Information processing device, information processing method, and program

Abstract

An information processing device is provided that can link a person detected at a gate with a user identifier included in radio waves transmitted from a terminal device. [Solution] The information processing device 1 includes first and second receiver sets 11, 12 each having one or more receivers 21 that receive radio waves including a user identifier that identifies the user 3, transmitted from a terminal device 2 carried by the user 3 passing through the gate; an identification unit 13 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; a detection unit 15 that detects people at the gate; and a linking unit 16 that links the user identifier included in the radio waves used to identify the position with the person detected by the detection unit 15, using the result of the identification of the position of the terminal device by the identification unit 13 and the result of the person detection by the detection unit 15.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an information processing device or the like that identifies the location of a terminal device using radio waves transmitted from the terminal device. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, a technique for performing authentication by receiving radio waves transmitted from a terminal device is known (see, for example, Patent Document 1). By performing such authentication, for example, hands-free authentication can be performed without requiring any operation by the user.

[0003] It is also possible to receive radio waves transmitted from a terminal device and determine whether the terminal device is included in a specific area (see, for example, Patent Document 2). Therefore, for example, it is possible to receive radio waves transmitted from a terminal device, authenticate the terminal device, and determine whether the terminal device is included in a predetermined area. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] International Publication No. 2020 / 080301 [Patent Document 2] International Publication No. 2020 / 080314 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] However, when multiple users carrying terminal devices pass through a gate such as an automatic ticket gate, and radio waves transmitted from the terminal devices are used to authenticate and identify their locations, it is necessary to link the people detected at the gate with the radio waves transmitted from the terminal devices, because without such linking, it would be impossible to determine, for example, whether it is okay for a person passing through the gate to pass through.

[0006] In addition, when linking radio waves to users using the results of location determination using radio waves and the results of person detection at the gate, there has been a demand to improve the accuracy of this linking, in order to improve the accuracy of the linking.

[0007] The present invention has been made to solve at least one of the above problems, and one of its objectives is to link a person detected at a gate with radio waves transmitted from a terminal device, and another objective is to improve the accuracy of location identification using radio waves. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an information processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises first to Nth receiver sets (N is an integer greater than or equal to 1) each having one or more receivers that receive radio waves including a user identifier that identifies the user, transmitted from a terminal device carried by a user passing through a gate; an identification unit that identifies the location of the terminal device using at least the strength of the radio waves received by the first receiver set; a detection unit that detects a person at the gate; and a linking unit that links the user identifier included in the radio waves used to identify the location with the person detected by the detection unit using the result of the identification of the location of the terminal device by the identification unit and the result of the detection of the person by the detection unit.

[0009] With this configuration, it is possible to link the user identifier included in the radio waves with the person detected by the detection unit. In other words, it is possible to link the radio waves with the detected person. Therefore, for example, it becomes possible to know whether a person passing through a gate can be allowed to pass.

[0010] In addition, in an information processing device according to one aspect of the present invention, the identification unit may identify a position of the terminal device corresponding to the position of the first receiver set in the direction of movement of the user within the gate at the time when the strength of the radio waves received by the first receiver set becomes maximum.

[0011] With this configuration, the location of the terminal device can be determined by using the strength of the radio waves received by one receiver set.

[0012] In addition, in an information processing device according to one aspect of the present invention, the linking unit may link a user identifier contained in the radio waves used to identify the location with the person detected by the detection unit when the identification of the location by the identification unit at a first position of the gate and the detection of the person by the detection unit at a second position of the gate are performed with a predetermined time difference.

[0013] With this configuration, the result of identifying a position using radio waves can be linked to the result of detecting a person by the detection unit.

[0014] In addition, in an information processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention, N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and the identification unit may identify the location of the terminal device based on the difference in intensity of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and received by the first to Nth receiver sets.

[0015] With this configuration, the location of the terminal device can be determined based on the difference in strength of radio waves received by two or more receiver sets.

[0016] In addition, in an information processing device according to one aspect of the present invention, the linking unit may link a user identifier contained in the radio waves used to identify the location with the person detected by the detection unit when the identification of the location by the identification unit at a first position of the gate and the detection of the person by the detection unit at a second position of the gate are performed with a predetermined time difference.

[0017] With this configuration, the result of identifying a position using radio waves can be linked to the result of detecting a person by the detection unit.

[0018] In addition, in an information processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention, N may be 2, the first receiver set may be located upstream of the gate in the direction of movement of the user, and the second receiver set may be located downstream of the gate in the direction of movement of the user.

[0019] With this configuration, for example, it becomes possible to use radio waves transmitted from a terminal device to identify whether the terminal device is within a predetermined area at the gate.

[0020] In addition, in an information processing device according to one aspect of the present invention, when the linking unit links one user identifier with two consecutive people detected by the detection unit, the linking unit may modify the linking result so that the user identifier is linked with the person of the two people who is upstream in the direction of movement of the user at the gate.

[0021] With this configuration, even when a person who is not carrying a terminal device passes through the gate, the person can be appropriately linked to the radio waves and the person detected by the detection unit.

[0022] In addition, in an information processing device according to one aspect of the present invention, when the linking unit links one user identifier with two or more people, or when two or more user identifiers with one person, the linking result may be modified using other linking results.

[0023] With this configuration, even if the result of linking the radio waves with the person detected by the detection unit is inappropriate, it is possible to correct the result to an appropriate link using other linking results.

[0024] In addition, in an information processing device according to one aspect of the present invention, the detection unit detects a person present inside the gate, and the identification unit may identify the location of the terminal device based on the difference in intensity of radio waves received by the first and second receiver sets, depending on whether the detection unit has detected a person present inside the gate.

[0025] With this configuration, it becomes possible to appropriately identify the location of the terminal device based on the difference in radio wave strength, regardless of whether or not there is a person inside the gate.

[0026] In addition, in an information processing device according to one aspect of the present invention, the identification unit determines whether the terminal device is included in a specified area at the gate based on the comparison result between the difference in strength of the radio waves received by the first and second receiver sets and a specified threshold, and the threshold may be changed depending on whether the detection unit detects a person present inside the gate.

[0027] With this configuration, by changing the threshold depending on whether or not there is a person inside the gate, it becomes possible to appropriately identify the location of the terminal device based on the difference in radio wave strength.

[0028] In addition, in an information processing device according to one aspect of the present invention, the detection unit may have a transmitter that transmits radio waves from the antenna of a receiver included in one of the first and second receiver sets, and may detect a person present inside the gate based on the reception results of the radio waves transmitted from the transmitter by a receiver included in the other of the first and second receiver sets.

[0029] With this configuration, the detection unit can detect a person present inside the gate by using the receiver set, and the existing configuration can be effectively utilized.

[0030] In addition, in an information processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention, the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device also include authentication information used to authenticate the terminal device, and the information processing device further includes an authentication unit that determines whether the terminal device that transmitted the radio waves is legitimate using the authentication information contained in the radio waves received by at least one of the one or more receivers included in the first to Nth receiver sets, and the linking unit may link the user identifier contained in the radio waves, the detected person, and the authentication result by the authentication unit regarding the authentication information contained in the radio waves.

[0031] This configuration also makes it possible to perform authentication using radio waves. Therefore, for example, if a user attempts to pass through a gate illegally, the user can be authenticated as unauthorized and prevented from passing through.

[0032] In addition, an information processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises first and second receiver sets having one or more receivers that receive radio waves including a user identifier that identifies the user, transmitted from a terminal device carried by a user passing through the gate; a detection unit that detects a person present within the gate; and an identification unit that identifies the location of the terminal device based on the difference in intensity of the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and received by the first and second receiver sets, depending on whether or not a person present within the gate is detected by the detection unit, wherein the first receiver set is positioned upstream of the user's direction of movement at the gate, and the second receiver set is positioned downstream of the user's direction of movement at the gate.

[0033] With this configuration, it becomes possible to appropriately identify the location of the terminal device based on the difference in radio wave strength, regardless of whether or not there is a person inside the gate.

[0034] Furthermore, an information processing method according to one aspect of the present invention includes the steps of receiving, by first to Nth receiver sets (N is an integer greater than or equal to 1) each having one or more receivers, radio waves including a user identifier for identifying the user, transmitted from a terminal device carried by a user passing through a gate; determining, by an identification unit, the location of the terminal device using at least the strength of the radio waves received by the first receiver set; detecting a person at the gate by a detection unit; and linking, by a linking unit, the user identifier included in the radio waves used to determine the location with the detected person using the result of determining the location of the terminal device in the step of determining the location of the terminal device and the result of detecting the person in the step of detecting the person.

