Location tracking of portable devices in a wireless network
First Claim
1. A method for opportunistically tracking the location of a portable device in a wireless infrastructure comprising at least one fixed station operable to communicate wirelessly with said portable device, comprising:
- the portable device providing its unique device identifier to the station when within communication range of said station, generating association data comprising the unique identifier with the location of said station, and uploading said associated data via a backchannel to a remote database wherein said data is stored.
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Abstract
A method and system for anonymously and opportunistically tracking the location of a portable device in a wireless infrastructure is described. The system comprises an installed infrastructure (12) in for example a shopping mall, the infrastructure having short range radio stations (14a,14b) primarily installed as wireless information access points. Standard communication between a users device (10a) and a station (14a) is according to a short range radio protocol such as ZigBee in which devices are assigned unique identifiers. In an exchange, the identifier is correlated with location, time and date data and uploaded via a backchannel connection (16) to a database (20) which a user may connect with at a later time. The user, knowing his objects identifier, can therefore access the data to determine where his object last interacted with a station.
79 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method for opportunistically tracking the location of a portable device in a wireless infrastructure comprising at least one fixed station operable to communicate wirelessly with said portable device, comprising:
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the portable device providing its unique device identifier to the station when within communication range of said station, generating association data comprising the unique identifier with the location of said station, and uploading said associated data via a backchannel to a remote database wherein said data is stored. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14)
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- 8. A system for opportunistically tracking the location of a portable device having a unique identifier associated therewith, comprising a wireless infrastructure having at least one fixed station, station receiving means for receiving the unique identifier transmitted by said portable device when within communication range, generation means for generating association data comprising the unique identifier with the location of said station, and uploading means for uploading said generated associated data via a backchannel to a remote database wherein said data is stored.
Specification