Resource location through location history

• US 20070298715A1
• Filed: 05/31/2007
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Lusher, Elaine, Blight, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,613,428 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/27 for locating or positioning the transmitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for locating resources available to portable electronic devices which are enabled for short range wireless communications. The system and method include creating and accessing a resource and access location history database accessible via the portable electronic device.

Claims

1-26. -26. (canceled)

27. A computing device, comprising:

a radio frequency transceiver configured to detect a plurality of nearby wireless local area network access points;

a location determination circuit; and

a processing circuit configured to receive an address from each of the plurality of nearby access points, to provide a location of each of the access points based on signals from the location determination circuit, and to store the addresses and associated locations in a database.

28. The computing device of claim 27, wherein the radio frequency transceiver operates according to an IEEE 802.11 standard and the addresses are MAC addresses.

29. The computing device of claim 27, wherein the location determination circuit comprises a global positioning system receiver.

30. The computing device of claim 27, wherein the location determination circuit is configured to triangulate the location of the access points.

31. The computing device of claim 27, wherein the processing circuit is configured to provide signal strengths of signals received from the access points.

32. The computing device of claim 31, wherein the processing circuit is configured to store a timestamp of detection of the nearby access points.

33. The computing device of claim 27, wherein the processing circuit is configured to compress the addresses and associated locations in the database.

34. The computing device of claim 27, further comprising the database, wherein the database is coupled to the computing device.

35. The computing device of claim 27, wherein the computing device is configured to transmit the addresses and associated locations through a wireless network to a remote site.

36. A method, comprising:

detecting wireless local area network access points;

receiving address data from the access points;

calculating location data for the access points; and

storing the location data and associated address data in a database.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the step of detecting comprises receiving signals according to an IEEE 802.11 standard and wherein the address data comprises MAC addresses.

38. The method of claim 36, wherein the step of calculating location data comprises receiving signals from global positioning system satellites.

39. The method of claim 36, wherein the step of calculating location data comprises triangulating a location.

40. The method of claim 36, further comprising calculating signal strengths of signals received from the access points.

41. The method of claim 36, further comprising storing timestamps based on times of detection of the wireless access points.

42. The method of claim 36, further comprising compressing the addresses and associated locations in the database.

43. The method of claim 36, further comprising storing the database of location data and associated address data on a network-based memory.

44. A mobile computing device configured to query the database of claim 36.

45. The mobile computing device of claim 44, further comprising a mobile telephony circuit.

46. The mobile computing device of claim 44, further comprising a housing configured to be carried in a hand during use.

47. The mobile computing device of claim 44, wherein the mobile computing device is configured to query the database for location data.

48. The mobile computing device of claim 47, wherein the mobile computing device is configured to display the location data on a graphical navigation tool.