[0035] Furthermore, an information processing method according to one aspect of the present invention includes the steps of receiving radio waves including a user identifier for identifying the user, transmitted from a terminal device carried by a user passing through a gate, using first and second receiver sets each having one or more receivers; detecting a person present within the gate using a detection unit; and identifying the location of the terminal device based on the difference in intensity of the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and received by the first and second receiver sets, depending on whether a person present within the gate is detected in the person detection step, wherein the first receiver set is positioned upstream of the user's direction of movement at the gate, and the second receiver set is positioned downstream of the user's direction of movement at the gate. [Effects of the Invention]

[0036] According to an information processing device or the like according to one aspect of the present invention, for example, a person detected at a gate can be linked to radio waves transmitted from a terminal device, and the accuracy of identifying a location using radio waves can be improved. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0037] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the configuration of a gate in the embodiment; [Figure 3A] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a person passing through a gate in the embodiment. [Figure 3B] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a person passing through a gate in the embodiment. [Figure 4] A flowchart showing the operation of the information processing device according to the embodiment. [Figure 5A] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a person passing through a gate in the embodiment. [Figure 5B] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a person passing through a gate in the embodiment. [Figure 6A]FIG. 10 shows an example of time-varying changes in radio wave strength and time-varying changes in human detection results in the embodiment; [Figure 6B] FIG. 10 shows an example of time-varying changes in radio wave strength and time-varying changes in human detection results in the embodiment; [Figure 7] FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of a computer system according to the embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0038] An information processing device and an information processing method according to the present invention will be described below using embodiments. Note that in the following embodiments, components and steps denoted with the same reference numerals are the same or equivalent, and repeated description may be omitted. The information processing device according to this embodiment can link a user identifier contained in radio waves to a detected person by using the result of identifying the position of a terminal device carried by a user passing through a gate using radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and the result of person detection by a detection unit at the gate.

[0039] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information processing device 1 according to this embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the configuration of a gate 5. The information processing device 1 according to this embodiment includes a first receiver set 11, a second receiver set 12, an identification unit 13, a detection unit 15, and a linking unit 16, and may further include an authentication unit 14 and an output unit 17 as necessary. The information processing device 1 according to this embodiment may, for example, perform device authentication to determine whether a terminal device 2 carried by a user 3 passing through the gate 5 is legitimate, identify the location of the terminal device 2, and detect a person passing through the gate 5, and then link and output these results. The user 3 passing through the gate 5 may be, for example, a user 3 approaching the gate 5, a user 3 passing through the gate 5, or a user 3 exiting the gate 5 who is near the gate 5. The gate 5 may be, for example, an automatic ticket gate at a station or the like, or a security gate through which a person passes when entering or exiting a building, a company, an event venue, or the like.

[0040] 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 information processing device 1 receives radio waves from one terminal device 2 carried by one user 3, the information processing device 1 may receive radio waves from, for example, multiple terminal devices 2 carried by multiple users 3.

[0041] 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 notebook 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 include, for example, a user identifier that identifies 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 may be a character string unique to the user. Furthermore, a device identifier that identifies 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 may be another 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. In this embodiment, a case in which the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 also include authentication information will be mainly described.

[0042] The first receiver set 11 includes 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.

[0043] The second receiver set 12 includes 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.

[0044] From the viewpoint of realizing more accurate location identification of the terminal device 2, it is preferable that the first receiver set 11 includes multiple receivers, and it is preferable that the second receiver set 12 includes multiple receivers. As shown in FIG. 1, for example, the first receiver set 11 may include four receivers 21a to 21d, and the second receiver set 12 may include 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.

[0045] If the first receiver set 11 includes 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.

[0046] 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.

[0047] As shown in FIG. 2 , for example, the first receiver set 11 may be arranged upstream of the gate 5 in the direction of movement of the user 3, and the second receiver set 12 may be arranged downstream of the gate 5 in the direction of movement of the user 3. That is, in FIG. 2 , if the user 3 moves from left to right, the first receiver set 11 may be arranged on the left side of the gate 5, and the second receiver set 12 may be arranged on the right side of the gate 5. Note that in FIG. 2 , the direction of movement of the user 3 is assumed to be from left to right, as indicated by the arrow. In FIG. 2 , the gate 5 has partition plates 51 and 52, and the user 3 passes through a passage partitioned by the partition plates 51 and 52. The positions of the receivers 21 and 22 shown in FIG. 2 etc. may be the positions of antennas used by the receivers 21 and 22 to receive radio waves. In Figure 2, the position of the center of gravity of the antennas of receivers 21a to 21d included in the first receiver set 11 is the first receiving position P1, and the position of the center of gravity of the antennas of receivers 22a to 22d included in the second receiver set 12 is the second receiving position P2.

[0048] 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.

[0049] 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 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 may transmit radio waves 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 information processing device 1 may transmit the beacon. In this case, the information processing device 1 may further include a transmitting unit for transmitting the beacon.

[0050] The authentication information included in the radio waves may include any information that can be used to authenticate the terminal device 2. For example, it may include cryptographic information obtained by encrypting unique information, which is unique information. The unique information may include, for example, a time, a random number, a count value, or a one-time password. The unique information may be information specific to the authentication information included in the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2. That is, the unique information corresponding to the cryptographic information included in the authentication information may be different for each piece of transmitted authentication information. The unique information may be, for example, information generated by the terminal device 2 or information transmitted from the information processing device 1 to the terminal device 2. In the latter case, challenge-response authentication may be performed by the information processing device 1. When the unique information is transmitted from the information processing device 1, the information processing device 1 may further include a transmitting unit that transmits the unique information. This embodiment will mainly describe the case where the unique information is generated by the terminal device 2. As with the cryptographic information described above, it is preferable that the authentication information includes different information for each piece of authentication information. This is to prevent the authentication information from being reused by a malicious third party. Furthermore, for example, the cryptographic information may be information obtained by encrypting a user identifier and unique information. In this case, the encryption information may be considered to be information including, for example, a user identifier and authentication information.

[0051] The encryption of the unique information may be, for example, encryption using a common key encryption or encryption using a public key encryption. That is, the encryption key used to encrypt the unique information may be, for example, a common key or a public key corresponding to the information processing device 1. When the encryption key is a common key, it is preferable that the information processing device 1 and the terminal device 2 have the same common key. It is also preferable that the common key is different for each terminal device 2.

[0052] The terminal device 2 may or may not be in line of sight from the information processing device 1. In the latter case, the user 3 may carry the terminal device 2 in, for example, a pocket of clothes or a bag.

[0053] The identification unit 13 identifies the location of the terminal device 2 using at least the strength of the radio waves received by the first receiver set 11. In this embodiment, a case will be mainly described in which the identification unit 13 identifies the location of the terminal device 2 based on the strength difference of the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 and received by the first and second receiver sets 11, 12. The strength difference of the radio waves may be, for example, the difference in received signal strength (RSSI: Received Signal Strength Indicator) of the radio waves. Furthermore, when the first and second receiver sets 11, 12 include two or more receivers 21, 22, the strength difference may be, for example, the difference between a plurality of representative values ​​of received signal strengths acquired by two or more receivers 21, 22 in the first and second receiver sets 11, 12, respectively. That is, the difference between the representative value of received signal strengths acquired by the plurality of receivers 21 and the representative value of received signal strengths acquired by the plurality of receivers 22 may be used as the strength difference of the radio waves. The representative value may be, for example, an average value, a median value, or the like. Furthermore, when the first receiver set 11 includes 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 includes two or more receivers 22. When identifying the location of a wave source using the difference in intensity of 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 and 12 and the first and second reception positions, which are the positions of the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12, and a position on the Apollonius circle, on the line, or within the circle may be identified as the location of the terminal device 2, or the location of the terminal device 2 may be identified by other methods.

[0054] Furthermore, the position identified by the identification unit 13 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 13 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.

[0055] 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 2 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 13 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 13 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.

[0056] The identification unit 13 may determine whether the terminal device 2 is included in a predetermined region R1 of 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, which is the result of 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.

[0057] Here, as shown in FIG. 3A , if another person H1 is present in front of person H2 carrying terminal device 2, the radio waves transmitted from terminal device 2 may be blocked by the preceding person H1, potentially reducing the reception strength of the second receiver set 12 located farther from terminal device 2. In such a situation, even if terminal device 2 is not located within region R1, the difference in radio wave strength may exceed a predetermined threshold. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3A , using radio waves transmitted from a terminal device 2 located outside region R1, the identification unit 13 may erroneously identify the location of terminal device 2 as being located in region R1. For example, using radio waves transmitted from a terminal device 2 located in region R2, the identification unit 13 may erroneously determine that the terminal device 2 is located in region R1. A similar situation may also occur, for example, in a situation such as that shown in FIG. 3B .

