PATTERN FILTERING FOR MOBILE STATION POSITION ESTIMATION

• US 20110143772A1
• Filed: 08/27/2010
• Published: 06/16/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Blaich, Andrew C., Sridhara, Vinay, Das, Saumitra Mohan
• Granted Patent: US 8,306,552 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0252 Radio frequency fingerprinting
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0268 by deriving positions from different combinations of signals or of estimated positions in a single positioning system

Abstract

Examples disclosed herein may relate to filtering one or more signal attribute patterns from use in position estimation for a mobile station based at least in part on an error value associated with an initial estimated position of the mobile station.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining an error value associated with an initial estimate of a position of a mobile station; and

selecting one or more patterns from among a plurality of patterns associated with predetermined locations for associating with one or more wireless signals received at said mobile station, said selected one or more patterns being associated with one or more predetermined locations within a region defined by said initial estimate and said error value.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing said initial estimate of the position of the mobile station based at least in part on a plurality of individual locations for a plurality of access points.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said performing the initial estimate of the position of the mobile station comprises performing a trilateration operation based on the plurality of individual locations of the plurality of access points.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said determining the error value comprises determining the error value based at least in part on an estimated range of error related to the trilateration operation, wherein the error value is expressed as a distance from the initial estimate of the position of the mobile station.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said performing the initial estimate of the position of the mobile station is based at least in part on one or more wireless signals from a satellite positioning system (SPS).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said performing the initial estimate of the position of the mobile station is based at least in part on information from one or more sensors.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting one or more patterns comprises comparing one or more wireless signal characteristics of the received wireless signals with one or more patterns associated with one or more predetermined locations within the region defined by the error value and the initial estimate to determine a closest pattern match.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a predetermined location associated with said closest pattern match represents an improved estimate of the position of the mobile station.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said one or more wireless signal characteristics of the one or more wireless signals received at the mobile station comprises one or more signal strength characteristics.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein said one or more wireless signal characteristics of the one or more wireless signals received at the mobile station comprises one or more signal timing characteristics.

11. An article, comprising:

a computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions executable by a processing unit in a mobile station, the instructions comprising;

code to determine an error value associated with an initial estimate of a position of a mobile station; and

code to select one or more patterns from among a plurality of patterns associated with predetermined locations for associating with one or more wireless signals received at said mobile station, said selected one or more patterns being associated with one or more predetermined locations within a region defined by said initial estimate and said error value.

12. The article of claim 11, wherein the instructions further comprise code to perform said initial estimate of the position of the mobile station based at least in part on a plurality of individual locations for a plurality of access points.

13. The article of claim 12, wherein the instructions further comprise code to perform the initial estimate of the position of the mobile station at least in part by performing a trilateration operation based on the plurality of individual locations of the plurality of access points.

14. The article of claim 13, wherein the instructions further comprise code to determine the error value at least in part by determining the error value based at least in part on an estimated range of error related to the trilateration operation, wherein the error value is expressed as a distance from the initial estimate of the position of the mobile station.

15. The article of claim 11, wherein the instructions further comprise code to perform the initial estimate of the position of the mobile station based at least in part on one or more wireless signals from a satellite positioning system (SPS).

16. The article of claim 11, wherein the instructions further comprise code to perform the initial estimate of the position of the mobile station based at least in part on information from one or more sensors.

17. The article of claim 11, wherein the instructions further comprise code to select one or more patterns from among the plurality of patterns associated with predetermined locations for associating with one or more wireless signals received at said mobile station at least in part by comparing one or more wireless signal characteristics of the received wireless signals with one or more patterns associated with one or more predetermined locations within the region defined by the error value and the initial estimate to determine a closest pattern match.

18. The article of claim 17, wherein a predetermined location associated with said closest pattern match represents an improved estimate of the position of the mobile station.

19. The article of claim 17, wherein said one or more wireless signal characteristics of the one or more wireless signals received at the mobile station comprises one or more signal strength characteristics.

