Auto-discovery of amenities

• US 10,194,382 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2017
• Issued: 01/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BandwidthX Inc.
• Original Assignee: BandwidthX Inc.
• Inventors: Van Hamersveld, Chris
• Primary Examiner(s): Gelin, Jean A
• Application Number:
  US15/847,496
• Publication Number:
  US 20180184363A1
• Time in Patent Office: 406 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/02 Access restriction performed under specific conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point

Abstract

Automated discovery of amenities. In an embodiment, when a mobile device is inactive, the mobile device is used to automatically scan an environment, using a radio system, in order to identify one or more access points within the environment. The one or more access points are then automatically scouted by attempting to connect to and traverse each access point, to determine and record a status of each access point.

Claims

1. A method for a mobile device comprising a first radio system and a second radio system, the method comprising using at least one hardware processor of the mobile device to:

determine whether or not the mobile device is inactive; and

,

when the mobile device is determined to be inactive, over a time period during which the mobile device is inactive, scouting one or more access points by

scanning an environment of the mobile device using the second radio system to identify one or more access points, and,

for each of the one or more identified access points,

attempting to connect to the access point,

when a connection to the access point cannot be established, setting a scouting status to indicate a failure to establish a connection,

when a connection to the access point is established,

attempting to connect to the Internet via the access point,

determining whether or not a captive portal is encountered while attempting to connect to the Internet via the access point,

when no captive portal is encountered and a connection to the Internet via the access point is established, setting the scouting status to indicate that no captive portal was encountered, and,

when a captive portal is encountered while attempting to connect to the Internet via the access point,

 

attempting to traverse the captive portal using a set of instructions by

 

searching for a set of instructions associated with an identifier of the access point,

 

when the search identifies a set of instructions associated with the identifier of the access point, use the identified set of instructions to traverse the captive portal, and

 

when the search does not identify a set of instructions associated with the identifier of the access point, use a default set of instructions to traverse the captive portal,

 

when the captive portal cannot be traversed, setting the scouting status to indicate that the captive portal could not be traversed, and,

 

when the captive portal is traversed, setting the scouting status to indicate that the captive portal was traversed, and,

recording an identifier of the access point in association with the scouting status.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more access points comprises:

identifying a plurality of access points via the scan; and

including one or more access points from the plurality of access points, based on a setting that identifies a set of access points to include, to obtain the one or more identified access points.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the setting is a regular expression that matches a plurality of identifiers of access points to be included.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of identifiers comprise Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs).

5. The method of claim 1, wherein scouting one or more access points comprises scouting all open, visible access points discovered during the scan.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more access points comprises:

identifying a plurality of access points via the scan; and

,

excluding one or more of the plurality of access points from the plurality of access points, based on a setting that identifies a set of access points to exclude, to obtain the one or more identified access points.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the setting is a regular expression that matches a plurality of identifiers of access points to be excluded.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of identifiers comprise Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs).

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the at least one hardware processor to, at a future time, after scouting the one or more access points, control the second radio system to automatically connect to at least one of the one or more access points with a scouting status that indicates either that no captive portal was encountered or that the captive portal was traversed.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the at least one hardware processor to, for each of the one or more identified access points, when a captive portal is encountered that cannot be traversed, exclude the access point from future scouting for at least a predetermined amount of time.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the at least one hardware processor to:

while scouting after the mobile device has been determined to be inactive, determine whether or not the mobile device has become active again; and

,

when the mobile device is determined to be active again while scouting, responsively, stop scouting, and terminate any connection with the one or more identified access points.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether or not the mobile device is inactive comprises:

determining that the mobile device is inactive when a display of the mobile device is inactive for at least a predetermined amount of time; and

determining that the mobile device is not inactive when the display of the mobile device has not been inactive for at least the predetermined amount of time.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the at least one hardware processor to transmit a scouting list to a remote server, wherein the scouting list comprises, for each of the one or more identified access points, the recorded identifier of the access point in association with the scouting status for the access point.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein attempting to connect to the Internet via the access point comprises attempting to communicate with a remote service through the access point.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining a list of place names within a vicinity of a current location of the mobile device; and

,

for each of the one or more identified access points,

comparing a service set identifier (SSID) of the access point to the list of place names to attempt to identify at least a portion of a place name that matches at least a portion of the SSID, and,

when at least a portion of a place name that matches at least a portion of the SSID is identified, associating the place name with the SSID.

