METHODS AND APPARATUSES FOR MOBILE STATION CENTRIC DETERMINATION OF POSITIONING ASSISTANCE DATA

• US 20120028654A1
• Filed: 07/26/2011
• Published: 02/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Gupta, Rajarshi, Khorashadi, Behrooz, Garin, Lionel James
• Granted Patent: US 9,148,763 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0236 Assistance data, e.g. base station almanac
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02521 using a radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses are provided which may be implemented in various devices to generate positioning assistance data and/or the like by mobile station with regard to at least one of a plurality of different indoor regions.

Claims

1. A method comprising, at a mobile station:

transmitting a request to a communication network for a first repository device corresponding to at least one of one or more identifiers;

receiving a description or characterization of an environment of at least a portion of a region including a rough location of the mobile station in response to the request; and

generating positioning assistance data at the mobile station for use in providing a location-based service based, at least in part, on the received description or characterization.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the description or characterization of the environment comprises a CAD file or document, and wherein generating the positioning assistance data further comprises extracting map features from the CAD file or document.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the extracted map features include one or more of:

walls;

doors and entry/exit points.

4. The method of claim 2, and further comprising, at said mobile device:

determining of feasible and infeasible regions of the map based, at least in part, on said extracted features;

determining a dense connectivity graph based, at least in part, on said determined feasible an infeasible regions;

reducing the connectivity graph into a routing graph; and

determining a probability map of the region based, at least in part, on said routing graph.

5. The method of claim 2, and further comprising, at said mobile device:

generating an electronic map suitable for presentation on a display device of the mobile station based, at least in part, on the extracted map features.

6. The method of claim 5, and further comprising, at said mobile device:

extracting one or more points of interest (POls) from said CAD file; and

annotating said electronic map for indications of said POls.

7. The method of claim 6, and further comprising, at said mobile device:

inferring a semantic meaning with at least one of said extracted POls; and

annotating POIs in said electronic map with metadata based, at least in part, on said inferred semantic meaning.

8. The method of claim 1, and further comprising, at said mobile device:

transmitting at least a second one of said one or more identifiers to a second repository device over a wireless communication network; and

in response to transmission of said at least a second one of said file location identifiers, receiving descriptions of one or more transmitters located in or transmitting into the area including said rough location.

9. The method of claim 8, and further comprising, at said mobile device:

computing a radio heatmap covering the portion of the region based, at least in part, on the received descriptions of the one or more transmitters.

10. The method of claim 8, and further comprising, at said mobile device:

determining an access point locator based, at least in part, on the received descriptions of the one or more transmitters.

11. The method of claim 1, and further comprising, at said mobile device:

transmitting a request having an indication of a rough location of the mobile station toward a directory device; and

receiving the one or more identifiers in response to the request transmitted toward the directory device.

12. The method of claim 1, and further comprising using the generated positioning assistance data at the mobile station for estimating a location of the mobile station.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the description or characterization of the environment of at least a portion of the region comprises receiving the description or characterization at the mobile station as one or more raster maps.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the positioning assistance data comprises at least a signal heatmap, probability map, routing graph, connectivity graph or feasibility graph.

15. A mobile station comprising:

a network interface; and

a processor to;

initiate transmission of a request through said network interface to a first repository device according to at least one of one or more identifiers;

obtain a description or characterization of an environment of at least a portion of a region including a rough location of the mobile station received from said network interface in response to the request; and

generate positioning assistance data for use in providing a location-based service at the mobile station based, at least in part, on the obtained description or characterization.

16. The mobile station of claim 15, wherein the description or characterization of the environment includes a description of walls and obstructions and locations of wireless transmitter devices within the region.

17. The mobile station of claim 16, wherein the wireless transmitter devices comprise a WLAN access point, Bluetooth transmitter, beacon or audio transmitter.

18. The mobile station of claim 15, wherein the description or characterization is obtained, at least in part, in a markup language format.

19. The mobile station of claim 15, wherein the description or characterization is obtained, at least in part, in one or more vector maps.

20. An article comprising:

a non-transitory storage medium having machine-readable instructions stored thereon which are executable by a special purpose computing apparatus in a mobile station to;

initiate transmission of a request from the mobile station to a first repository device according to at least one of one or more identifiers;

obtain a description or characterization of an environment of at least a portion of a region including the rough location received at the mobile station in response to the request; and

generate positioning assistance data at the mobile station for use in providing a location-based service at the mobile station based, at least in part, on the obtained description or characterization.

21. The article of claim 20, wherein the description or characterization of the environment comprises a CAD file or document, and wherein the positioning assistance data is generated, at least in part, by extraction of map features from the CAD file.

22. The article of claim 21, wherein the machine-readable instructions are further executable by the special purpose computing apparatus to:

generate an electronic map suitable for presentation on a display device of the mobile station based, at least in part, on the extracted map features.

23. The article of claim 20, wherein the machine-readable instructions are further executable by the special purpose computing apparatus to:

initiate transmission of a request from the mobile station to a directory device having an indication of a rough location of the mobile station; and

obtain the one or more identifiers in response to the request transmitted to the directory device.

24. An apparatus comprising:

means for transmitting a request from a mobile station to a communication network for a first repository device according to at least one of one or more identifiers;

means for receiving a description or characterization of an environment of at least a portion of a region including a rough location of the mobile station in response to the request; and

means for generating positioning assistance data at the mobile station for use in providing a location-based service at the mobile station based, at least in part, on the received description or characterization.