POWER-EFFICIENT ACTIVATION OF A DEVICE MOVEMENT SENSOR MODULE

• US 20130158867A1
• Filed: 12/14/2011
• Published: 06/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sidhu, Gursharan S., Agarwal, Sharad
• Granted Patent: US 9,429,657 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/472
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/12 executed aboard the object being navigated; Dead reckoning
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/28 with correlation of data from several navigational instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/34 Power consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/45 by combining measurements of signals from the satellite radio beacon positioning system with a supplementary measurement
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/46 the supplementary measurement being of a radio-wave signal type
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/47 the supplementary measurement being an inertial measurement, e.g. tightly coupled inertial
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/49 whereby the further system is an inertial position system, e.g. loosely-coupled

Abstract

The functionality described herein allows a user device to determine an appropriate juncture at which to initiate processing within a GNSS dead zone in an energy-efficient manner. In one implementation, the functionality employs a sensor management module for determining when to activate a device movement sensor module provided by a user device. When activated, the user device uses the device movement sensor module to perform any environment-specific processing, such as a dead-reckoning process for determining incremental positions within the venue. Further, in a crowd-sourcing application, the user device may report the incremental positions together with beacon information to remote processing functionality.

Claims

1. A method, performed by computing functionality, for managing a user device, comprising:

identifying a region associated with a current position of the user device, to provide an identified region, the identified region corresponding to one of a plurality of regions, each region corresponding to a respective range of distances from a venue;

selecting a probing technique associated with the identified region;

performing the probing technique to determine a new current position of the user device; and

repeating said identifying, selecting, and performing at least one additional time.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein said repeating is performed until it is determined, based on the new current position, that the user device has reached a region associated with the venue;

and

turning on a device movement sensor module of the user device when it is determined that the user device has reached the region associated with the venue.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising using at least a dead-reckoning technique within the venue to determine a series of positions that are traversed by the user device within the venue, based on output of the device movement sensor.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

collecting information regarding the positions determined by the dead-reckoning technique within the venue, together with beacon information associated with those incremental positions, to provide collected information; and

sending the collected information to remote processing functionality.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the probing technique comprises:

determining that functionality is invoked which assesses a position of the user device for a purpose that is unrelated to said probing, to provide an assessed position,

the assessed position comprising the new current position of the user device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the probing technique comprises:

determining that a user has checked in at a particular site; and

identifying a site position associated with the site,

the new current position of the user device comprising the site position.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the probing technique comprises:

receiving beacon information associated with at least one wireless signal source;

comparing the beacon information with venue information associated with the venue, to provide a comparison result; and

providing the new current position based on the comparison result.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the probing technique comprises:

receiving a position from a global navigation satellite system (GNSS), to provide a GNSS-derived position,

the new current position of the user device comprising the GNSS-derived position.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a wireless signal transmitted by a short-range beacon; and

determining the current position of the user device based on a known position associated with the short-range beacon.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating positions using the probing technique at a frequency that depends on a distance between the user device and the venue.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating positions using the probing technique at a frequency that depends on a manner in which the user device is moving.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving venue information associated with a set of venues; and

performing the method with respect to each venue identified in the set of venues.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a quota, the quota defining an amount of work to be performed by the user device in association with one or more information collection sessions; and

terminating said performing of the probing technique if an amount of work that has been performed meets the quota.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a battery level of the user device; and

terminating said performing of the probing technique if the battery level is below a prescribed threshold.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

inferring a state of the user device; and

terminating said performing of the probing technique if the state indicates that the user device is not moving.

16. A sensor management module, implemented by computing functionality, for managing activation of a device movement sensor module provided by a user device, comprising:

logic configured to receive venue information associated with at least one venue;

logic configured to determine a current position of the user device using at least one probing technique;

logic configured to turn on the device movement sensor module when it is determined, based on the current position, that a user has reached a prescribed region associated with the venue; and

logic configured to activate at least a dead-reckoning technique to generate positions, using the device movement sensor module.

17. The sensor management module of claim 16, further comprising:

logic configured to receive a quota, the quota defining an amount of work to be performed by the user device in association with one or more information collection sessions; and

logic configured to provide collected information to remote processing functionality based on the positions generated by the dead-reckoning technique, providing that a current amount of work that has been performed is below the quota.

18. A computer readable storage medium for storing computer readable instructions, the computer readable instructions providing processing functionality when executed by one or more processing devices, the computer readable instructions comprising:

logic configured to determine a set of venues for at least one user device, each venue corresponding to a region in which the user device is asked to provide collected information, the collected information comprising positions in association with beacon information;

logic configured to determine a quota for the user device, the quota defining an amount of work that the user device is allowed to perform in providing the collected information;

logic configured to disseminate venue information and quota information to the user device, the venue information providing information regarding the set of venues assigned to the user device, and the quota information describing the quota assigned to the user device; and

logic configured to receive collected information from the user device, the collected information being collected by the user device within at least one of the venues specified in the set of venues.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18, further comprising logic configured to define at least one characteristic of venue information associated with at least one venue, based on crowd-sourced collected information received from a plurality of user devices.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18, further comprising logic configured to confer at least one reward to a user associated with the user device in response to receipt of collected information from the user device, indicating that the user device has entered at least one venue in the set of venues assigned to the user device.