Location source ranking for determining device location

• US 10,255,328 B2
• Filed: 10/09/2013
• Issued: 04/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Hassan, Amer A., Deason, Neil A., Olivier, Carl S., Kuntz, Roy D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Shahid A
• Application Number:
  US14/050,187
• Publication Number:
  US 20150100589A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,008 Days
• Field of Search: 707748
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

Techniques for location source ranking for determining device location are described. A location source generally refers to a source of position information (e.g., GPS coordinates, latitude and longitude, street addresses, and so forth) that can be used to determine a geographical location of a device. According to one or more embodiments, location sources and/or combinations of location sources can be ranked based on various criteria. Thus, when a location is requested for a particular device, a highest ranking available location source or combination of location sources can be selected to determine a location of the device. Location source rankings, for instance, can be maintained on a client device and/or via a remote location-related service. According to various embodiments, a location of a device can be determined to enable emergency assistance to be provided at the location.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one processor; and

one or more computer-readable storage media including instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by the at least one processor, cause the system perform operations including;

receiving a request for a location of a device;

identifying available location sources that are available to provide position information for the device;

selecting a combination of the available location sources based on rankings of the respective available location sources;

defining a target geographic zone for the device by utilizing an overlapping geographic zone and excluding a non-overlapping geographic zone from the combination of the selected available location sources, including;

determining a first location of the device utilizing a first location source of the selected available location sources;

determining a second location of the device utilizing a second, different location source of the selected available location sources; and

defining the target geographic zone using the overlapping geographic zone and excluding the non-overlapping geographic zone from the first location and the second location; and

determining the location of the device using the target geographic zone.

2. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the request for the location of the device is pursuant to a request for emergency assistance from a user of the device.

3. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the request for the location of the device is pursuant to one or more of:

a periodic request generated by the device for a location of the device;

or

a request from a remote service for a location of the device and independent of a request by the device.

4. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the available location sources comprise position information systems that are available at a time of the request to provide position information for the device.

5. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the rankings are specified by one or more of a client location policy or a server location policy.

6. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the rankings include at least one combination of location sources ranked against at least one individual location source.

7. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the operations further include:

ascertaining based on one or more location policies whether to determine the location of the device via the device or via a remote service;

in an event that the location is to be determined via the device, performing said determining the location of the device via the device; and

in an event that the location is to be determined via the remote service, performing said determining the location of the device via the remote service.

8. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein said identifying comprises identifying via the device types and attributes of the available location sources, the operations further including:

transmitting the types and attributes of the available location sources to a remote location service; and

receiving a notification from the remote location service of which of the available location sources to use to determine the location of the device.

9. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein said determining comprises:

receiving at a remote service a device-determined location of the device; and

ascertaining at the remote service a service-determined location of the device, wherein the combination of available location sources comprises the device-determined location and the service-determined location.

10. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the available location sources include multiple remote location services, and wherein said selecting comprises selecting at least one of the remote location services based on its ranking relative to at least one other of the remote location services.

11. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a request for a location of a device;

ascertaining at a remote location-related service independent from the client device and based on one or more location policies whether to determine the location of the device via the device or via a remote service, wherein the one or more location policies are pre-configured to specify whether to determine the location via the device or via the remote service; and

determining the location of the device at one of the device or the remote service and utilizing a combination of location sources selected from a ranked set of location sources, said determining including;

defining a target geographic zone for the location of the device by utilizing an overlapping geographic zone and excluding a non-overlapping geographic zone from the combination of location sources by;

determining a first location of the device utilizing a first location source of the combination of location sources;

determining a second location of the device utilizing a second, different location source of the combination of location sources; and

defining the target geographic zone using the overlapping geographic zone and excluding the non-overlapping geographic zone from the first location and the second location; and

determining the location of the device using the target geographic zone.

12. A method as described in claim 11, wherein the one or more location policies are pre-configured to specify that if one or more resources of the device are below a specified threshold, the location of the device is to be determine via the remote service.

13. A method as described in claim 12, wherein the one or more resources of the device comprise at least one of a battery charge level, a memory resource, or a processor resource.

14. A method as described in claim 11, wherein the one or more location policies are user configurable to specify whether to determine the location of the device via the device or via the remote service.

15. A method as described in claim 11, wherein the request for the location of the device is pursuant to a request for emergency services, and wherein the method further comprises one or more of:

identifying an available emergency service based on the location of the device;

or

notifying the available emergency of the location of the device.

16. A method comprising:

receiving a request for a location of a device;

identifying location sources that are available to provide position information for the device;

selecting a combination of the location sources based on rankings of the respective location sources;

defining a target geographic zone for the location of the device by utilizing an overlapping geographic zone and excluding a non-overlapping geographic zone from the combination of the location sources, including;

determining a first location of the device utilizing a first location source of the combination of the location sources;

determining a second location of the device utilizing a second, different location source of the combination of the location sources; and

defining the target geographic zone using the overlapping geographic zone and excluding the non-overlapping geographic zone from the first location and the second location; and

determining a location of the device using the target geographic zone.

17. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein the request for the location of the device is pursuant to a request for emergency assistance from the device.

18. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein the request for the location of the device is pursuant to one or more of:

a periodic request generated by the device for a location of the device;

or

a request from a remote service for a location of the device and independent of a request by the device.

19. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein the rankings include at least one combination of location sources ranked against at least one individual location source.

20. A method as recited in claim 16, further comprising:

ascertaining based on one or more location policies whether to determine the location of the device via the device or via a remote service;

in an event that the location is to be determined via the device, performing said determining the location of the device via the device; and

in an event that the location is to be determined via the remote service, performing said determining the location of the device via the remote service.