate 5 through which the user 3 carrying the terminal device 2 that transmits radio waves passes. As shown in Fig. 2, if the left-right direction in the drawing is the moving direction of the user 3, the left-right positions of the first and second receiving positions may be the first and second positions.

[0034] As shown in FIG. 2, the gate 5 has partition plates 51 and 52, and the user 3 passes through a passageway partitioned by the partition plates 51 and 52. The partition plates 51 and 52 may be, for example, opaque to radio waves. As an example, the partition plates 51 and 52 may be made of a metal material that reflects radio waves. The positions of the receivers 21 and 22 shown in FIG. 2 and other figures may be the positions of the antennas used by the receivers 21 and 22 to receive radio waves. In FIG. 2, the position of the center of gravity of the antennas of the receivers 21a to 21d included in the first receiver set 11 is a first receiving position P1, and the position of the center of gravity of the antennas of the receivers 22a to 22d included in the second receiver set 12 is a second receiving position P2.

[0035] The radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 may be, for example, pulse waves transmitted intermittently or continuous waves transmitted continuously. Furthermore, any wireless communication standard may be used to transmit and receive the radio waves. For example, the radio waves may be communicated using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Bluetooth Basic Rate (BR) / Enhanced Data Rate (EDR), wireless LAN (IEEE802.11), IEEE802.15.4 such as ZigBee (registered trademark), or other wireless communication standards. It is preferable that the radio waves be transmitted and received using short-range wireless communication such as BLE, Bluetooth BR / EDR, or wireless LAN.

[0036] The frequency of the radio waves is not particularly limited, and may be, for example, a frequency in the range of 300 MHz to 300 GHz. Furthermore, the terminal device 2 may transmit radio waves by broadcast or by unicast, for example. Broadcast radio waves are preferable because they can be transmitted without specifying a communication partner. In this embodiment, a case where the terminal device 2 transmits radio waves by broadcast will be mainly described. It is preferable that the terminal device 2 transmits radio waves without receiving a transmission instruction from the user 3. The terminal device 2 may transmit radio waves in response to, for example, receiving a predetermined beacon. In response to receiving this beacon, the terminal device 2 may transmit radio waves only once, or for a predetermined period of time, or may continuously transmit radio waves while receiving this beacon. This beacon may be transmitted so as to be received by the terminal device 2 of the user 3 approaching the gate 5, for example. As an example, the receiving device 1 may transmit the beacon. In this case, the receiving device 1 may further include a transmitting unit for transmitting the beacon.

[0037] The terminal device 2 may or may not be in line of sight from the receiving device 1. In the latter case, the user 3 may carry the terminal device 2 in, for example, a pocket or a bag.

[0038] The shielding member set 13 has one or more shielding members that block direct waves of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 from reaching the antenna of at least one receiver included in the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12. The shielding members are preferably made of a material that is opaque to radio waves. The material that is opaque to radio waves may be, for example, a metal. The metal is not particularly limited, but may be, for example, iron, copper, aluminum, stainless steel, or other alloys. The shielding members may also be, for example, plate-shaped members or members of other shapes. The plate-shaped shielding members may be arranged, for example, so that the surface direction is aligned with the vertical direction. This shielding member will be described later.

[0039] The identification unit 14 identifies the location of the terminal device 2 based on the difference in strength of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 and received by the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12. The difference in strength of the radio waves may be, for example, the difference in received signal strength (RSSI: Received Signal Strength Indicator) of the radio waves. Furthermore, if the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12 each have two or more receivers 21 and 22, the difference in strength may be, for example, the difference between representative values ​​of multiple received signal strengths acquired by two or more receivers 21 and 22 in the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12, respectively. That is, the difference between the representative value of the received signal strengths acquired by the multiple receivers 21 and the representative value of the received signal strengths acquired by the multiple receivers 22 may be used as the difference in strength of the radio waves. The representative value may be, for example, an average value, a median value, or the like. Furthermore, if the first receiver set 11 has two or more receivers 21, it is preferable that the two or more receivers 21 have equivalent performance. For example, it is preferable that the antenna gains of the two or more receivers 21 included in the first receiver set 11 are the same. The same applies when the second receiver set has two or more receivers 22. When identifying the position of the wave source using the difference in intensity of the received radio waves, for example, an Apollonius circle or line corresponding to the difference in reception intensity may be identified using the reception intensity of the radio waves received by the first and second receiver sets 11, 12 and the first and second reception positions that are the positions of the first and second receiver sets 11, 12, and a position on the Apollonius circle, line, or within the circle may be identified as the position of the terminal device 2, or the position of the terminal device 2 may be identified by other methods.