[0058] Therefore, the identification unit 13 may, for example, identify the location of the terminal device 2 based on the difference in intensity of the radio waves received by the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12, depending on whether the detection unit 15 detects a person present inside the gate 5. That is, the method for identifying the location of the terminal device 2 using the difference in intensity of the radio waves may be changed depending on whether a person is present inside the gate 5. The detection of a person by the detection unit 15 will be described later. The identification unit 13 may, for example, change the threshold depending on whether the detection unit 15 detects a person present inside the gate 5. For example, when a person is detected inside the gate 5, the identification unit 13 may change the predetermined threshold from 10 dB to a larger value, such as 12 dB. By changing the threshold in this manner, for example, the terminal device 2 can be determined to be present in the area R1 using the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 only when the terminal device 2 is present in the area R1, thereby preventing erroneous determination. For example, the identification unit 13 may change the threshold regardless of the number of people present inside the gate 5 if there are people present inside the gate 5. As another example, the identification unit 13 may change the threshold depending on the number of people present inside the gate 5. In the latter case, for example, the threshold when one person is present inside gate 5 may be different from the threshold when two people are present inside gate 5. As described above, the threshold may be the threshold that is compared with the difference in radio wave strength when identifying the location of terminal device 2. The extent to which the threshold should be changed when a person is detected inside gate 5 may be calculated theoretically or determined experimentally, for example.

[0059] The authentication unit 14 may determine whether the terminal device 2 that transmitted the radio waves is legitimate, for example, by using authentication information included in the radio waves received by at least one of the one or more receivers 21, 22 included in the first and second receiver sets 11, 12. In this embodiment, a case will be mainly described in which the authentication unit 14 performs authentication processing using authentication information included in the radio waves received by the receiver 21 included in the first receiver set 11.

[0060] For example, when the authentication information includes cryptographic information in which unique information is encrypted, the authentication unit 14 may determine that the terminal device 2 that transmitted the authentication information is legitimate if the unique information corresponding to the cryptographic information matches the unique information stored in the information processing device 1 and corresponding to the terminal device 2 that transmitted the authentication information, and may determine that the terminal device 2 that transmitted the authentication information is not legitimate if the unique information corresponding to the cryptographic information matches the unique information stored in the information processing device 1. Whether the unique information corresponding to the cryptographic information matches the unique information stored in the information processing device 1 may be determined, for example, by whether the unique information obtained by decrypting the cryptographic information matches the unique information stored in the information processing device 1, or by whether the cryptographic information matches the result of encrypting the unique information stored in the information processing device 1.

[0061] When the unique information is acquired in the terminal device 2, the unique information stored in the information processing device 1 may be, for example, acquired by the same method as that used to acquire the unique information in the terminal device 2. Furthermore, when the terminal device 2 receives the unique information from the information processing device 1, the unique information stored in the information processing device 1 may be, for example, the unique information transmitted by the information processing device 1 to the terminal device 2.

[0062] When the cryptographic information included in the authentication information is encrypted with a common key, the authentication unit 14 may, for example, read out the common key stored in a predetermined recording medium in association with the user identifier included in the radio waves together with the authentication information, and decrypt the cryptographic information using the read common key, or may use the read common key to encrypt the unique information stored in the information processing device 1. When the cryptographic information included in the authentication information is encrypted with a public key, the authentication unit 14 may, for example, read out a private key from a predetermined recording medium and decrypt the cryptographic information using the read private key, or may read out a public key from a predetermined recording medium and encrypt the unique information stored in the information processing device 1 using the read public key.

[0063] The authentication unit 14 may perform device authentication using one piece of authentication information, or may perform device authentication using multiple pieces of authentication information received within a predetermined period. For authentication using multiple pieces of authentication information, see, for example, Patent Document 1 mentioned above.

[0064] The detection unit 15 detects people at the gate 5. The detection unit 15 may detect people at the gate 5, for example, using one or more sensors. The sensor may be, for example, an optical sensor, a sensor that detects people using highly directional radio waves such as millimeter waves, a sensor that detects people using ultrasound, a camera, or other sensors. The detection unit 15 may, for example, detect people present inside the gate 5. In this case, for example, the detection result by the detection unit 15 may indicate whether or not there is a person present inside the gate 5, or may indicate the number of people present inside the gate 5. The person to be detected by the detection unit 15 may be, for example, a person passing through the gate 5.

[0065] FIG. 2 illustrates a case in which the detection unit 15 uses optical sensors 70 and 80 to detect people passing on the upstream and downstream sides of the gate 5. The sensors 70 and 80 may each include a light projector 71 and a light receiver 72 and a light receiver 82. When light emitted from the light projector 71 and the light receiver 72 is blocked by a person, this may be detected. The light may be, for example, infrared light or visible light. In the former case, the sensors 70 and 80 may be infrared sensors. As an example, the light used to detect a person may pass through first and second receiving positions as shown in FIG. 2.

[0066] When a person is detected by sensor 70, that is, when it is detected using the light reception result of light receiver 72 that the light emitted from light projector 71 has been blocked by a person, detection unit 15 may detect that the person has passed the position of sensor 70 and entered gate 5. Furthermore, when a person is detected by sensor 80, detection unit 15 may detect that the person has passed the position of sensor 80 and exited gate 5. In this way, detection unit 15 detects a person entering gate 5 at the position of sensor 70, which is upstream of gate 5, and detects a person exiting gate 5 at the position of sensor 80, which is downstream of gate 5, thereby making it possible to identify whether a person is present within gate 5, that is, in the range from sensor 70 to sensor 80. As an example, the detection unit 15 may increment the number of people present within the gate 5 by one when the sensor 70 completes person detection, i.e., when the light emitted from the light projector 71 and received by the light receiver 72 is blocked by a person and then received again by the light receiver 72, and may decrement the number of people present within the gate 5 by one when the sensor 80 starts person detection, i.e., when the light emitted from the light projector 81 and received by the light receiver 82 is blocked by a person. Note that the increment and decrement of the number of people within the gate 5 may be performed at other times. In addition, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, a case will be mainly described in which the position where the sensor 70 detects a person is the same as the region R1 in which the position of the user 3 is identified using radio waves in the direction of movement of the user 3 at the gate 5 (for example, from left to right in FIG. 2).

[0067] If the detection unit 15 has only the sensor 70 and does not have the sensor 80, the detection unit 15 may, for example, estimate that the detected person is present inside the gate 5 for a predetermined period of time from the time the person is detected by the sensor 70, and may identify the number of people present inside the gate 5 and whether or not there are people inside the gate 5. In this way, the detection unit 15 can detect people present inside the gate 5 even when using only the sensor 70.

[0068] In this embodiment, the case where the sensors 70, 80 are transmission type sensors will be mainly described, but the sensors 70, 80 may be, for example, reflective sensors or other sensors. Also, by arranging three or more optical sensors or the like along the movement direction of the user 3 at the gate 5, it is possible to detect people not only on the upstream and downstream sides of the gate 5 but also people passing through the gate 5. Also, sensors that detect people using radio waves such as millimeter waves or sensors that detect people using ultrasonic waves may be used to detect people on the upstream and downstream sides of the gate 5 in the same manner as the optical sensors 70, 80.

[0069] When detecting people using a camera, people may be detected by identifying their positions in the image of the gate 5 captured by the camera using image processing or the like. In this case, the position of each person passing through the gate 5 can usually also be obtained.

[0070] The linking unit 16 uses the result of identifying the position of the terminal device by the identification unit 13 and the result of detecting the person by the detection unit 15 to link the user identifier included in the radio waves used to identify the position with the person detected by the detection unit 15. Note that as a result, the method of linking the user identifier with the person is not important as long as it is possible to determine the correspondence between the user identifier included in the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 and received by the first and second receiver sets 11, 12 and the person detected by the detection unit 15.

[0071] As one example, the linking may be performed by identifying a user identifier included in radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 carried by a person detected by the detection unit 15 at the position of the sensor 70. In this case, for example, for a user 3 passing through a gate 5 and detected by the detection unit 15 at the position of the sensor 70, it becomes possible to know the user identifier included in radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 carried by the user 3.

[0072] As another example, when the sensor 70 detects people entering the gate 5 in order, it is also possible to identify people passing through the gate 5 in the order in which they entered the gate 5, such as the first person, the second person, etc. Therefore, the associating unit 16 may, for example, associate the order in which people passing through the gate 5 with a user identifier. In this embodiment, the case in which this association is performed will be mainly described.

