ACCURACY ASSESSMENT FOR LOCATION ESTIMATION SYSTEMS

• US 20100324813A1
• Filed: 06/17/2009
• Published: 12/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Barto, Michael, Sundararajan, Arjun
• Granted Patent: US 8,521,429 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/208
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/021 Calibration, monitoring or correction G01S5/0252 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02527 Detecting or resolving anomalies in the radio frequency fingerprints of the radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location

Abstract

Assessing the accuracy of location estimation systems. A mobile computing device provides location information including a device location (e.g., via GPS) and one or more wireless network beacons accessible by the computing device at the device location. The wireless network beacons accessible by the computing device are compared to stored post information including a plurality of beacon lists. An estimated device location is determined based on the comparison. The estimated device location is compared to the known device location. A difference between the estimated device location and the received device location is determined based on the comparison. An analysis of the determined difference is performed to generate accuracy maps and other insight into the relationship between accuracy and geographic area for the location estimation systems.

Claims

1. A system for assessing the accuracy of a location estimation system, said system comprising:

a memory area for storing post information including a plurality of locations each having a list of wireless network beacons accessible therefrom; and

a processor programmed to;

receive, from a mobile computing device, location information comprising a device location associated with the mobile computing device, said location information further identifying one or more wireless network beacons accessible by the mobile computing device at the device location;

search the post information stored in the memory area based on the identified wireless network beacons to identify one or more of the plurality of locations;

determine a location for the mobile computing device based on the identified one or more of the plurality of locations;

compare the determined location with the received device location;

determine a difference between the determined location and the received device location based on said comparing; and

modify the post information in the memory area as a function of the determined difference.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to store the received location information in the memory area as part of the post information.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to:

quantify the determined difference; and

generate an accuracy map having represented thereon the quantified difference associated with the received device location.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for using crowd-sourced data to determine the accuracy of the location estimation system.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for obtaining the post information.

6. A method comprising:

receiving, from a computing device, location information comprising a device location associated with the computing device, said location information further identifying one or more wireless network beacons accessible by the computing device at the device location;

maintaining post information including a plurality of locations each having a list of wireless network beacons accessible therefrom;

comparing the received location information with the maintained post information to determine an estimated device location;

comparing the estimated device location with the received device location;

determining a difference between the estimated device location and the received device location based on said comparing the estimated device location with the received device location; and

modifying said maintained post information based on said determined difference.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising generating an accuracy map having represented thereon the determined difference associated with the received device location.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein receiving the location information comprises receiving one or more of the following:

crowd-sourced data and war driving data.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein comparing the received location information with the maintained post information comprises comparing the identified wireless network beacons with the list of wireless network beacons to determine the estimated device location.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein comparing the received location information with the maintained post information comprises:

define a location for each of the identified wireless network beacons based at least on the maintained post information; and

determining the estimated device location based on the defined locations.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the estimated device location comprises triangulating the estimated device location based on the defined locations.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein determining the difference comprises defining an error distance between the device location and the estimated device location.

13. The method of claim 6, further comprising defining an average accuracy radius for the device location based on the maintained post information.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein receiving the location information comprises receiving a list of one or more wireless network beacons comprising one or more of the following:

a cellular network tower, a router, a wireless access point, and a network access point.

15. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable components, said components comprising:

an interface component that when executed by at least one processor causes the at least one processor to receive, from a computing device, location information comprising a device location associated with the computing device, said location information further identifying one or more wireless network beacons accessible by the computing device at the device location;

a memory component that when executed by at least one processor causes the at least one processor to maintain post information including a plurality of locations each having a list of wireless network beacons accessible therefrom;

an estimator component that when executed by at least one processor causes the at least one processor to define a location for each of the identified wireless network beacons based at least on the post information maintained by the memory component, said estimator component further determining an estimated device location based on the defined locations;

an analytic component for comparing the estimated device location with the received device location to determine a difference between the estimated device location and the received device location; and

a feedback component for modifying said maintained post information based on said determined difference.

17. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the estimator component includes a query service.

16. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the memory component includes a post service.

18. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the analytic component includes one or more performance counters.

19. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the interface component receives the location information from a plurality of mobile computing devices, wherein the location information represents crowd-sourced data.

20. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the analytic component ranks the plurality of locations based on said determined difference.