[0040] Furthermore, the position identified by the identification unit 14 may be, for example, a point-like position, or a linear, planar, or three-dimensional position. In this embodiment, a case where a planar position of the terminal device 2 is identified by the identification unit 14 will be mainly described. The identified position may be, for example, a position on a two-dimensional plane, or a position in three-dimensional space. In this embodiment, the former case will be mainly described.

[0041] Note that, since the method of identifying the location of a wave source using the difference in reception intensity of radio waves is already known, a detailed description thereof will be omitted. For example, see Patent Document 1 mentioned above for a method of identifying the location of such a wave source. Furthermore, when multiple users 3 carrying terminal devices 2 pass through a gate 5, radio waves from the multiple terminal devices 2 are received by the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12. In this case, the identification unit 14 may identify the location of one terminal device 2 using the difference in intensity of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 and received by the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12. Therefore, for example, the identification unit 14 may identify the location of the terminal device 2 carried by the user 3 identified by the user identifier using the difference in intensity of radio waves containing the same user identifier among the radio waves received by the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12.

[0042] The identification unit 14 may determine whether the terminal device 2 is included in a predetermined region R1 in the moving direction of the user 3 at the gate 5 shown in FIG. 2 based on, for example, a comparison result between the difference in strength of the radio waves received by the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12 and a predetermined threshold. In this case, for example, when the difference in strength obtained by subtracting the received signal strength of the radio waves received by the second receiver set 12 from the received signal strength of the radio waves received by the first receiver set 11 is greater than the predetermined threshold, the region R1 may be identified as the location of the terminal device 2 that transmitted the radio waves. The region R1 may be an area within the Apollonius circle described above. The predetermined threshold may be a predetermined value, for example, 10 dB.

[0043] The output unit 15 outputs information related to the position of the terminal device 2 identified by the identification unit 14. The output unit 15 may, for example, output information indicating the position identified by the identification unit 14, or may perform other output related to the position identified by the identification unit 14. In the latter case, for example, when the identification unit 14 identifies a predetermined area, for example, area R1, as the position of the terminal device 2, the output unit 15 may output an instruction to perform processing to a device that performs processing accordingly. Furthermore, when the receiving device 1 also performs processing to authenticate the terminal device 2 using authentication information included in the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2, the result of the authentication may also be output, or an output according to the result of the authentication may be performed.

[0044] Here, this output may be, for example, a display on a display device (e.g., a liquid crystal display or an organic EL display), transmission to a predetermined device via a communication line, audio output by a speaker, storage in a recording medium, or delivery to another component. Note that output unit 15 may or may not include a device that performs output (e.g., a display device or a communication device). Also, output unit 15 may be realized by hardware, or may be realized by software such as a driver that drives such a device.

[0045] Here, the directivity of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 will be described. Radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 may have directionality. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram as an example for describing the directivity of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2. As shown in FIG. 3, the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 may have high intensity only in some directions. In such a case, the direct wave of the high-intensity radio waves may be received by the antenna of a specific receiver, and the result of location identification by the identification unit 14 may be unexpected.