20. The article of claim 17, wherein said one or more wireless signal characteristics of the one or more wireless signals received at the mobile station comprises one or more signal timing characteristics.

21. A apparatus, comprising:

means for determining an error value associated with an initial estimate of a position of a mobile station; and

means for selecting one or more patterns from among a plurality of patterns associated with predetermined locations for associating with one or more wireless signals received at said mobile station, said selected one or more patterns being associated with one or more predetermined locations within a region defined by said initial estimate and said error value.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, further comprising means for performing said initial estimate of the position of the mobile station based at least in part on a plurality of individual locations for a plurality of access points.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein said means for performing the initial estimate of the position of the mobile station comprises means for performing a trilateration operation based on the plurality of individual locations of the plurality of access points.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein said means for determining the error value comprises means for determining the error value based at least in part on an estimated range of error related to the trilateration operation, wherein the error value is expressed as a distance from the initial estimate of the position of the mobile station.

25. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein said means for performing the initial estimate of the position of the mobile station comprises means for performing the initial estimate based at least in part on one or more wireless signals from a satellite positioning system (SPS).

26. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein said means for performing the initial estimate of the position of the mobile station comprises means for performing the initial estimate based at least in part on information from one or more sensors.

27. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein said means for selecting one or more patterns comprises means for comparing one or more wireless signal characteristics of the received wireless signals with one or more patterns associated with one or more predetermined locations within the region defined by the error value and the initial estimate to determine a closest pattern match.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein a predetermined location associated with said closest pattern match represents an improved estimate of the position of the mobile station.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein said one or more wireless signal characteristics of the one or more wireless signals received at the mobile station comprises one or more signal strength characteristics.

30. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein said one or more wireless signal characteristics of the one or more wireless signals received at the mobile station comprises one or more signal timing characteristics.

31. A mobile station, comprising:

a receiver to receive one or more wireless signals from one or more access points; and

a processing unit adapted to;

determine an error value associated with an initial estimate of a position of a mobile station, and

select one or more patterns from among a plurality of patterns associated with predetermined locations for associating with said one or more wireless signals received at said mobile station, said selected one or more patterns being associated with one or more predetermined locations within a region defined by said initial estimate and said error value.

32. The mobile station of claim 31, said processing unit further adapted to perform said initial estimate of the position of the mobile station based at least in part on a plurality of individual locations for a plurality of access points.

33. The mobile station of claim 32, said processing unit further adapted to perform the initial estimate of the position of the mobile station at least in part by performing a trilateration operation based on the plurality of individual locations of the plurality of access points.

34. The mobile station of claim 33, said processing unit further adapted to determine the error value based at least in part on an estimated range of error related to the trilateration operation, wherein the error value is expressed as a distance from the initial estimate of the position of the mobile station.

35. The mobile station of claim 31, said processing unit further adapted to perform the initial estimate of the position of the mobile station based at least in part on one or more wireless signals from a satellite positioning system (SPS).

36. The mobile station of claim 31, wherein said processing unit is further adapted to perform the initial estimate of the position of the mobile station based at least in part on information from one or more sensors.

37. The mobile station of claim 31, said processing unit further adapted to select one or more patterns from among the plurality of patterns associated with predetermined locations for associating with one or more wireless signals received at said mobile station at least in part by comparing one or more wireless signal characteristics of the received wireless signals with one or more patterns associated with one or more predetermined locations within the region defined by the error value and the initial estimate to determine a closest pattern match.

38. The mobile station of claim 37, wherein a predetermined location associated with said closest pattern match represents an improved estimate of the position of the mobile station.

39. The mobile station of claim 37, wherein said one or more wireless signal characteristics of the one or more wireless signals received at the mobile station comprises one or more signal strength characteristics.

40. The mobile station of claim 37, wherein said one or more wireless signal characteristics of the one or more wireless signals received at the mobile station comprises one or more signal timing characteristics.