GEO-LOCATION SIGNAL FINGERPRINTING

• US 20140179341A1
• Filed: 12/24/2012
• Published: 06/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/24/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Sydir, Jaroslaw J., LaMarca, Anthony G.
• Granted Patent: US 9,107,178 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/00 Beacons or beacon systems transmitting signals having a characteristic or characteristics capable of being detected by non-directional receivers and defining directions, positions, or position lines fixed relatively to the beacon transmitters; Receivers co-operating therewith position fixing by co-ordinating a plurality of determinations of direction or position lines G01S5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0242 Determining the position of transmitters to be subsequently used in positioning G01S5/0289 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02524 Creating or updating the radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02526 using non-dedicated equipment, e.g. user equipment or crowd-sourcing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a technology related to low-power, accurate location estimation for mobile devices (such as a smartphone). More particularly, the disclosed technology facilitates estimation of a physical or “real world” location (e.g., geo-location) without relying on the conventional always-on and battery-draining approaches of Global Positioning Systems (GPSs) or some form of telemetry based upon multiple radio signals (e.g., cellular). This Abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

Claims

1. A mobile device comprising:

a location estimator configured to estimate a present location of the mobile device;

a signal-fingerprint manager configured to determine one or more signal fingerprints about the mobile device at that present location;

a location manager configured to associate the estimated location with the determined one or more signal fingerprints;

a communications unit configured to send the association between the estimated location and the determined one or more signal fingerprints to a remote location-fingerprint database.

2. A mobile device as recited by claim 1, wherein:

the communications unit is further configured to receive a request from network server to map the present location;

the location manager is further configured to trigger the location estimator to estimate, the signal-fingerprint manager to determine, the location manager to associate, and the communications unit to send.

3. A mobile device as recited by claim 1, wherein the location manager is further configured to:

detect a change of present location of the mobile device;

determine whether to trigger contribution based, at least in part, upon the detecting of a change of present location;

in response to the trigger determination, trigger the location estimator to estimate, the signal-fingerprint manager to determine, the location manager to associate, and the communications unit to send.

4. A mobile device as recited by claim 1, wherein the determined one or more signal fingerprints is based at least in part upon one or more ambient identifiable wireless signal (IWS) sources.

5. A mobile device as recited by claim 1, wherein the signal fingerprints are WiFi fingerprints.

6. A mobile device as recited by claim 1, wherein the estimated location is a geo-location.

7. A mobile device as recited by claim 1, wherein the present location is estimated, at least in part, by a global positioning system (GPS).

8. A mobile device as recited by claim 1, wherein the mobile devices are wireless devices selected from a group consisting of a smartphone, a tablet computer, a feature phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless-enabled wearable device, a laptop computer, netbook computer, handheld device, handset, and portable computer.

11. A computing system as recited by claim 8, wherein the mapper is further configured to request a specific mobile device to gather pairings in a region of the signal-fingerprint map where additional pairings are desired to improve the signal-fingerprint map.

9. A computing system comprising:

a communications subsystem configured to receive a multitude of pairings of a geo-location with a signal fingerprint about its paired geo-location, wherein the multitude of pairings is received from a horde of mobile devices;

a mapper configured to map the signal fingerprints to their paired geo-locations of a crowdsourced signal-fingerprint map.

10. A computing system as recited by claim 9, wherein each pairing includes a particular geo-location of a mobile device associated with a signal fingerprint about the mobile device at that geo-location.

12. A mobile device comprising:

a signal-fingerprint manager configured to determine one or more present signal fingerprints about the mobile device;

a location manager configured to;

match the one or more present signal fingerprints with one or more fingerprints stored in a location-fingerprint database;

find a location associated with the one or more matching signal fingerprints in the location-fingerprint database;

select the found location as the present location; and

trigger performance of one or more actions based upon the present location;

communications unit configured to access, via a network, the location-fingerprint database, which is stored on one or more remote computing systems.

13. A mobile device as recited by claim 12, wherein the determined one or more signal fingerprints is based at least in part upon one or more ambient identifiable wireless signal (IWS) sources.

14. A mobile device as recited by claim 12 further comprising a communications unit configured to download the location-fingerprint database in a memory of the mobile device.

15. One or more computer-readable media with processor-executable instructions stored thereon which when executed by one or more processors cause performance of operations comprising:

estimating a present location of a mobile device;

determining one or more signal fingerprints about the mobile device at that present location;

associating the estimated location with the determined one or more signal fingerprints;

sending the association between the estimated location and the determined one or more signal fingerprints to a remote location-fingerprint database.

16. One or more computer-readable media as recited by claim 15 further comprising

detecting a change of present location of the mobile device;

determining whether to trigger contribution based, at least in part, upon the detecting of a change of present location;

in response to the trigger determination, triggering the estimating, determining, associating, and sending operations as recited by claim 15.

17. One or more computer-readable media as recited by claim 15, wherein the determining includes observing one or more ambient identifiable wireless signal (IWS) sources.

18. One or more computer-readable media as recited by claim 17, wherein the determined one or more signal fingerprints is based at least in part upon one or more of the observed ambient IWS sources.

19. One or more computer-readable media as recited by claim 15, wherein the signal fingerprints are WiFi fingerprints.

20. One or more computer-readable media as recited by claim 15, wherein the estimated location is a geo-location.

21. One or more computer-readable media as recited by claim 15, wherein the present location is estimated, at least in part, by a global positioning system (GPS).

22. One or more computer-readable media as recited by claim 15, wherein the mobile devices are wireless devices selected from a group consisting of a smartphone, a tablet computer, a feature phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless-enabled wearable device, a laptop computer, netbook computer, handheld device, handset, and portable computer.

23. One or more computer-readable media with processor-executable instructions stored thereon which when executed by one or more processors cause performance of operations comprising:

receiving a multitude of pairings of a geo-location with a signal fingerprint about its paired geo-location, wherein the multitude of pairings is received from a horde of mobile devices;

mapping the signal fingerprints to their paired geo-locations of a crowdsourced signal-fingerprint map.

24. One or more computer-readable media as recited by claim 23, wherein each pairing includes a particular geo-location of a mobile device associated with a signal fingerprint about the mobile device at that geo-location.

25. One or more computer-readable media with processor-executable instructions stored thereon which when executed by one or more processors cause performance of operations comprising:

downloading a location-fingerprint database in a memory of the mobile device;

determining one or more present signal fingerprints about a mobile device;

matching the one or more present signal fingerprints with one or more fingerprints stored in the downloaded location-fingerprint database;

finding a location associated with the one or more matching signal fingerprints in the location-fingerprint database;

selecting the found location as the present location;

performing one or more actions based upon the present location.

26. One or more computer-readable media as recited by claim 25, wherein the determining includes observing one or more ambient identifiable wireless signal (IWS) sources.

27. One or more computer-readable media as recited by claim 26, wherein the determined one or more signal fingerprints is based at least in part upon one or more of the observed ambient IWS sources.

28. One or more computer-readable media as recited by claim 25, wherein the matching and finding include accessing, via a network, the location-fingerprint database, which is stored on one or more remote computing systems.

29. One or more computer-readable media as recited by claim 25, wherein the performing includes displaying the selected location to a user.