[0046] For example, when a user 3 carrying a terminal device 2 moves in a first direction, which is a direction from a first position to a second position in Fig. 2, and approaches the first receiver set 11, if a strong radio wave from the terminal device 2 is received by the receiver 21 of the first receiver set 11, the received signal strength of the radio wave received by the first receiver set 11 increases, and as a result, the identification unit 14 may determine that the terminal device 2 is present in the region R1 even though the terminal device 2 is not present in the region R1. Hereinafter, such a situation may be referred to as a "false positive."

[0047] To prevent such false positives, the shielding member set 13 may include one or more shielding members that block direct radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 from reaching the antennas of one or more receivers 21 included in the first receiver set 11, for example, when a user 3 carrying the terminal device 2 moves in a first direction and approaches the first receiver set 11. These shielding members may be, for example, shielding members 31a and 31b shown in FIG. 2 . The shielding member set 13 includes the shielding member 31, which can prevent a false positive from occurring when a strong radio wave from the terminal device 2 is received by the receiver 21 and the received signal strength increases as the user 3 moves in the first direction and approaches the gate 5. The shielding member 31 may be disposed, for example, between the terminal device 2 carried by the user 3 moving in the first direction and approaching the first receiver set 11 and the antenna of the receiver 21.

[0048] 2, when a user 3 carrying terminal device 2 moves in a first direction and is present in area R1 of gate 5, if a strong radio wave from terminal device 2 is received by receiver 22 of second receiver set 12, the received signal strength of the radio wave received by second receiver set 12 may increase, and as a result, the identification unit 14 may determine that terminal device 2 is not present in area R1, even though terminal device 2 is actually present in area R1. Hereinafter, such a situation may be referred to as a "false negative."

[0049] To prevent such false negatives, the shielding member set 13 may include one or more shielding members that block direct radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 from reaching the antennas of one or more receivers 22 included in the second receiver set 12 when, for example, a user 3 carrying the terminal device 2 moves in a first direction and passes through the gate 5. These shielding members may be, for example, shielding members 32a and 32b shown in FIG. 2 . The shielding member set 13 includes the shielding member 32. This prevents false negatives that occur when the receiver 22 receives strong radio waves from the terminal device 2 and the strength of the received signal increases when the user 3 moves in the first direction and passes through the gate 5, particularly when passing through area R1. The shielding member 32 may be disposed, for example, between the terminal device 2 carried by the user 3 in area R1 and the antenna of the receiver 22.

[0050] Note that there are also gates 5 that can be passed through in both directions, such as automatic ticket gates at train stations. In such gates 5, the shielding member set 13 may include one or more shielding members that, for example, when a user 3 carrying a terminal device 2 moves in the second direction and approaches the second receiver set 12, prevent direct waves of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 from reaching the antennas of one or more receivers 22 included in the second receiver set 12. These shielding members may be, for example, shielding members 33a and 33b shown in FIG. 4. The inclusion of the shielding member 33 in the shielding member set 13 can prevent false positives from occurring when the user 3 moves in the second direction and approaches the gate 5.

[0051] Furthermore, in a gate 5 that allows passage in both directions, the shielding member set 13 may include one or more shielding members that prevent direct waves of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 from reaching the antennas of one or more receivers 21 of the first receiver set 11 when the user 3 carrying the terminal device 2 moves in the second direction and passes through the gate 5. The shielding members may be, for example, shielding members 34a and 34b shown in FIG. 4. By including the shielding member 34 in the shielding member set 13, when the user 3 moves in the second direction and passes through the gate 5, particularly when passing through a predetermined area near the second receiving position, a false negative can be prevented, which occurs when a strong radio wave from the terminal device 2 is received by the receiver 21 and the received signal strength increases.

[0052] The second direction is the direction from the second position to the first position, as shown in Fig. 4. That is, the second direction is the opposite direction to the first direction. Also, in Fig. 4, when each of the shielding members 31 to 34 is a plate-shaped member, each of the shielding members 31 to 34 may be arranged so that the surface direction is along the vertical direction. Also, as an example, each of the shielding members 31 to 34 may be arranged so that it is perpendicular to the partition plates 51 and 52 in a plan view, or may be arranged so that it is at another angle.