[0073] Furthermore, when authentication by the authentication unit 14 is also performed, the linking unit 16 may link a user identifier contained in the radio waves, a detected person, and an authentication result by the authentication unit 14 regarding the authentication information contained in the radio waves. In this case, for a user 3 passing through the gate 5 and detected by the detection unit 15, for example, it becomes possible to know the user identifier contained in the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 carried by the user 3 and the result of device authentication as to whether the terminal device 2 is legitimate. As another example, the order in which people are passing through the gate 5 may be linked with the user identifier and the result of device authentication.

[0074] When the identification of a position by the identification unit 13 at a first position of the gate 5 and the detection of a person by the detection unit 15 at a second position of the gate 5 are performed with a predetermined time difference, the linking unit 16 may link a user identifier included in the radio waves used to identify the position with the person detected by the detection unit 15. The first and second positions may be, for example, positions in the movement direction of the user 3 at the gate 5. For example, the first and second positions may be the same position, or the first and second positions may be different positions. The predetermined time difference may be, for example, a time difference that takes into account the movement of the user 3 between the first position and the second position. The predetermined time difference may be, for example, a predetermined value, or may not be a predetermined value. When the first and second positions are the same position, the time difference may be zero. Here, for example, when the absolute value of the time difference is smaller than a positive infinitesimal value, the time difference may be determined to be zero. When the first and second positions are different positions, the time difference may be the time it takes for the user 3 to travel the distance between the first position and the second position, or may be the time calculated by dividing the distance between the first and second positions by the standard moving speed of a person passing through the gate 5 or the moving speed of a person detected by a sensor. Furthermore, there is usually an error in the position of the terminal device 2 identified by the identification unit 13 and the position of a person detected by the detection unit 15. Therefore, the predetermined time difference may be, for example, a value that further takes into account an error in the time difference that takes into account the movement of the user 3 between the first position and the second position. The time difference that takes into account an error may be, for example, a time difference having a predetermined range.As an example, when the identification of the position by the specific part 13 at the first position regarding a certain terminal device 2 is performed within the range from time T11 to time T12, and the detection by the detection part 15 at the second position regarding a certain person is performed within the range from time T21 to time T22, and when the time difference having a predetermined range is the time difference within the range from D11 to D12, if there is a portion where the ranges of both times overlap when one time range is shifted by the time difference within the range from D11 to D12, the association part 16 may associate the user identifier included in the radio wave used for the identification of the position with the person detected by the detection part 15. In the case where, in the moving direction of user 3, the second position exists on the downstream side of the first position, for example, the result of shifting the range from time T11 to time T12 by the time difference within the range from D11 to D12 may be the range from time T11 + D11 to time T12 + D12. That is, when there is a portion where the range from time T11 + D11 to time T12 + D12 and the range from time T21 to time T22 overlap, the association between the two may be performed. Here, D11 < D12 is assumed. Also, if the time difference D corresponding to the time taken for user 3 to move the distance between the first position and the second position is set, D11 = D - δ and D12 = D + δ may hold. δ is a positive real number for considering errors, and may be, for example, a minute positive real number. In the present embodiment, the case where the first position is region R1, the second position is the position of sensor 70, and the positions of both are substantially the same will be mainly described.

[0075] For example, when the region R1 is identified as the position of user 3 identified by the user identifier "U001" by the specific part 13, and a person is detected by the sensor 70, the association part 16 may associate the person who has passed through the position of the sensor 70 with the user identifier "U001". In this case, the association part 16 may, for example, identify "U001" as the user identifier of the person existing at the position of the sensor 70, or may identify "U001" as the user identifier of the M-th person when the person detected by the sensor 70 is the M-th person. M may be, for example, an integer of 1 or more.

[0076] 3A and 3B, if a person not carrying a terminal device 2 is walking ahead of user 3 carrying terminal device 2 at gate 5, as described above, the position of person H2's terminal device 2 may be erroneously identified as being in region R1 at the time shown in FIG. 3A, which may result in person H1 and the user identifier of person H2 being linked, and subsequently, at the time shown in FIG. 3B, person H2 and the user identifier of person H2 may be linked. In this case, two consecutive people detected by detection unit 15 are linked to one user identifier. In this way, when one user identifier is linked to two consecutive people, the linking unit 16 may correct the linking result so as to link the user identifier to the person who is upstream of user 3 in the direction of movement at gate 5. By doing this, for example, in Figures 3A and 3B, it becomes possible to properly link the user identifier of person H2 with person H2, and it becomes possible to perform control such as closing the door downstream of gate 5 to prevent person H1 who is not carrying terminal device 2 from passing through gate 5.

[0077] Furthermore, when the associating unit 16 associates one user identifier with two or more people, or associates two or more user identifiers with one person, the associating unit 16 may modify the associating result using other associating results. The associating result after the modification may, for example, associate one user identifier with one person. That is, the associating result after the modification may, for example, be a one-to-one associating result. For example, if two user identifiers "U001" and "U002" are associated with a detected second person in multiple associating results, but one of the two user identifiers, "U001," is not associated with any other person, the associating result may be modified so that the second person is associated with the user identifier "U001." Note that when a user identifier is associated with two or more people, it may be associated with two or more consecutive people. In this case, for example, if the user identifier "U001" is not linked to the first and third persons, and the user identifier "U001" is linked to the second person, it may be determined that the user identifier "U001" is linked only to the second person. Also, for example, if only one user identifier "U003" is linked to a detected person in multiple linking results, that linking result is confirmed, and the user identifier "U003" included in the other linking results may be deleted. The linking results may be corrected by repeating this process.

[0078] Furthermore, for example, when a user identifier to be linked does not exist for a person detected by the detection unit 15, the linking unit 16 may link the detected person to the fact that no user identifier exists. For example, when a person who does not carry a terminal device 2 passes through the gate 5, such linking may be performed.

[0079] The output unit 17 may output, for example, the results of the linking performed by the linking unit 16. Note that, when a one-to-one linking result is determined in the linking result performed by the linking unit 16, the output unit 17 may output the determined one-to-one linking result. For example, even if the first linking result performed by the linking unit 16 is one-to-one, depending on the content of the subsequent second linking result, the first and second linking results may no longer be one-to-one. For example, if the first linking result links the first person with the user identifier "U001" and the second linking result links the second person with the user identifier "U001," the first and second people are linked to the user identifier "U001," and therefore the first and second linking results are not one-to-one. In this case, for example, the non-one-to-one linking result may be corrected to a one-to-one linking result, and then the linking result may be output. In this case, the corrected one-to-one linking result may be considered to be a confirmed one-to-one linking result. Thus, even if the first linking result is one-to-one, whether the first linking result is one-to-one is not confirmed until the next second linking result is obtained. Therefore, for example, if a second linking result is obtained after a one-to-one first linking result is obtained but the first linking result remains one-to-one, the output unit 17 may determine that the one-to-one first linking result is confirmed and output the first linking result. Furthermore, for example, if no new linking result is obtained within a predetermined period after the one-to-one linking result is obtained, the output unit 17 may determine that the one-to-one linking result is confirmed and output the one-to-one linking result.

[0080] The output unit 17 may output, for example, the linking result itself by the linking unit 16. Furthermore, when there is a person who is not linked to a user identifier according to the linking result by the linking unit 16, the output unit 17 may output to prevent the person from passing through the gate 5, for example, to control closing the door downstream of the gate 5. In this way, the output performed by the output unit 17 may be, for example, an output for control according to the linking result.

[0081] Here, this output may be, for example, a display on a display device (e.g., a liquid crystal display or an organic EL display), a transmission to a predetermined device via a communication line, a printing by a printer, an audio output by a speaker, storage on a recording medium, or a transfer to another component. Note that output unit 17 may or may not include a device that performs output (e.g., a display device or a communication device). Also, output unit 17 may be realized by hardware, or may be realized by software such as a driver that drives such a device.

[0082] Next, the operation of the information processing device 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart in Fig. 4. In this flowchart, it is assumed that the same location is identified using radio waves and a person is detected by the detection unit 15. The location may be, for example, an area R1.

[0083] (Step S101) The first and second receiver sets 11, 12 determine whether or not they have received radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2. If they have received radio waves, the process proceeds to step S102; if not, the process proceeds to step S105.

[0084] (Step S102) The authentication unit 14 performs device authentication using authentication information contained in the radio waves received by either the first or second receiver set 11 or 12.

[0085] (Step S103) If it is determined in the device authentication in step S102 that the terminal device 2 that is the source of the radio waves is legitimate, the process proceeds to step S104, and if not, the process returns to step S101.

[0086] (Step S104) The identification unit 13 identifies the location of the terminal device 2 using the radio waves received by the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12. Then, the process returns to step S101.

