APPARATUS, METHOD, AND SYSTEM FOR SENSING SUPPRESSION FOR LOCATION-BASED APPLICATIONS

• US 20110300875A1
• Filed: 06/02/2010
• Published: 12/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Deutsche Telekom AG
• Original Assignee: Deutsche Telekom AG
• Inventors: KIM, Kyu-Han, SINGH, Jatinder Pal, ZHUANG, Zhenyun
• Granted Patent: US 8,532,670 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/16 Anti-theft; Abduction
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/47 the supplementary measurement being an inertial measurement, e.g. tightly coupled inertial
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A method is provided for managing a location sensing operation for location-based applications, including activating a first sensor disposed in the portable device so as to provide a location sensing operation requested by at least one location-based application. The method further includes periodically monitoring movement of the portable device by a second sensor disposed in the portable device, and suppressing the location sensing operation of the first sensor in accordance with the movement of the portable device detected by the second sensor.

Claims

1. A method for managing a location sensing operation for at least one location-based application executed on a portable device, comprising:

activating a first sensor disposed in the portable device so as to provide the location sensing operation requested by the at least one location-based application;

periodically monitoring movement of the portable device by a second sensor disposed in the portable device; and

suppressing the location sensing operation of the first sensor in accordance with the movement of the portable device detected by the second sensor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second sensor has a power consumption lower than that of the first sensor.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first sensor is a global positioning system (GPS) sensor.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the second sensor is an accelerometer.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(a) detecting by the second sensor the portable device has no movement; and

(b) suppressing the location sensing provided by the first sensor in response to (a).

6. The method of claim 5, wherein (a) further comprises:

comparing a first set of sensor readings provided by the second sensor at a first time interval;

comparing a second set of sensor readings provided by the second sensor at a second time interval, wherein the second time interval includes a plurality of the first time intervals; and

determining the first set of sensor readings has a first variation below a first threshold and the second set of sensor readings has a second variation below a second threshold.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first set of sensor readings includes at least two consecutive sensor readings collected at the first time interval and the second set of sensor readings is selected from the first set of sensor readings.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the first and second thresholds are equal to each other.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

(c) detecting the portable device has no movement for a plurality of consecutive second time intervals; and

(d) suppressing the location sensing provided by the first sensor in response to (c).

10. The method of claim 1, wherein suppressing the location sensing operation of the first sensor further comprises deactivating the first sensor.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein (b) further comprises unregister the first sensor.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

detecting the portable device has movement; and

activating the first sensor.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein detecting the portable device has movement further comprises detecting the first variation of the first sensor readings is over the first threshold.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein detecting the portable device has movement further comprises detecting the second variation of the second sensor readings is over the second threshold.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one location-based application has a location sensing requirement, the method further comprising:

suppressing the location sensing operation of the first sensor when the location sensing requirement of the at least one location-based application is lower than a predetermined requirement.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing a pattern of the movement of the portable device; and

adjusting the suppression in response to the pattern of the movement of the portable device.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising verifying the movement of the portable device when the location sensing operation of the first sensor is suppressed.

18. A portable device for providing at least one location-based application, comprising:

a digital processor configured to execute at least one location-based application, the location-based application requesting a location sensing operation;

a first sensor configured to execute the location sensing operation requested by the at least one location-based application; and

a second sensor configured to periodically monitor movement of the portable device,

wherein the digital processor is further configured to suppress the location sensing operation of the first sensor in accordance with the movement of the portable device detected by the second sensor.

19. The portable device of claim 18, further comprising a memory configured to store computer executable codes of the at least one location-based application and to store sensor reading collected from the second sensor.

20. The portable device of claim 19, wherein the digital process is further configured to compare the sensor readings of the second sensor collected at a first time interval and compare the sensor readings of the second sensor collected at a second time interval, wherein the second time interval includes a plurality of the first time intervals, and

wherein the digital process is further configured to deactivate the first sensor when the first set of sensor readings has a first variation below a first threshold and the second set of sensor readings has a second variation below a second threshold.

21. A computer readable medium having computer readable codes stored thereon, the computer readable codes, when executed by a digital process disposed in a portable device, managing a location sensing operation for at least one location-based application, the computer readable codes comprising:

instructions for activating a first sensor so as to provide the location sensing operation requested by the at least one location-based application;

instructions for periodically monitoring movement of the portable device based on sensor readings collected from a second sensor; and

instructions for suppressing the location sensing operation of the first sensor in accordance with the movement of the portable device detected by the first sensor.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein the computer readable codes further comprising:

instructions for comparing a first set of sensor readings of the second sensor collected at a first time interval;

instructions for comparing a second set of sensor readings of the second sensor collected at a second time interval, wherein the second time interval includes a plurality of the first time intervals; and

instructions for deactivating the sensing operation of the first sensor when the first set of sensor readings has a first variation below a first threshold and the second set of sensor readings has a second variation below a second threshold.