System and methods of deploying location tracking tags

• US 10,142,797 B2
• Filed: 07/25/2016
• Issued: 11/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Symbol Technologies, LLC (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Symbol Technologies, LLC (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Inventors: Sundaram, Sundaresan, Tandon, Varun, Chandra, Suman
• Primary Examiner(s): Arevalo, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US15/218,721
• Publication Number:
  US 20180027384A1
• Time in Patent Office: 855 Days
• Field of Search: 455434, 4554561, 4554563, 4554041, 4554042, 455 411, 370338
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0045 Transmission from base station to mobile station G01S5/009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0249 Determining position using measurements made by a non-stationary device other than the device whose position is being determined
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0252 Radio frequency fingerprinting
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02524 Creating or updating the radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0294 Trajectory determination or predictive filtering, e.g. target tracking or Kalman filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/30 Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

System and methods of deploying location tracking tags are provided. A device receives: identifiers of a plurality of tags fixed at locations in a physical space, each of the plurality of tags configured to broadcast: a respective identifier; and identifiers of respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags. The device further receives respective locations of a subset of the plurality of tags. The device determines remaining respective locations of the plurality of tags not in the subset from: the respective locations of the plurality of tags in the subset and the identifiers of respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags. The device can populate a memory and/or a database with the remaining respective locations of the plurality of tags not in the subset for use by a location tracking server.

Claims

1. A mobile computing device configured to determine a location of an unknown tag having an unknown fixed location, the mobile computing device comprising:

a processor;

memory; and

a communication interface configured to;

receive, from first tags each having a known fixed location, first identifiers corresponding to the first tags;

receive, from the unknown tag, a second identifier corresponding to the unknown tag; and

receive, from the unknown tag, third identifiers corresponding to neighboring tags of the unknown tag;

wherein the processor is configured to;

determine the location of the unknown tag based on (1) the known fixed locations of the first tags and (2) the third identifiers corresponding to the neighboring tags; and

determine the location of the unknown tag by using one or more of an intersection operation and triangulation based on a detected broadcast power level of each of the neighboring tags received with the third identifiers, wherein the triangulation based on the detected broadcast power level comprises;

determining a radial distance from each of the neighboring tags based on the detected broadcast power level corresponding to the neighboring tags; and

comparing the radial distances to determine a meeting location of the radial distances when originating from corresponding ones of the neighboring tags, wherein the meeting location corresponds to the location of the unknown tag.

2. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein each of the respective locations is defined by one or more of GPS (global positioning system) coordinates, absolute location data, and relative location data, the relative location data being relative to a given position in a physical grid space designated on a map.

3. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to determine a distance between the neighboring tags based on the respective detected broadcast power level of each of the neighboring tags received with the third identifiers corresponding to the neighboring tags.

4. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to populate one or more of a database and a table stored at the memory with data associated with the first tags, the data including the respective location of each of the first tags and the third identifiers corresponding to the respective neighboring tags.

5. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein each of the first tags comprises one or more of a location tracking tag, a BLE (Bluetooth™

low energy) tag, a Bluetooth™

Smart tag, and an iBeacon™

tag.

8. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the intersection operation includes determining an intersection between the third identifiers and the first identifiers.

9. The mobile computing device of claim 8, wherein the intersection operation includes using a physical map including the locations of the first tags.

6. A method to determine a location of an unknown tag having an unknown fixed location, the method comprising:

receiving, at a mobile computing device, from first tags each having a known location, first identifiers corresponding to the first tags;

receiving, from the unknown tag, a second identifier corresponding to the unknown tag;

receiving, from the unknown tag, third identifiers corresponding to neighboring tags of the unknown tag;

determining, at the mobile computing device, the location of the unknown tag based on (1) the known fixed locations of the first tags and (2) the third identifiers corresponding to the neighboring tags; and

determining the locations of the first tags using one or more of an intersection operation and triangulation based on a detected broadcast power level of each of the neighboring tags received with the third identifiers, wherein the triangulation based on the detected broadcast power level comprises;

determining a radial distance from each of the neighboring tags based from the detected broadcast power level corresponding to the neighboring tags; and

comparing the radial distances to determine a meeting location of the radial distances when originating from corresponding ones of the neighboring tags, wherein the meeting location corresponds to the location of the unknown tag.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a memory stores a map of zones of the physical space, the locations of the first tags each comprises a respective zone, and the method further comprises:

determining that each of the zones comprises one of the first tags; and

,

determining remaining locations of the first tags from intersections of the third identifiers corresponding to the respective neighboring tags of the first tags and the map.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the intersection operation includes determining an intersection between the third identifiers and the first identifiers.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the intersection operation includes using a physical map including the locations of the first tags.