16. A method for a mobile device comprising a first radio system and a second radio system, the method comprising using at least one hardware processor to:

determine whether or not the mobile device is inactive; and

,

when the mobile device is determined to be inactive, over a time period during which the mobile device is inactive, scouting one or more access points by

scanning an environment of the mobile device using the second radio system to identify one or more access points, and,

for each of the one or more identified access points,

attempting to connect to the access point,

when a connection to the access point cannot be established, setting a scouting status to indicate a failure to establish a connection,

when a connection to the access point is established,

attempting to connect to the Internet via the access point,

determining whether or not a captive portal is encountered while attempting to connect to the Internet via the access point,

when no captive portal is encountered and a connection to the Internet via the access point is established, setting the scouting status to indicate that no captive portal was encountered, and,

when a captive portal is encountered while attempting to connect to the Internet via the access point,

 

attempting to traverse the captive portal using a set of instructions,

 

when the captive portal cannot be traversed, setting the scouting status to indicate that the captive portal could not be traversed, and,

 

when the captive portal is traversed, setting the scouting status to indicate that the captive portal was traversed, and,

recording an identifier of the access point in association with the scouting status

obtain a list of place names within a vicinity of a current location of the mobile device; and

for each of the one or more identified access points,

compare a service set identifier (SSID) of the access point to the list of place names to attempt to identify at least a portion of a place name that matches at least a portion of the SSID, by

normalizing the SSID to a first character string, and,

for each place name in the list of place names,

normalizing the place name to a second character string, and

comparing a sliding window of characters in the first character string to a sliding window of characters in the second character string, and

when at least a portion of a place name that matches at least a portion of the SSID is identified, associating the place name with the SSID.

17. A mobile device comprising:

at least one hardware processor; and

one or more software modules configured to, when executed by the at least one hardware processor,

determine whether or not the mobile device is inactive, and,

when the mobile device is determined to be inactive, over a time period during which the mobile device is inactive, scouting one or more access points by

scanning an environment of the mobile device using the second radio system to identify one or more access points, and,

for each of the one or more identified access points,

attempting to connect to the access point,

when a connection to the access point cannot be established, setting a scouting status to indicate a failure to establish a connection,

when a connection to the access point is established,

 

attempting to connect to the Internet via the access point,

 

determining whether or not a captive portal is encountered while attempting to connect to the Internet via the access point,

 

when no captive portal is encountered and a connection to the Internet via the access point is established, setting the scouting status to indicate that no captive portal was encountered, and,

 

when a captive portal is encountered while attempting to connect to the Internet via the access point,

 

attempting to traverse the captive portal using a set of instructions by

 

searching for a set of instructions associated with an identifier of the access point,

 

when the search identifies a set of instructions associated with the identifier of the access point, use the identified set of instructions to traverse the captive portal, and,

 

when the search does not identify a set of instructions associated with the identifier of the access point, use a default set of instructions to traverse the captive portal,

 

when the captive portal cannot be traversed, setting the scouting status to indicate that the captive portal could not be traversed, and,

 

when the captive portal is traversed, setting the scouting status to indicate that the captive portal was traversed, and,

recording an identifier of the access point in association with the scouting status.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored therein, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

determine whether or not the mobile device is inactive; and

,

when the mobile device is determined to be inactive, over a time period during which the mobile device is inactive, scouting one or more access points by

scanning an environment of the mobile device using the second radio system to identify one or more access points, and,

for each of the one or more identified access points,

attempting to connect to the access point,

when a connection to the access point cannot be established, setting a scouting status to indicate a failure to establish a connection,

when a connection to the access point is established,

attempting to connect to the Internet via the access point,

determining whether or not a captive portal is encountered while attempting to connect to the Internet via the access point,

when no captive portal is encountered and a connection to the Internet via the access point is established, setting the scouting status to indicate that no captive portal was encountered, and,

when a captive portal is encountered while attempting to connect to the Internet via the access point,

 

attempting to traverse the captive portal using a set of instructions by

 

searching for a set of instructions associated with an identifier of the access point,

 

when the search identifies a set of instructions associated with the identifier of the access point, use the identified set of instructions to traverse the captive portal, and,

 

when the search does not identify a set of instructions associated with the identifier of the access point, use a default set of instructions to traverse the captive portal,

 

when the captive portal cannot be traversed, setting the scouting status to indicate that the captive portal could not be traversed, and,

 

when the captive portal is traversed, setting the scouting status to indicate that the captive portal was traversed, and,

recording an identifier of the access point in association with the scouting status.