[0087] (Step S105) The detection unit 15 determines whether or not to perform processing to detect a person at the gate 5. If processing to detect a person is to be performed, the process proceeds to step S106, and if not, the process returns to step S101. Note that the detection unit 15 may, for example, periodically determine to perform processing to detect a person.

[0088] (Step S106) The detection unit 15 detects people at the gate 5. The detection of people may be performed using, for example, sensors 70, 80, etc. Furthermore, the detection unit 15 may update the number of people present within the gate 5, for example, according to the detection result.

[0089] (Step S107) If a person is detected in step S106, the process proceeds to step S108, and if not, the process returns to step S101.

[0090] (Step S108) When a person is detected in step S106 and the location is determined in step S104 at the same time and in the same location, the linking unit 16 links the detected person with the user identifier included in the radio waves used to determine the location. Furthermore, if, for example, a non-one-to-one linking has been performed up to that point and the linking result can be corrected to a one-to-one linking result using the latest linking result, the linking unit 16 may perform the correction. Furthermore, the output unit 17 may output a one-to-one linking result that has been confirmed by the correction, or a one-to-one linking result that has been confirmed by remaining one-to-one even after a new linking result has been obtained. Note that unconfirmed linking results may be stored, for example, in a recording medium (not shown). Furthermore, for example, when a person is detected by the sensor 70 but the location of user 3 has not been determined at the same time and in the same location, the detected person may be linked with the absence of a user identifier, and the linking result may be output. In this case, the detected person is not a user 3 who can pass through gate 5, so for example, the door of gate 5 may be closed to prevent the detected person from passing through gate 5.

[0091] (Step S109) When the number of people present inside gate 5 is updated by detection unit 15, identification unit 13 may change the settings related to location identification in accordance with the updated result. For example, if the number of people inside gate 5 decreases or increases, the threshold value to be compared with the intensity difference may be changed accordingly. Then, the process returns to step S101.

[0092] Although not explicitly stated in the flowchart of Fig. 4, if no new linking result is obtained within a predetermined period after a one-to-one linking result is obtained, the output unit 17 may output the one-to-one linking result, assuming that the one-to-one linking result has been confirmed. The order of the processing in the flowchart of Fig. 4 is merely an example, and the order of the steps may be changed as long as the same result is obtained. In the flowchart of Fig. 4, the processing may be terminated by a power-off or a processing termination interrupt.

[0093] Next, the operation of the information processing device 1 according to this embodiment will be described using a specific example. In this specific example, as shown in Figures 5A and 5B, a case will be described in which multiple people H11 to H13 carrying terminal devices 2 pass through gate 5 in order. Note that the user identifiers of people H11, H12, and H13 are assumed to be U001, U002, and U003, respectively. Also, the initial number of people inside gate 5 is assumed to be "0".

[0094] 5A, when persons H11 and H12 approach the gate 5, the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12 receive radio waves transmitted from the terminal devices 2 of the persons H11 and H12, respectively, and the authentication unit 14 performs authentication using the authentication information contained in the radio waves (steps S101 and S102). Here, it is assumed that the terminal devices 2 of both persons H11 and H12 are authenticated as legitimate (step S103). Then, the identification unit 13 identifies the location of each terminal device 2 (step S104). The identification unit 13 identifies the location in area R1 of the terminal device 2 carried by person H11, and also identifies the location in area R1 of the terminal device 2 carried by person H12 behind him, as the difference in radio wave strength between the first and second receiver sets 11, 12 increases in response to the presence of person H11, and passes ``U001'' and ``U002'' to the linking unit 16 as the user identifiers of the people present in area R1.

[0095] Thereafter, when the first person H11 is detected by the sensor 70 of the detection unit 15, the detection unit 15 notifies the associating unit 16 that a person has been detected by the sensor 70, increments the number of people in the gate 5 by one to "1", and passes the updated number of people in the gate 5 to the identification unit 13 (steps S105 to S107). Upon receiving the detection result, the associating unit 16 associates the user identifiers "U001" and "U002" received from the identification unit 13 at that time with the first person detected by the sensor 70. In this case, since the associating result has not yet been determined, the associating unit 16 may store the first associating result, which indicates that the user identifiers of the first person are "U001" and "U002", in a recording medium (not shown) (step S108). Furthermore, upon receiving the updated number of people inside gate 5 of "1", the identification unit 13 accordingly changes the threshold value to be compared with the difference in strength of the radio waves received by the first and second receiver sets 11, 12 (step S109).

[0096] Thereafter, each person moves through the gate 5, resulting in the state shown in FIG. 5B. In this case, the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12 receive radio waves transmitted from the terminal devices 2 of the respective persons H11, H12, and H13, and the authentication unit 14 performs authentication using the authentication information contained in the radio waves (steps S101 and S102). Again, it is assumed that all the terminal devices 2 are authenticated as legitimate (step S103). Then, the identification unit 13 identifies the location of each terminal device 2 (step S104). Depending on whether the threshold value has been changed, the following cases will be explained: when the identification unit 13 identifies the location of area R1 only for the terminal device 2 carried by person H12 and passes "U002" to the linking unit 16 as the user identifier of the person present in area R1; and when the identification unit 13 identifies the location of area R1 for the terminal device 2 carried by persons H12 and H13 and passes "U002" and "U003" to the linking unit 16 as the user identifiers of the people present in area R1.

[0097] In the case where only "U002" is identified as the user identifier of a person present in area R1, when a second person H12 is detected by sensor 70, detection unit 15 notifies association unit 16 that a person has been detected by sensor 70, increments the number of people within gate 5 by one to "2," and passes the updated number of people within gate 5 to identification unit 13 (steps S105 to S107). Upon receiving the detection result, association unit 16 associates the user identifier "U002" received from identification unit 13 at that time with the second person detected by sensor 70. That is, a second association result is obtained indicating that the user identifier of the second person is "U002." Note that the second association result is not finalized and may be stored in a recording medium (not shown). In this case, since the user identifier "U001" is not associated with the second person, the linking unit 16 modifies the first linking result to indicate that the user identifier of the first person is "U001", and passes the modified first linking result to the output unit 17. Then, the output unit 17 outputs the modified first linking result to a device that controls the gate 5 (step S108).

[0098] On the other hand, if "U002" and "U003" are identified as the user identifiers of the people present in area R1, when a second person H12 is detected by sensor 70, detection unit 15 notifies association unit 16 that a person has been detected by sensor 70, updates the number of people within gate 5 to "2," and passes the updated number of people within gate 5 to identification unit 13 (steps S105 to S107). Upon receiving the detection result, association unit 16 associates the user identifiers "U002" and "U003" received from identification unit 13 at that time with the second person detected by sensor 70. That is, a second association result is obtained indicating that the user identifiers of the second person are "U002" and "U003." Note that the second association result is not finalized and may be stored in a recording medium (not shown). In this case, since the user identifier "U001" is not associated with the second person, the associating unit 16 modifies the first associating result to indicate that the user identifier of the first person is "U001", and passes the modified first associating result to the output unit 17. Then, the output unit 17 outputs the modified first associating result to the device that controls the gate 5 (step S108).

[0099] Furthermore, when receiving the updated number of people in gate 5 of "2", the identification unit 13 maintains the changed threshold value because the identification unit 13 has already changed the threshold value according to the number of people in gate 5 of "1" (step S109).

[0100] After the second linking result is stored in a recording medium (not shown), for example, if only the user identifier "U003" of a person present in area R1 is identified and a third linking result is obtained indicating that the user identifier of the detected third person is "U003," the third linking result is stored in a recording medium (not shown), and in accordance with the third linking result, a second linking result indicating that the user identifier of the second person is "U002" is confirmed, or the second linking result indicating that the user identifiers of the second person are "U002" and "U003" is corrected and confirmed to be the second linking result indicating that the user identifier of the second person is "U002," and processing such as output of the confirmed second linking result may be performed (steps S101 to S109). Furthermore, if no new linking result is obtained within a predetermined period thereafter, the output unit 17 may output the third linking result in accordance with the confirmation of the third linking result.

[0101] Furthermore, a device that controls gate 5 may appropriately control gate 5 using the output result from the information processing device 1. The device that controls gate 5 may, for example, use information associated with a user identifier to determine whether each user 3 can pass through gate 5, and may prevent a user 3 that cannot pass through gate 5 by controlling to close the door of gate 5. As an example, if a user 3 identified by a user identifier linked to a fifth person is a user 3 that cannot pass through gate 5, the door downstream of gate 5 may be closed to prevent the fifth user 3 from passing through gate 5.

