Energy efficient location tracking on smart phones

• US 10,531,390 B2
• Filed: 02/10/2018
• Issued: 01/07/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dai, Jing, Li, Ming, Naphade, Milind R., Sahu, Sambit
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Dinh
• Application Number:
  US15/893,587
• Publication Number:
  US 20180167887A1
• Time in Patent Office: 696 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/34 Power consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/47 the supplementary measurement being an inertial measurement, e.g. tightly coupled inertial
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/48 by combining or switching between position solutions derived from the satellite radio beacon positioning system and position solutions derived from a further system
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/012 Identifying whether indoors or outdoors
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/015 between indoor and outdoor environments
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/017 Detecting state or type of motion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/24 Arrangements for testing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/10 including a GPS signal receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/30 Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0251 using monitoring of local events, e.g. events related to user activity
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A GPS-enabled cellular electronic device is operated in an indoor mode. An increase in strength of a cellular signal is detected at the GPS-enabled cellular electronic device. Responsive at least to the increase in cellular signal strength, the GPS-enabled cellular electronic device is transitioned to an outdoor testing mode. Detecting is carried out to determine whether movement of the GPS-enabled cellular electronic device occurs during the outdoor testing mode. If so, the GPS-enabled cellular electronic device is transitioned to an outdoor mode.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

operating a GPS-enabled cellular electronic device in a first mode;

receiving, by a cellular transceiver module of the GPS-enabled cellular electronic device, a cellular signal;

detecting, by a processor of the GPS-enabled cellular electronic device, movement of the GPS-enabled cellular electronic device upon determining that a sample of strength of the cellular signal has changed relative to a preceding sample thereof and that an absolute value of a difference of the sample of the strength of the cellular signal from a mean value of the strength of the cellular signal exceeds a threshold based on the strength of the cellular signal; and

transitioning the GPS-enabled cellular electronic device to a second mode upon detection of the movement,

wherein a GPS module of the GPS-enabled cellular electronic device in the first mode it is powered on at a first frequency and in the second mode is powered on at a second frequency, wherein the second frequency is greater than the first frequency, thereby conserving power of the GPS-enabled cellular electronic device when in the first mode, the method further comprising;

powering an accelerometer of the GPS-enabled cellular electronic device in the second mode; and

transitioning the GPS-enabled cellular electronic device to a third mode upon detecting, by the accelerometer, movement while the GPS-enabled cellular electronic device is in the second mode,

wherein the GPS module of the GPS-enabled cellular electronic device in the third mode is powered on at a third frequency greater than the first and second frequencies.