[0053] As another example, the shielding member set 13 may have shielding members 31 to 34 arranged as shown in Fig. 5. In Fig. 5, the shielding member set 13 may have a first shielding section 41a, 41b having a pair of plate-shaped shielding members 31, 34 arranged to face each other for guiding radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 to the antennas of one or more receivers 21 included in the first receiver set 11, and a second shielding section 42a, 42b having a pair of plate-shaped shielding members 32, 33 arranged to face each other for guiding radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 to the antennas of one or more receivers 22 included in the second receiver set 12. It is preferable that the pair of plate-shaped shielding members 31, 34 of the first shielding section 41 and the pair of plate-shaped shielding members 32, 33 of the second shielding section 42 are arranged parallel to each other as shown in Fig. 5.

[0054] Note that Figure 5 shows a case where the shielding member set 13 has two first shielding portions 41 and two second shielding portions 42, but the number of first and second shielding portions 41, 42 that the shielding member set 13 has may be one or two or more, and the number is not important.

[0055] In addition, in a planar view, the first angle θ1, which is the angle between the direction from the antenna-side end toward the opposite end of a pair of plate-shaped shielding members 31, 34 that the first shielding portion 41 has and the first direction, may be greater than or equal to 90 degrees and less than or equal to 170 degrees.

[0056] In addition, in a planar view, the second angle θ2, which is the angle between the direction from the antenna-side end toward the opposite end of a pair of plate-shaped shielding members 32, 33 that the second shielding portion 42 has and the first direction, may be greater than or equal to 10 degrees and less than or equal to 90 degrees.

[0057] In Fig. 5, the end on the antenna side may be the end on the side of the partition plates 51 and 52. In Fig. 5, the opposite end may be the end on the center side of the partition plates 51 and 52, i.e., the end on the center side of the passage partitioned by the partition plates 51 and 52. In addition, the first angle θ1 may be, for example, 120 degrees or more and 150 degrees or less, or 135 degrees. In addition, the second angle θ2 may be, for example, 30 degrees or more and 60 degrees or less, or 45 degrees.

[0058] If the partition plates 51 and 52 are made of metal, radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 carried by the user 3 passing through the gate 5 may be reflected by the surfaces of the partition plates 51 and 52, and the reflected radio waves may be received by the antenna of the receiver 21 or the antenna of the receiver 22. To reduce the effects of such multipath, it is preferable that the first angle θ1 in FIG. 5 be 100 degrees or greater and the second angle θ2 be 80 degrees or less. Furthermore, it has been experimentally confirmed that when the first angle θ1 is set to approximately 135 degrees and the second angle θ2 is set to approximately 45 degrees, false negatives can be substantially eliminated and false positives can be further reduced.

[0059] In addition, Figures 2, 4, and 5 show shield members 31 to 34 protruding from partition plates 51, 52 toward the center of the passage, but this is for the sake of convenience of explanation, and in reality, shield members 31 to 34 may be positioned so as not to interfere with user 3 passing through gate 5.

[0060] FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional schematic diagram showing the inside of the housing of the partition plate 52. As shown in FIG. 6, for example, an opening 52a may be provided in the housing of the partition plate 52, and the shield members 32b and 33b of the second shield portion 42b may be arranged to guide radio waves from the opening 52a to the antennas of the receivers 22c and 22d. Furthermore, the portion of the housing of the partition plate 52 on the shield member 32b side of the opening 52a may or may not be made of, for example, a material 52b that does not reflect radio waves. The material 52b that does not reflect radio waves may be, for example, a material that transmits radio waves, such as resin, or may be a material that absorbs radio waves. By arranging the material 52b that does not reflect radio waves on the shield member 32b side of the opening 52a, the effects of multipath propagation within the gate 5 can be reduced. Furthermore, in FIG. 6, the opening 52a may be closed by, for example, a material that transmits radio waves. The material that transmits radio waves may be, for example, a material that transmits radio waves, such as resin or glass. Similarly, the antennas of the other receivers 21, 22 and the shielding members 31 to 34 may also be arranged inside the housings of the partition plates 51, 52. Also in this case, the portions of the housings of the partition plates 51, 52 on the shielding member 32 side or the shielding member 34 side of each opening may or may not be made of, for example, a material that does not reflect radio waves.