[0102] As described above, according to the information processing device 1 of this embodiment, for example, it is possible to associate people entering gate 5 in order with user identifiers included in radio waves transmitted from terminal device 2, and it is possible to identify the user identifier corresponding to each person passing through gate 5. Then, by using the user identifier, it is possible to determine, for example, whether each person entering gate 5 can pass through gate 5, and to prevent people who cannot pass through gate 5 from passing through by, for example, closing the door of gate 5 as appropriate. Furthermore, even if the associating unit 16 is unable to perform one-to-one association between a user identifier and a detected person, it is possible to correct the association result to one-to-one by correcting the association result using, for example, another association result.

[0103] Furthermore, for example, if the first person entering gate 5 does not carry terminal device 2 and the second person does, as described above, the user identifier of the second person will be linked to both the first and second people, but in this case, correct linking can be achieved by correcting the linking result so that the user identifier is linked to the second person, who is the upstream person of the two consecutive people. Note that, for example, if the first person entering gate 5 carries terminal device 2 and the second person does not carry terminal device 2, and there is a gap between the second and third people, appropriate linking may be achieved for the first person, but the second person may not be linked to the user identifier, and may not be able to pass through gate 5.

[0104] In addition, by changing the threshold for determining the location of the terminal device 2 using the difference in radio wave strength depending on the presence of a person inside the gate 5, it becomes possible to determine the location more appropriately even if the radio waves from the terminal device 2 are blocked by a person inside the gate 5.

[0105] Furthermore, if the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 also contain authentication information, device authentication can be performed using the authentication information, and for example, the location of only the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 that has been determined to be legitimate by device authentication can be identified and linked to the person detected at the gate 5. In this way, for example, it is possible to prevent spoofing by a malicious third party.

[0106] In the present embodiment, a case has been described in which device authentication is also performed in the information processing device 1, but this is not necessarily the case. The information processing device 1 does not have to perform device authentication. In this case, the information processing device 1 does not have to include the authentication unit 14.

[0107] Furthermore, the location identification using radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2 may be performed by a method other than the above. For example, the identification unit 13 may identify a position of the terminal device 2 corresponding to the position of the first receiver set 11 in the movement direction of the user 3 within the gate 5 when the strength of the radio waves received by the first receiver set 11 is maximized. The position corresponding to the position of the first receiver set 11 in the movement direction of the user 3 may be, for example, a position obtained by projecting the position of the first receiver set 11 onto the x-axis, i.e., the x-axis coordinate value of the position of the first receiver set 11, assuming that the movement direction of the user 3 is the x-axis direction. For example, if the receivers 21 of the first receiver set 11 are arranged as shown in FIG. 2, when the strength of the radio waves received by the four receivers 21 is maximized, the position of the terminal device 2 that transmitted the radio waves may be identified as a position corresponding to the first receiving position P1 in the left-right direction, which is the movement direction of the user 3 in FIG. 2.

[0108] FIG. 6A is a diagram showing the time change in the reception strength of radio waves transmitted by the first receiver set 11 from the terminal device 2 carried by the user 3 at the gate 5 shown in FIG. 2 and the time change in the detection result of the user 3 by the sensor 70. FIG. 6A may also be a diagram showing the time change in reception strength, etc., when, for example, the bag containing the terminal device 2 is located behind the user 3. In FIG. 6A, it is assumed that the sensor 70 detects the user 3 during the period when the detection result is high, i.e., the period from time T1 to time T2. In this case, the identification unit 13 may identify the position of the terminal device 2 as a position corresponding to the first reception position P1 in the direction of movement of the user 3 at the time when the reception strength of the first receiver set 11 is at its maximum, i.e., at time T3. Note that the sensor 70 of the detection unit 15 also detects the user 3 at time T3, so the association unit 16 associates the detected user 3 with the user identifier included in the radio waves whose reception strength is at its maximum at time T3. In this way, even if only the first receiver set 11 is used, it is possible to link a detected person with a user identifier. In this case, the information processing device 1 does not need to be equipped with, for example, the second receiver set 12. Note that the change over time in the reception strength and the like when the bag containing the terminal device 2 is located in front of the user 3 is shown in, for example, FIG. 6B, but the detected user 3 can also be linked with a user identifier in FIG. 6B in the same way as in FIG. 6A. In this way, it is possible to link the detected user 3 with a user identifier regardless of the position of the terminal device 2 carried by the user 3.

[0109] Note that the location identification by the identification unit 13 and the person detection by the detection unit 15 may be performed at the same location or at different locations. Therefore, for example, when the location identification by the identification unit 13 at a first location of the gate 5 and the person detection by the detection unit 15 at a second location of the gate 5 are performed with a predetermined time difference, the linking unit 16 may link a user identifier included in the radio waves used to identify the location with the person detected by the detection unit 15. The first and second locations may be, for example, locations in the direction of movement of the user 3 at the gate 5. Furthermore, the two locations may be the same location or different locations. As described above, the first location may be a location corresponding to the first receiving position P1 in the direction of movement of the user 3. The predetermined time difference may be, for example, a time difference that takes into account the movement of the user 3 between the first location and the second location. Here, there may be an error in the time at which the radio wave strength reaches its maximum. For example, if the radio waves transmitted by the terminal device 2 are pulse waves transmitted intermittently, the pulse waves may not necessarily be received at time T3 when the intensity reaches its peak as shown in Fig. 6A. Also, if the terminal device 2 is located some distance from the body of the user 3, such as when the user 3 holds the terminal device 2 in his / her hand, time T3 may not be included between time T1 and time T2. Therefore, the predetermined time difference may be a value that takes such an error into consideration. The time difference that takes error into consideration may be, for example, a time difference having a predetermined range. As an example, if the location of a terminal device 2 at a first position is determined by the determination unit 13 at time T3, and the detection of a person at a second position is performed by the detection unit 15 in the range from time T1 to time T2, and the time difference having a predetermined range is a time difference in the range from D1 to D2, if there is an overlap between the result of shifting time T3 by the time difference in the range from D1 to D2 and the range from time T1 to time T2, the linking unit 16 may link the user identifier contained in the radio waves used to determine the location with the person detected by the detection unit 15.In addition, when the second position is downstream of the first position in the moving direction of the user 3, for example, the result of shifting the time T3 by the time difference within the range from D1 to D2 may be the range from the time T3 + D1 to the time T3 + D2. That is, when there is an overlapping portion between the range from the time T3 + D1 to the time T3 + D2 and the range from the time T1 to the time T2, the association between the two may be performed. Here, it is assumed that D1 < D2. Further, if the time difference corresponding to the time it takes for the user 3 to move the distance between the first position and the second position is D, D1 = D - δ and D2 = D + δ may be used. δ is a positive real number for considering errors and may be, for example, a very small positive real number.

[0110] Also, in this embodiment, the case where the information processing apparatus 1 associates the detected person with the user identifier has been mainly described, but this is not necessary. The information processing apparatus 1 may specify the position of the terminal device 2 using the intensity difference of the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 2. In this case, the information processing apparatus 1 may not include the association unit 16. Then, the output unit 17 may output, for example, the position specified by the specifying unit 13 and the result of the device authentication by the authentication unit 14. Note that the information processing apparatus 1 may not include the authentication unit 14 either. In this case, the output unit 17 may output, for example, the specified position. Also in this case, the position of the terminal device 2 may be specified according to whether a person existing within the gate 5 has been detected. As an example, the threshold value used for specifying the position of the terminal device 2 may be changed according to whether a person existing within the gate 5 has been detected.

[0111] Such an information processing device 1 includes, for example, first and second receiver sets 11 and 12 having one or more receivers that receive radio waves including a user identifier that identifies the user 3 and that are transmitted from a terminal device 2 carried by the user 3 passing through the gate 5; a detection unit 15 that detects a person present within the gate 5; and an identification unit 13 that identifies the location 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 and 12, depending on whether the detection unit 15 has detected a person present within the gate 5. The first receiver set 11 may be located upstream of the gate 5 in the direction of movement of the user 3, and the second receiver set 12 may be located downstream of the gate 5 in the direction of movement of the user 3. The detection unit 15 that detects a person present within the gate 5 is only required to be able to determine whether a person is present within the gate 5, for example, and is not necessarily required to be able to detect a person present at a specific position within the gate 5.

