Architecture and system for location awareness

• US 20040193707A1
• Filed: 03/28/2003
• Published: 09/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Shafer, Steven A.N., Moore, Timothy M., Alam, Mohammad Shabbir, Krumm, John C., Teodorescu, Florin, Barkley, Warren Vincent, Pease, Geoffrey E., Yao, Yinghua, Pawar, Madhurima
• Granted Patent: US 7,536,695 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/10 Technologies improving the efficiency by using switched-mode power supplies [SMPS], i.e. efficient power electronics conversion e.g. power factor correction or reduction of losses in power supplies or efficient standby modes

Abstract

A location service and method provides a location aware computing device that is extensible by allowing different types of location awareness providers operate with the service. The method includes receiving a request for a location context, acquiring data associated with a current location from one or more location detection devices, reconciling the acquired data for any inconsistencies concerning the current location by applying either or both of a hierarchical and a metric process, and generating a location object accessible to applications. The service includes a location management component configured to route location data, a fuser engine configured to receive one or more location reports generated from the location data, reconcile conflicts between the location reports and generate a location object, and one or more location application programming interfaces (APIs) coupled to the location management component to transmit the location object from the fuser engine to an application.

Claims

1. A method of operating a computer-implemented service comprising:

receiving a request for a location context of the computing device;

acquiring data associated with a current location from one or more location detection devices;

reconciling the acquired data for any inconsistencies concerning the current location by applying at least one process to the acquired data; and

generating a location object accessible to one or more applications, the location object including a reconciled location context for the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the process is one or more of a hierarchical, metric, string concatentation, union, intersection, uncertainty handling and inconsistency resolving process.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to receiving the acquired data, transmitting the acquired data according to predetermined metrics to one or more resolvers that are available and capable of resolving the acquired data.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the reconciled location context is encapsulated in a location object obtainable by

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to receiving a generated location object, transmitting the location object to the applications according to a register of locations associated with the applications.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprises:

assigning a priority to the acquired data according to a trustworthiness of the acquired data.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the trustworthiness is assigned by a user.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the trustworthiness is assigned by determining whether the acquired data has a secure digital signature.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving a request for a location context includes:

receiving a location identifier at a notification component, the notification component

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more location detection providers include at least one of an 802.11 type provider, a network location awareness (NLA) provider, a global position service (GPS) provider, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) provider data, and a Bluetooth provider.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the reconciling the acquired data includes applying one or more statistical processes to the acquired data to determine a most likely location context.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the statistical processes include a weighted averaging of possible location contexts.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the location object is generated by a fuser engine within the computer-implemented service.

14. A service comprising:

a location management component configured to route location data;

a fuser engine coupled to the location management component, the fuser engine configured to receive one or more location reports generated from the location data, reconcile conflicts between the location reports and generate a location object; and

one or more location application programming interfaces (APIs) coupled to the location management component, at least one of the location application programming interfaces configured to transmit the location object from the fuser engine to an application, the location object configured to dynamically provide to the application a location context for a computer running the service.

15. The service of claim 14 wherein at least one of the location APIs are coupled to at least one provider plugin configured to receive the location data from a provider of raw location data, the provider plugin configured to normalize the raw location data.

16. The service of claim 14 wherein the location APIs include at least one location API configured to allow the application to query for the location context of the computer running the service.

17. The service of claim 14 wherein the location APIs include at least one location API configured to specify functions to be implemented by a plugin to register with the service.

18. The service of claim 14 wherein the location APIs include at least one location API configured to receive the location data from one or more of the fuser engine, a location cache, a plugin manager and a master resolver, said location API configured to pass the location data to the application.

19. The service of claim 14 wherein the location APIs include at least one location API configured to allow parameters of the service be configured.

20. The service of claim 14 wherein the location APIs include at least one location API configured to add and remove plugins to the service.

21. The service of claim 14 wherein the location APIs include at least one location API configured to allow the application to register for notification when the location context of the computer running the service changes.

22. The service of claim 14 wherein the location APIs include at least one location API configured to send and receive the location data to and from at least one plugin, the plugin configured to add rich content based on the location data and based on inferred context data.