[0061] Furthermore, the first and second shielding sections 41, 42 of the shielding member set 13 may be formed solely by a pair of plate-like shielding members 31-34 arranged to face each other, as described above, or may be formed by a cylindrical member having a rectangular cross section. In the former case, the upper and lower ends of the first and second shielding sections 41, 42 may be open. In the latter case, the pair of plate-like shielding members 31-34 may be formed by a pair of opposing surfaces of a cylindrical member.

[0062] Next, the operation of the receiving device 1 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 2. When a user 3 carrying a terminal device 2 moves in a first direction and approaches area R1, even if a strong radio wave from the terminal device 2 is transmitted toward one of the antennas of the receiver 21, the strong direct wave is blocked by the shielding member 31 and does not reach the antenna of the receiver 21. This makes it possible to prevent false positives from occurring.

[0063] Thereafter, even if a strong radio wave from the terminal device 2 is transmitted toward one of the antennas of the receiver 22 when the user 3 passes through the area R1, the strong direct wave will be blocked by the shielding member 32 and will not reach the antenna of the receiver 22. This prevents the occurrence of false negatives. Furthermore, by using the difference in intensity between the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 carried by the user 3 passing through the area R1 and received by the first and second receiver sets 11, 12, the identification unit 14 can appropriately identify the area R1 as the location of the terminal device 2, for example, and the output unit 15 can output the identification result.

[0064] As described above, according to the receiving device 1 of this embodiment, by providing shielding members 31 to 34 that prevent the direct waves of the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 from reaching the receivers 21 and 22, it is possible to prevent false positives and false negatives from occurring, and it is possible to more accurately identify the location of the terminal device 2 using the difference in intensity of the received radio waves.

[0065] In the present embodiment, for example, a case has been described in which shield member set 13 includes shield member 31 for preventing false positives when user 3 is moving in a first direction, shield member 32 for preventing false negatives when user 3 is moving in the first direction, shield member 33 for preventing false positives when user 3 is moving in a second direction, and shield member 34 for preventing false negatives when user 3 is moving in the second direction, but this is not necessarily the case. Shield member set 13 may include, for example, any one or more of shield members 31 to 34.

[0066] Furthermore, in the above embodiments, each process or function may be realized by centralized processing by a single device or a single system, or may be realized by distributed processing by multiple devices or multiple systems.

[0067] In the above embodiments, each component may be configured by dedicated hardware, or a component that can be realized by software may be realized by executing a program. For example, each component may be realized by a program execution unit such as a CPU reading and executing a software program recorded on a recording medium such as a hard disk or semiconductor memory. During execution, the program execution unit may execute the program while accessing a memory unit or recording medium.

[0068] Furthermore, the above-described embodiments are merely examples for specifically implementing the present invention, and are not intended to limit the technical scope of the present invention. The technical scope of the present invention is defined by the claims, not by the description of the embodiments, and is intended to include modifications within the literal scope of the claims and within the scope of equivalent meanings. [Explanation of symbols]

[0069] 1. Receiving device 11 First receiver set 12 Second receiver set 13 Shielding material set 14 Specific section 15 Output section 21, 21a-21d, 22, 22a-22d Receiver 31, 31a, 31b, 32, 32a, 32b, 33, 33a, 33b, 34, 34a, 34b Shielding members 41, 41a, 41b First shield part 42, 42a, 42b Second shield part