[0112] Furthermore, in this embodiment, the case where a person is detected at the gate 5 using an optical sensor, a camera, or the like has been mainly described. However, as another example, a person present inside the gate 5 may be detected using radio waves. In this case, for example, radio waves may be transmitted from the antenna of one of the receivers included in the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12, and the transmitted radio waves may be received by the other receiver to determine whether a person is present inside the gate 5. In this case, the detection unit 15 may have a transmitter that transmits radio waves from the antenna of one of the receiver sets 11 and 12. The detection unit 15 may also detect a person present inside the gate 5 based on the reception results of the radio waves transmitted from the transmitter by one or more receivers included in the other of the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12. When a person is present inside the gate 5, it is preferable that the respective antennas be selected so that the person inside the gate 5 is located between the antenna used by the transmitter to transmit the radio waves and the antenna used by the receiver to receive the radio waves. For example, the transmitter may transmit radio waves via the antenna of the receiver 21a shown in FIG. 2, and the detection unit 15 may detect a person inside the gate 5 based on the reception result of the radio waves by the receiver 22c or the receiver 22d. The detection unit 15 may detect a person inside the gate 5 when the reception strength of the radio waves transmitted from the transmitter by the receiver 22c or the receiver 22d is lower than a predetermined threshold, and may not detect a person inside the gate 5 when the reception strength is higher than the threshold. Note that when the reception strength is equal to the threshold, the person inside the gate 5 may or may not be detected. Depending on the detection result, for example, the location of the terminal device 2 may be identified by the identification unit 13. For example, the threshold used to identify the location of the terminal device 2 may be changed depending on the detection result.

[0113] Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the case where the information processing device 1 has two receiver sets, i.e., the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12, has been mainly described. However, the information processing device 1 may have three or more receiver sets. That is, the information processing device 1 may have first to Nth receiver sets arranged at first to Nth receiving positions, respectively. N may be an integer of 2 or more. The first to Nth receiver sets may also be similar to the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12. For example, the Kth receiver set may include one or more receivers. K is an integer from 1 to N. It is preferable that the first to Nth receiving positions are different from each other. Furthermore, when N is 3 or more and the positions are identified by, for example, triangulation, it is preferable that the first to Nth positions do not lie on a single straight line. However, if this is not the case, the first to Nth positions may lie on a single straight line. Furthermore, when N is 4, for example, when the position is identified by triangular surveying or the like, it is preferable that the first to fourth positions do not become the vertices of a parallelogram. However, if this is not the case, the first to fourth positions may become the vertices of a parallelogram. In this way, when the information processing device 1 has first to N receiver sets, the identification unit 13 may identify the position of the terminal device 2 based on the intensity difference of the radio waves received by the first to N receiver sets. Note that this position identification may be performed, for example, by repeatedly identifying an Apollonius circle or line based on the intensity difference of the radio waves received by each of the two receiver sets for different combinations of two receiver sets among the first to N receiver sets, thereby identifying multiple Apollonius circles or lines, and identifying a position on the identified Apollonius circle, line, or within the circle as the position of the terminal device 2, or by other methods.

[0114] Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the case where both device authentication and location determination of the terminal device 2 are performed using radio waves transmitted from a terminal device 2 located near the gate 5 have been mainly described, but this is not necessarily the case. The terminal transmitting the radio waves may also include devices that are not subject to authentication. Therefore, even if the device transmitting the radio waves is located far away, if the radio waves are received by at least one of the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12, device authentication may be performed using authentication information contained in the radio waves. A radio wave identifier that identifies radio waves determined to be valid in device authentication may be stored in advance, and the stored radio wave identifier may be used to determine the location of only the radio waves determined to be valid in device authentication. The radio wave identifier may be, for example, a user identifier or device identifier contained in the radio waves, or another identifier. With this configuration, the information processing device 1 determines the location of only the terminal device 2 determined to be valid in advance by device authentication, thereby reducing the number of radio waves that are subject to location determination, thereby enabling efficient location determination processing. Furthermore, when there are many devices that transmit radio waves, device authentication processing may not be performed on radio waves transmitted from a legitimate terminal device 2 due to interference with other radio waves, and as a result, a user 3 carrying a legitimate terminal device 2 may not be able to pass through gate 5. However, by performing device authentication in advance, the opportunities for device authentication can be increased, and the possibility that a user 3 carrying a legitimate terminal device 2 will not be able to pass through gate 5 can be reduced.

[0115] 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.

[0116] Furthermore, in the above embodiments, the transfer of information between components may be performed, for example, by one component outputting information and the other component receiving information if the two components transferring the information are physically different, or by moving from a processing phase corresponding to one component to a processing phase corresponding to the other component if the two components transferring the information are physically the same.

[0117] Furthermore, in the above-described embodiments, information related to the processing performed by each component, such as information accepted, acquired, selected, generated, transmitted, or received by each component, and information such as thresholds, formulas, and addresses used in processing by each component, may be temporarily or long-term stored in a recording medium (not shown), even if not explicitly stated in the above description. Furthermore, the storage of information in the recording medium (not shown) may be performed by each component or a storage unit (not shown). Furthermore, the reading of information from the recording medium (not shown) may be performed by each component or a reading unit (not shown).

[0118] Furthermore, in the above-described embodiments, if the information used by each component, such as thresholds, addresses, and various setting values ​​used by each component in processing, may be changed by the user, the user may or may not be able to change the information as appropriate, even if not explicitly stated in the above description. If the information is changeable by the user, the change may be realized, for example, by a receiving unit (not shown) that receives a change instruction from the user and a changing unit (not shown) that changes the information in accordance with the change instruction. The change instruction may be received by the receiving unit (not shown), for example, from an input device, by receiving information transmitted via a communication line, or by receiving information read from a predetermined recording medium.

[0119] Furthermore, in the above embodiment, when two or more components included in the information processing device 1 have a communication device, an input device, etc., the two or more components may physically have a single device, or may have separate devices.

[0120] Furthermore, in the above-described embodiments, each component may be configured with 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 storage unit or recording medium. Note that the software for realizing the information processing device 1 in the above-described embodiments may be the following program. That is, this program may cause a computer to execute the following steps: receive, using first to Nth receiver sets (N is an integer greater than or equal to 1) each having one or more receivers, radio waves including a user identifier that identifies the user, transmitted from a terminal device carried by a user passing through a gate; determine the location of the terminal device using at least the strength of the radio waves received by the first receiver set; detect a person at the gate; and associate the user identifier included in the radio waves used to determine the location with the detected person using the result of determining the location of the terminal device in the step of determining the location of the terminal device and the result of detecting the person in the step of detecting the person.

[0121] Furthermore, software for realizing the information processing device 1 in the above-described embodiment may be the following program. That is, this program may cause a computer to execute the following steps: receiving, by first and second receiver sets having one or more receivers, radio waves including a user identifier that identifies the user, transmitted from a terminal device carried by a user passing through a gate; detecting a person present within the gate; and specifying the position of the terminal device based on the difference in intensity of the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and received by the first and second receiver sets, depending on whether a person present within the gate has been detected in the person detection step; wherein the first receiver set is located upstream of the gate in the direction of movement of the user, and the second receiver set is located downstream of the gate in the direction of movement of the user.

[0122] In addition, in the above program, the steps of receiving radio waves and detecting people, etc., do not include processing that can only be performed by hardware, such as processing performed by a modem or interface card in the step of receiving radio waves.

[0123] This program may be executed by being downloaded from a server or the like, or by being read from a predetermined recording medium (for example, an optical disk such as a CD-ROM, a magnetic disk, or a semiconductor memory). This program may also be used as a program constituting a program product.

[0124] Furthermore, the computer that executes this program may be a single computer or multiple computers, and may perform centralized processing or distributed processing.

[0125] 7 is a diagram showing an example of a computer system 900 that executes the above program to realize the information processing device 1 according to the above embodiment. The above embodiment can be realized by computer hardware and a computer program executed thereon.

[0126] 7, the computer system 900 includes an MPU (Micro Processing Unit) 911, a ROM 912 such as a flash memory that stores programs such as a boot-up program, application programs, system programs, and data, a RAM 913 connected to the MPU 911 that temporarily stores instructions for the application program and provides temporary storage space, a touch panel 914, a wireless communication module 915, and a bus 916 that interconnects the MPU 911, the ROM 912, and the like. Note that the computer system 900 may include, for example, a plurality of wireless communication modules 915 corresponding to the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12, or may be connected to a plurality of wireless communication modules corresponding to the first and second receiver sets 11 and 12, and the like. The computer system 900 may also include a display and input devices such as a mouse and a keyboard instead of the touch panel 914. The computer system 900 may also include other recording media such as a hard disk.

[0127] A program that causes the computer system 900 to execute the functions of the information processing device 1 according to the above embodiment may be stored in the ROM 912 via the wireless communication module 915. The program is loaded into the RAM 913 when executed. The program may also be loaded directly from the network.