23. The service of claim 22 wherein the plugin is a user-defined default plugin.

24. The service of claim 14 wherein the location management component includes:

a plugin manager configured to route the location information; and

a master resolver coupled to the plugin manager, the master resolver configured to assign the location information to one or more resolvers appropriate for the location information.

25. A method for providing dynamic location information to an application program, the method comprising:

receiving from the application program a request for location context data;

dynamically collecting location context data from one or more providers;

reconciling the location context data according to a statistical function to resolve any inconsistencies; and

returning to the application program resolved location context data.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the statistical function is a best guess function.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein the dynamically collecting location context data is performed by a location management component configured to collect the location context data and distribute the location context data for the reconciling.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the location management component is configured to receive location context data from one or more providers and one or more resolvers.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein the providers include plug-ins that communicate raw location information to the location management component including wireless location data including one or more of an access point and a signal strength associated with the access point.

30. The method of claim 28 wherein the providers include plug-ins that communicate raw location information to the location management component including one or more of 802.11 type provider data, network location awareness provider data, GPS provider data, GPRS provider data, Bluetooth provider data, and active directory data

31. The method of claim 30 wherein the active directory data includes media access control (MAC) address code identifying one or more locations of access points.

32. The method of claim 25 further comprising:

storing the location context data in a database, the database configured to hold at least one of a history of the location context data, user-specific data, and application-specified data.

33. The method of claim 25 wherein the location context data includes:

device specific location information previously transmitted to a provider from a sensor specific device;

source specific information previously transmitted to a resolver from a service;

location information used internally by the service;

location information presented to the application when the

34. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for enabling awareness of a location context of a computer system, the computer-executable instructions performing acts comprising:

receiving a request for a location context of the computing device;

acquiring data associated with a current location from one or more location detection devices;

reconciling the acquired data for any inconsistencies; and

generating a location object accessible to one or more applications, the location object including a reconciled location context for the computing device.

35. A method for generating rich location context reports from data received from at least one of a plurality of location providers, the plurality of location providers following a plurality of incompatible protocols, the method comprising:

upon receiving a notification of availability of a set of location reports from one or more of the location providers, retrieving the set of location reports;

for each location report in the set of location reports, determining whether a resolver is capable and available to interpret the location report and has not exceeded a predetermined number of iterations;

if a resolver is capable, available and has not exceeded the predetermined number of iterations, transmitting the location report to the resolver;

receiving from one or more resolvers one or more rich location reports associated the incompatible protocols;

combining the rich location reports into a set of rich location reports, each rich location report in the set of rich location reports according to a standardized data structure; and

transmitting the set of rich location reports to a fuser engine.

36. The method of claim 35 further comprising:

receiving from the fuser engine a location object; and

writing the set of rich location reports to a notification service.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein the notification service is disposed within a file system.

38. The method of claim 35 wherein one or more of the predetermined time and the predetermined number of iterations are configurable by a user via a user interface.

39. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for enabling generation of rich location context reports from data received from at least one of a plurality of location providers, the plurality of location providers following a plurality of incompatible protocols awareness of a location context of a computer system, the computer-executable instructions performing acts comprising:

upon receiving a notification of availability of a set of location reports from one or more of the location providers, retrieving the set of location reports;

for each location report in the set of location reports, determining whether a resolver is capable and available to interpret the location report and has not exceeded a predetermined number of iterations;

if a resolver is capable, available and has not exceeded the predetermined number of iterations, transmitting the location report to the resolver;

receiving from one or more resolvers one or more rich location reports associated the incompatible protocols;

combining the rich location reports into a set of rich location reports, each rich location report in the set of rich location reports according to a standardized data structure; and

transmitting the set of rich location reports to a fuser engine.

40. The computer readable medium of claim 39 wherein the acts further comprise:

receiving from the fuser engine a location object; and

notifying a notification dispatcher that the location object is available to one or more applications.

41. The computer readable medium of claim 39 wherein the acts further comprise transmitting the rich location reports to the fuser engine after a predetermined time.

42. The method of claim 41 wherein one or more of the predetermined time and the predetermined number of iterations are configurable by a user via a user interface.