USING RELATIVE POSITION DATA IN A MOBILE COMPUTING DEVICE

• US 20110184646A1
• Filed: 01/26/2010
• Published: 07/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Fineberg, Adam, Wong, Kean
• Granted Patent: US 8,396,661 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/300
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/017 Detecting state or type of motion
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0284 Relative positioning

Abstract

A mobile computing device comprises a relative position determination circuit, a position determination circuit, and a processing circuit. The relative position determination circuit is configured to provide relative position data from a first position of the mobile computing device to a second position of the mobile computing device. The position determination circuit is configured to provide position data representing the second geographic position of the mobile computing device. The processing circuit is configured to generate position data for the first position based on the relative position data and the position data.

Claims

1. A mobile computing device, comprising:

a relative position determination circuit configured to provide relative position data from a first position of the mobile computing device to a second position of the mobile computing device;

a position determination circuit configured to provide position data representing the second geographic position of the mobile computing device; and

a processing circuit configured to generate position data for the first position based on the relative position data and the position data.

2. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the mobile computing device is configured to provide a telephony application.

3. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the relative position determination circuit comprises at least one of a compass, an accelerometer and a gyroscope.

4. The mobile computing device of claim 3, wherein the relative position determination circuit comprises a compass, an accelerometer and a gyroscope.

5. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the position determination circuit is configured to provide position data based on data from a global positioning system.

6. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the position determination circuit is configured to provide position data based on data from a Wi-Fi access point.

7. The mobile computing device of claim 1, further comprising a camera, wherein the position data for the first position represents a position at which the camera captured digital image data.

8. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the position data is derived from image recognition of an image captured by a camera.

9. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is configured to generate the position data for the first position based on the relative position data when position data is not available from the position determination circuit at a desired time.

10. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is configured to generate the position data for the first position based on the relative position data when position data having a predetermined sufficient accuracy is not available from the position determination circuit at a desired time.

11. The mobile computing device of claim 9, wherein the desired time is a time a picture or video is taken with a camera.

12. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is configured to store position data for the first position as metadata along with a digital image captured by a camera of the mobile computing device at approximately the first position.

13. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the device is configured to initiate the storage of relative position data without requiring a user input.

14. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the relative position determination circuit is configured to receive geographic information from a geographic information database and to generate the relative position data based at least in part on the geographic information.

15. Machine-readable media having instructions stored therein which, when executed by one or more processing circuits within a device, cause the one or more processing circuits to perform a method, the method comprising:

providing relative position data from a first position of a mobile computing device to a second position of the mobile computing device;

providing absolute position data representing the second geographic position of the mobile computing device; and

generating position data for the first position based on the relative position data and the absolute position data.

16. The machine-readable media of claim 15, wherein the relative position data is provided by a dead reckoning circuit.

17. The machine-readable media of claim 15, wherein the absolute position data is based on at least one of global positioning system data and data from a Wi-Fi access point.

18. The machine-readable media of claim 15, further comprising initiating tracking of the relative position of the mobile computing device from the first position in response to a user request to capture digital image data using a camera of the mobile computing device.

19. The machine-readable media of claim 18, further comprising storing position data for the first position as metadata along with the digital image data.

20. A mobile computing device, comprising:

a housing configured to be held in a hand during use of the mobile computing device;

a camera coupled to the housing configured to acquire digital image data;

a user input device coupled to the housing;

a relative position determination circuit comprising a plurality of different sensors configured to sense movement of the mobile computing device and to generate relative position data;

an absolute position determination circuit configured to generate absolute position data for the mobile computing device; and

a processing circuit configured to receive an input signal from the user input device, to control the camera to acquire digital image data in response to the user input, to determine whether absolute position data is available or whether absolute position data having a predetermined accuracy is available, to store the relative position data based on the determination, to determine that absolute position data is available or absolute position data having a predetermined accuracy is available, to generate position data representing an approximate position that the digital image data was acquired based on the relative position data and the absolute position data, and to store the generated position data in a file associated with the acquired digital image data.

21. The mobile computing device of claim 20, wherein the absolute position determination circuit is configured to determine the absolute position data based on data from a global positioning system.

22. The mobile computing device of claim 20, wherein the mobile computing device is a smartphone.