[0128] The program does not necessarily include an operating system (OS) or a third-party program that causes the computer system 900 to execute the functions of the information processing device 1 according to the above embodiment. The program may include only instructions that call appropriate functions or modules in a controlled manner to achieve the desired results. How the computer system 900 operates is well known, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

[0129] 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]

[0130] 1. Information processing equipment 11 First receiver set 12 Second receiver set 13 Specific section 14 Authentication Section 15 Detector 16 Stringing section 17 Output section

Claims

1. first to N-th receiver sets (N is an integer of 1 or more) each having one or more receivers for receiving radio waves including a user identifier that identifies a user who passes through the gate and that is transmitted from a terminal device carried by the user; an identification unit that identifies the location of the terminal device within the gate using at least the strength of the radio waves received by the first receiver set; a detection unit that detects a person at the gate; An information processing device comprising: a linking unit that links a user identifier contained in the radio waves used to identify the location of the terminal device by the identification unit and a person detected by the detection unit using the result of the identification of the location of the terminal device by the identification unit and the result of the person detection by the detection unit.

2. 2. The information processing device according to claim 1, wherein the identification unit identifies a position of the terminal device corresponding to the position of the first receiver set in the direction of movement of the user within the gate at the time when the strength of the radio waves received by the first receiver set becomes maximum.

3. The information processing device described in claim 2, wherein the linking unit links a user identifier contained in the radio waves used to identify the location with the person detected by the detection unit when the identification unit identifies the location at a first position of the gate and the detection unit detects a person at a second position of the gate with a predetermined time difference.

4. N is an integer of 2 or more, The information processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the identifying unit identifies the location of the terminal device based on a difference in intensity of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and received by the first to Nth receiver sets.

5. The information processing device described in claim 4, wherein the linking unit links a user identifier contained in the radio waves used to identify the location with the person detected by the detection unit when the identification unit identifies the location at a first position of the gate and the detection unit detects a person at a second position of the gate with a predetermined time difference.

6. N is 2, 6. The information processing device according to claim 5, wherein the first receiver set is arranged upstream of the gate in a direction of movement of the user, and the second receiver set is arranged downstream of the gate in a direction of movement of the user.

7. The information processing device described in claim 6, wherein when the linking unit links one user identifier with two consecutive people detected by the detection unit, the linking unit modifies the linking result so that the user identifier is linked with the person of the two people who is upstream in the user's direction of movement at the gate.

8. The information processing device according to claim 6, wherein the linking unit, when linking one user identifier with two or more people, or when linking two or more user identifiers with one person, modifies the linking result using other linking results.

9. the detection unit detects a person present inside the gate, 7. The information processing device according to claim 6, wherein the identification unit identifies the location of the terminal device based on the difference in strength of the radio waves received by the first and second receiver sets, depending on whether the detection unit detects a person present inside the gate.

10. The information processing device of claim 9, wherein the identification unit determines whether the terminal device is within a predetermined area of ​​the gate based on a comparison result between the difference in strength of the radio waves received by the first and second receiver sets and a predetermined threshold, and changes the threshold depending on whether the detection unit detects a person present within the gate.

11. 10. The information processing device of claim 9, wherein the detection unit has a transmitter that transmits radio waves from an antenna of a receiver included in one of the first and second receiver sets, and detects a person present inside the gate based on the reception results of the radio waves transmitted from the transmitter by a receiver included in the other of the first and second receiver sets.

12. The radio waves transmitted from the terminal device also include authentication information used to authenticate the terminal device, an authentication unit that uses authentication information included in radio waves received by at least one of the one or more receivers included in the first to Nth receiver sets to determine whether or not a terminal device that has transmitted the radio waves is legitimate; The information processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the linking unit links a user identifier included in the radio waves, a detected person, and an authentication result by the authentication unit regarding authentication information included in the radio waves.

13. a first and second receiver set each having one or more receivers for receiving radio waves including a user identifier that identifies a user who passes through the gate and that is transmitted from a terminal device carried by the user; a detection unit that detects a person present within the gate; an identification unit that determines whether the terminal device is included in a predetermined area of ​​the gate based on a comparison result between an intensity difference of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and received by the first and second receiver sets and a predetermined threshold, and that changes the threshold depending on whether a person present within the gate is detected by the detection unit; An information processing device, wherein the first receiver set is arranged upstream of the gate in a direction of movement of a user, and the second receiver set is arranged downstream of the gate in a direction of movement of a user.

14. A first and second receiver set each having one or more receivers for receiving radio waves including a user identifier that identifies a user who passes through a gate and that are transmitted from a terminal device carried by the user; a detection unit that detects a person present within the gate; an identification unit that identifies the location of the terminal device based on the difference in intensity of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and received by the first and second receiver sets, depending on whether or not the detection unit has detected a person present within the gate; the first receiver set is located upstream of the gate in a direction of movement of a user, and the second receiver set is located downstream of the gate in a direction of movement of a user; The detection unit has a transmitter that transmits radio waves from the antenna of a receiver included in one of the first and second receiver sets, and detects a person present inside the gate based on the reception results of the radio waves transmitted from the transmitter by a receiver included in the other of the first and second receiver sets.

15. receiving radio waves including a user identifier that identifies a user transmitted from a terminal device carried by a user passing through a gate, by first to Nth receiver sets (N is an integer of 1 or more) each having one or more receivers; a step of identifying, by an identification unit, a position of the terminal device within the gate using at least the strength of the radio waves received by the first receiver set; detecting a person at the gate by a detection unit; An information processing method including a step in which a linking unit links a user identifier contained in radio waves used to identify the location of the terminal device using the result of identifying the location of the terminal device in the step of identifying the location of the terminal device and the result of detecting a person in the step of detecting the person.

16. receiving, by first and second receiver sets each having one or more receivers, radio waves transmitted from a terminal device carried by a user passing through the gate, the radio waves including a user identifier for identifying the user; detecting a person present within the gate by a detection unit; a step of determining, by an identification unit, whether or not the terminal device is included in a predetermined area of ​​the gate based on a comparison result between a difference in intensity of radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and received by the first and second receiver sets and a predetermined threshold, and changing the threshold depending on whether or not a person present inside the gate is detected in the step of detecting a person, An information processing method, wherein the first receiver set is located upstream of the gate in a direction of movement of a user, and the second receiver set is located downstream of the gate in a direction of movement of a user.

17. A step of receiving radio waves including a user identifier that identifies a user transmitted from a terminal device carried by a user passing through a gate by a first and second receiver set having one or more receivers; detecting a person present within the gate by a detection unit; and a step of performing, by an identification unit, identification of the 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, depending on whether a person present within the gate is detected in the step of detecting a person, the first receiver set is located upstream of the gate in a direction of movement of a user, and the second receiver set is located downstream of the gate in a direction of movement of a user; An information processing method in which, in the step of detecting a person, a person present within the gate is detected based on the reception results by a receiver included in the other receiver set of the first and second receiver sets of radio waves transmitted from a transmitter that transmits radio waves from the antenna of a receiver included in one of the first and second receiver sets.

18. On the computer, receiving radio waves including a user identifier that identifies a user transmitted from a terminal device carried by a user passing through a gate, by first to Nth receiver sets (N is an integer of 1 or more) each having one or more receivers; determining a location of the terminal device within the gate using at least the strength of the radio waves received by the first receiver set; detecting a person at the gate; A program for executing a step of linking a user identifier contained in the radio waves used to identify the location of a terminal device with a detected person, using the result of identifying the location of the terminal device in the step of identifying the location of the terminal device and the result of detecting a person in the step of detecting the person.

19. On the computer, receiving, by first and second receiver sets each having one or more receivers, radio waves transmitted from a terminal device carried by a user passing through the gate, the radio waves including a user identifier for identifying the user; detecting a person present within the gate; determining whether the terminal device is included in a predetermined area of ​​the gate based on a comparison result between a difference in strength of the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and received by the first and second receiver sets and a predetermined threshold, and changing the threshold depending on whether a person present inside the gate is detected in the person detection step; The program, wherein the first receiver set is located upstream of the gate in a direction of movement of a user, and the second receiver set is located downstream of the gate in a direction of movement of a user.

20. A computer comprising: receiving, by first and second receiver sets each having one or more receivers, radio waves transmitted from a terminal device carried by a user passing through the gate, the radio waves including a user identifier for identifying the user; detecting a person present within the gate; and performing a step of identifying the location of the terminal device based on the difference in strength of the radio waves transmitted from the terminal device and received by the first and second receiver sets, depending on whether or not a person is detected within the gate in the step of detecting a person; the first receiver set is located upstream of the gate in a direction of movement of a user, and the second receiver set is located downstream of the gate in a direction of movement of a user; In the step of detecting a person, a program detects a person present within the gate based on the reception results of radio waves transmitted from a transmitter that transmits radio waves from the antenna of a receiver included in one of the first and second receiver sets by a receiver included in the other of the first and second receiver sets.

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