LOCATION BASED ROUTER

• US 20140164124A1
• Filed: 05/10/2013
• Published: 06/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Rhoads, Geoffrey B.
• Granted Patent: US 9,629,118 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.58
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A location based router system comprises a router in communication with an ad hoc network of devices, including at least one mobile device. The router directs packets from the network to associated agents. The router receives queries from requesting clients, such as the mobile device, and provides location to the requesting client. Additionally, depending on preferences of the client, it also routes market packets for location based services back to the mobile device dependent on its location.

A method of providing location based service to a mobile device in a wireless network. The method receives a query for location in the wireless network from the wireless device. The query includes an opt-in level for participating in offers for location based services. Mobile device location computed from packets transmitted between the mobile device and nodes in the wireless network is determined. The method provides a data structure comprising location, opt in level, and mobile device user information to a market for services, where the market for services determines an associated service based on the location, opt in level and mobile device user information and adds metadata for the associated service to the data structure to produce a response structure, enabling the user device to obtain the associated service.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a router executing on one or more processing units;

a grouping agent in communication with the router and executing on one more processing units, for managing an ad hoc network of nodes, including at least one mobile device node;

a packet processing agent in communication with the router and executing on one more processing units, for receiving packets originating from the ad hoc network of nodes, and for preparing information from the packets for determining location of the mobile device node; and

solution agent in communication with the router and executing on one or more processing units, for processing information prepared by the packet processing agent to determine location of the mobile device node.

2. The system of claim 1 including a pair filtering agent executing on one or more processing units, for determining from one or more of the packets whether communication between a pair of nodes in the network is sufficient to use signal transmissions between the nodes in the pair for determining location of the mobile device.

3. The system of claim 1 further including an agent registry in communication with the router for managing active agents to which the router sends packets for determining the location of the mobile device.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the router is in communicating with the mobile device node for receiving a query to determine location of the mobile device, wherein the router routes packets from the ad hoc network of nodes to determine location of the mobile device in response to the query, and the router routes one or more market packets to the mobile device to provide location based services to the mobile device based on the location of the mobile device.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the ad hoc network of nodes changes over time as the mobile device makes new connections with wireless network nodes, and wherein the grouping agent updates the wireless network nodes from which data is used to determine the location of the mobile device.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the mobile device comprises a Wi-Fi transmitting device, and the wireless network nodes comprise Wi-Fi modules that transmit and receive signals with each other in pairs, capture transmit and receipt data for these signals, and send the transmit and receive data in packets to the router for determining the location of the mobile device.

7. A method of providing location based service to a mobile device in a wireless network comprising:

from the wireless device, receiving a query for location in the wireless network, the query including an opt-in level for participating in offers for location based services;

receiving location computed from packets transmitted between the mobile device and nodes in the wireless network;

providing a data structure comprising location, opt in level, and mobile device user information to a market for services, where the market for services determines an associated service based on the location, opt in level and mobile device user information and adds metadata for the associated service to the data structure to produce a response structure, enabling the user device to obtain the associated service.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

creating an extensible data structure for the query, the data structure including the opt in level, user identification and user preferences;

sharing the extensible data structure with one or more agents, the agents including an agent for providing location and adding the location to the extensible data structure, and an agent for adding metadata corresponding to an offer obtained from an electronic exchange for determining offers for location based queries.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising a location solution agent for determining the location of the mobile device from data gathered from packets exchanged between the mobile device and the nodes in the wireless network.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising an agent for executing an auction to determine the offer from the electronic exchange.

11. The method of claim 7 further including:

executing a cloud side companion agent corresponding to the session, the cloud side companion executing remotely from the mobile device to track location of the mobile device based on packets exchanged between the mobile device and nodes in the network and obtaining location based offers for the mobile device, the cloud side companion agent exchanging location and offers when queried by a corresponding application on the mobile device.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the cloud side companion agent is in communication with a database of historical information about sessions of the mobile device, and operable to determine the location based offers based on the historical information about the sessions.

13. The method of claim 7 wherein the permission indicates one of at least two opt in levels comprising permission to provide location while maintaining anonymity of the user of the mobile device, and permission to provide location and an offer based on identity of the user of the mobile device.

14. A method of providing location based service to a mobile device comprising:

issuing a request to connect to a wireless network;

initiating a network session with the wireless network providing a permission to the wireless network, the permission defining an opt-in level for participating in market side offers of location based services,

communicating with nodes in the wireless network;

making a query for location to the wireless network;

receiving location computed from packets transmitted between the mobile device and the nodes in the wireless network, the location being associated with an offer obtained from a location based service exchange in response to the location query and permission.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

creating an extensible data structure for the query, the data structure including the opt in level, user identification and user preferences;

sharing the extensible data structure with one or more agents, the agents including an agent for providing location and adding the location to the extensible data structure, and an agent for adding metadata corresponding to an offer obtained from an electronic exchange for determining offers for location based queries.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising a location solution agent for determining the location of the mobile device from data gathered from packets exchanged between the mobile device and the nodes in the wireless network.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising an agent for executing an auction to determine the offer from the electronic exchange.

18. The method of claim 14 further including:

executing a cloud side companion agent corresponding to the session, the cloud side companion executing remotely from the mobile device to track location of the mobile device based on packets exchanged between the mobile device and nodes in the network and obtaining location based offers for the mobile device, the cloud side companion agent exchanging location and offers when queried by a corresponding application on the mobile device.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the cloud side companion agent is in communication with a database of historical information about sessions of the mobile device, and operable to determine the location based offers based on the historical information about the sessions.

20. The method of claim 14 wherein the permission indicates one of at least two opt in levels comprising permission to provide location while maintaining anonymity of the user of the mobile device, and permission to provide location and an offer based on identity of the user of the mobile device.