Methods and systems of assigning estimated positions and attributes to wireless access points in a positioning system

• US 10,034,265 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2016
• Issued: 07/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Skyhook Wireless Incorporated (Liberty Broadband Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Skyhook Wireless Incorporated (Liberty Broadband Corp.)
• Inventors: Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Farshid, Brachet, Nicolas, Dancus, Andrei, Steger, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Dao L
• Application Number:
  US15/180,993
• Publication Number:
  US 20160295547A1
• Time in Patent Office: 771 Days
• Field of Search: 342385, 342451, 342457, 342465, 4554561, 4554566
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/02 using radio waves G01S19/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02527 Detecting or resolving anomalies in the radio frequency fingerprints of the radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/244 using a network of reference devices, e.g. beaconing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

In one embodiment, a technique is provided for detecting that a wireless beacon is pathological. Data points captured by mobile devices or specialized scanning devices are received at software executing on an electronic device, each data point containing information about beacon attributes. A set of disjoint regions are defined in one or more dimensions and each data point is associated with a corresponding region based on at least one element of the information of the data point lying within the boundaries of the corresponding region. An aggregate attribute is determined for each region based on the information of data points associated with the corresponding region. Then the aggregate attribute of one or more regions is used to determined whether the wireless beacon is pathological, and if determined to be pathological, the wireless beacon is excluded from use by a beacon-based positioning system.

Claims

1. A method of detecting that a wireless beacon is pathological, the method comprising:

receiving data points captured by mobile devices or specialized scanning devices at software executing on an electronic device, each data point containing information about beacon attributes of a wireless beacon whose wireless signals are observed by a mobile device or specialized scanning device;

defining a set of disjoint regions in one or more dimensions;

associating each data point of the data points with a corresponding region of the set of disjoint regions based on at least one element of the information of the data point lying within the boundaries of the corresponding region;

determining an aggregate attribute for each region based on the information of data points associated with the corresponding region; and

determining, by the software executing on the electronic device, whether the wireless beacon is pathological using the aggregate attribute of one or more regions, and if determined to be pathological, excluding the wireless beacon from use by a beacon-based positioning system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one dimension is a spatial dimension, and the at least one element of the information of the data point is a location at which wireless signals from the wireless beacon were detected.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one dimension is a temporal dimension, and the at least one element of the information of the data point is a time at which wireless signals from the wireless beacon were detected.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one dimension is a spatial dimension and a temporal dimension, and the at least one element of the information of the data point is a location and a time at which wireless signals from the wireless beacon were detected.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless beacon is pathological by exhibiting excess range.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more regions are regions that include the wireless beacon, the aggregate attribute includes a quality metric, and the determining whether the wireless beacon is pathological is based on a number of the regions that have a quality metric that exceeds a quality threshold.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless beacon is pathological by exhibiting ubiquity.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more regions are regions that include the wireless beacon, the aggregate attribute includes a quality metric, and the determining whether the wireless beacon is pathological is based on a pairwise distance and a time interval between the one or more regions that have a quality metric that exceeds a quality threshold.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless beacon is pathological by exhibiting mobility.

10. A non-transitory electronic device readable medium storing instructions that when executed on one or more electronic devices are operable to:

receive data points captured by mobile devices or specialized scanning devices, each data point containing information about beacon attributes of a wireless beacon whose wireless signals are observed by a mobile device or specialized scanning device;

define a set of disjoint regions in one or more dimensions;

associate each data point of the data points with a corresponding region of the set of disjoint regions based on at least one element of the information of the data point lying within the boundaries of the corresponding region;

determine a quality metric for each region based on the information of the data points associated with the corresponding region; and

determine whether the wireless beacon is pathological based on one or more regions that include the wireless beacon and that have a quality metric that exceeds a quality threshold.

11. The non-transitory electronic device readable medium of claim 10, wherein the at least one dimension is a spatial dimension, and the at least one element of the information of the data point is a location at which wireless signals from the wireless beacon were detected.

12. The non-transitory electronic device readable medium of claim 10, wherein the at least one dimension is a temporal dimension, and the at least one element of the information of the data point is a time at which wireless signals from the wireless beacon were detected.

13. The non-transitory electronic device readable medium of claim 10, wherein the at least one dimension is a spatial dimension and a temporal dimension, and the at least one element of the information of the data point is a location and a time at which wireless signals from the wireless beacon were detected.

14. The non-transitory electronic device readable medium of claim 10, wherein the wireless beacon is pathological by exhibiting excess range.

15. The non-transitory electronic device readable medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions that when executed are operable to determine whether the wireless beacon is pathological base the determination on a number of the one or more regions that have a quality metric that exceeds the quality threshold.

16. The non-transitory electronic device readable medium of claim 10, wherein the wireless beacon is pathological by exhibiting ubiquity.

17. The non-transitory electronic device readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions that when executed are operable to determine whether the wireless beacon is pathological base the determination on a pairwise distance and a time interval between the one or more regions having a quality metric that exceeds the quality threshold.

18. The non-transitory electronic device readable medium of claim 16, wherein the wireless beacon is pathological by exhibiting mobility.

19. A system for detecting that a wireless beacon is pathological, comprising:

software executing on one or more mobile devices or specialized scanning devices configured to capture data points, each data point based on wireless signals of a wireless beacon observed by a mobile device or specialized scanning device; and

a computer system configured to receive the data points and based thereon to

define a set of disjoint regions in one or more dimension,

associate each data point of the data points with a corresponding region of the set of disjoint regions based on at least one element of the information of the data point lying within the boundaries of the corresponding region,

determine an aggregate attribute for each region based on the information of data points associated with the corresponding region, and

determine whether the wireless beacon is pathological using the aggregate attributes of one or more regions, and if determined to be pathological, exclude the wireless beacon from use by a beacon-based positioning system.