Claims

1. a first and second receiver set, each having one or more receivers for receiving radio waves transmitted from a terminal device, which are disposed at a first and second position in a direction of movement of the user at a gate through which the user passes, the first and second receiver sets being arranged at a first and second position in a direction of movement of the user; a shielding member set including one or more shielding members that prevent direct waves of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device from reaching an antenna of at least one receiver included in the first and second receiver sets, a location of the terminal device is identified based on a difference in strength of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and received by the first and second receiver sets; The shield member set includes: one or more first shielding units each having a pair of plate-shaped shielding members arranged to face each other, for guiding radio waves transmitted from the terminal device to one or more receiver antennas included in the first receiver set; one or more second shielding units each having a pair of plate-shaped shielding members arranged to face each other, for guiding radio waves transmitted from the terminal device to one or more receiver antennas included in the second receiver set, a first angle, which is an angle between a direction from an end of the pair of plate-like shielding members of the first shield portion on the antenna side toward an end of the opposite side, and a first direction, which is a direction from the first position toward the second position, in a plan view, is equal to or greater than 100 degrees and equal to or less than 170 degrees; A receiving device in which, in a planar view, a second angle, which is the angle between the direction from the antenna-side end toward the opposite end of the pair of plate-shaped shielding members that the second shielding portion has and the first direction, is greater than or equal to 10 degrees and less than 80 degrees.

2. At a gate through which a user carrying a terminal device that transmits radio waves passes, first and second receiver sets each having one or more receivers for receiving radio waves transmitted from the terminal device are arranged at first and second positions in the direction of movement of the user, respectively; a shielding member set including one or more shielding members that prevent direct waves of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device from reaching an antenna of at least one receiver included in the first and second receiver sets, a location of the terminal device is identified based on a difference in strength of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and received by the first and second receiver sets; A receiving device, wherein the shielding member set has one or more shielding members that prevent direct waves of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device from reaching the antennas of one or more receivers in the first receiver set when a user carrying the terminal device moves in a first direction, which is a direction from the first position toward the second position, and approaches the first receiver set at the gate from a position farther from the gate.

3. 3. The receiving device of claim 2, wherein the shielding member set has one or more shielding members that prevent direct waves of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device from reaching the antennas of one or more receivers in the second receiver set when a user carrying the terminal device moves in a second direction, which is a direction from the second position toward the first position, and approaches the second receiver set at the gate from a position farther from the gate.

4. At a gate through which a user carrying a terminal device that transmits radio waves passes, first and second receiver sets each having one or more receivers for receiving radio waves transmitted from the terminal device are arranged at first and second positions in the direction of movement of the user, respectively; a shielding member set including one or more shielding members that prevent direct waves of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device from reaching an antenna of at least one receiver included in the first and second receiver sets, a location of the terminal device is identified based on a difference in strength of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and received by the first and second receiver sets; The shielding member set is a receiving device having one or more shielding members that prevent direct waves of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device from reaching the antennas of one or more receivers in the second receiver set when a user carrying the terminal device moves in a first direction, which is a direction from the first position toward the second position, and passes through a predetermined area including the first position at the gate.

5. 5. The receiving device of claim 4, wherein the shielding member set has one or more shielding members that prevent direct waves of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device from reaching the antennas of one or more receivers in the first receiver set when a user carrying the terminal device moves in a second direction, which is a direction from the second position toward the first position, and passes through a predetermined area including the second position at the gate.

6. A receiving device as described in claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the shielding member set has one or more shielding members that prevent direct waves of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device from reaching the antennas of one or more receivers in the second receiver set when a user carrying the terminal device moves in the first direction and passes through a predetermined area including the first position at the gate.

7. A receiving device as described in claim 6, wherein the shielding member set has one or more shielding members that prevent direct waves of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device from reaching the antennas of one or more receivers in the first receiver set when a user carrying the terminal device moves in a second direction, which is a direction from the second position toward the first position, and passes through a predetermined area including the second position in the gate.

8. an identification unit that identifies a location of the terminal device based on a difference in intensity of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and received by the first and second receiver sets; The receiving device according to claim 1 , further comprising: an output unit that outputs information relating to the position of the terminal device identified by the identification unit.

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