AUGMENTING LOCATION DATA AT A MOBILE DEVICE

• US 20140218241A1
• Filed: 02/04/2013
• Published: 08/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: BERNHARDT, Bruce Allen, XU, Jingwei, TSAI, I-Ming
• Granted Patent: US 9,164,161 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/451
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0236 Assistance data, e.g. base station almanac

Abstract

Mobile devices are able to determine their location based radio transmitters that are visible at the device to provide geographic location services. A knowledge of the location of the transmitters is required for the mobile device to determine a location estimate, however this can be difficult in network environments where the transmitters are temporary and their locations are not identified in location databases. Locations of temporary transmitters can be provided to mobile devices in order to augment the available location data used in determining the mobile device location. 3^rd parties can provide temporal location data on transmitters that are set up for short period of time, as well as better control the distribution of the location data.

Claims

1. A method of augmenting location data at a mobile device, the method comprising:

determining that 3^rd party temporal location data providing physical locations associated with a plurality of communication transmitters is available at a network location; and

augmenting location data used by a location service of the mobile device with the 3^rd party temporal location data available at the network location for use in determining an estimate of a position of the mobile device that detects one or more of the plurality of communication transmitters.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein augmenting the location data comprises retrieving the 3^rd party data from the network location and storing the 3^rd party location data on the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the 3^rd party temporal location data comprises:

sending from the mobile device to the network location user credentials associated with the user;

verifying, using the user credentials, that the user is authorized to retrieve the 3^rd party temporal location data; and

sending the 3^rd party temporal location data from the network location to the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising validating that the retrieved 3^rd party temporal location data retrieved from the network location was provided by the 3rd party.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising validating that a perimeter of the retrieved 3^rd party temporal location data prior to storing the 3^rd party location data.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a location request for determining the location of the mobile device, the location request comprising one or more unique identifiers (IDs) associated with communication transmitters detected by the mobile device, at least one of the unique IDs associated with one of the plurality of communication transmitters included in the 3^rd party temporal location data;

retrieving locations of the communication transmitters associated with each of the one or more unique IDs in the request;

determining the estimate of the location of the mobile device using the retrieved communication transmitter locations.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the 3^rd party temporal location data comprises an expiration time after which the 3^rd party temporal location data is not to be used, wherein the method further comprises:

determining if the expiration time has passed prior to retrieving the locations of the communication transmitters associated with each of the one or more unique IDs in the request; and

removing the 3^rd party temporal location data when the expiration time has passed.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining a length of time the 3^rd party temporal location data is valid for; and

sending as the expiration time the determined length of time to the mobile device with the 3^rd party temporal location data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein augmenting the location data comprises using a service located at the network location to access the 3^rd party temporal location data.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

transmitting a query radio scene comprising an indication of one or more communication transceivers to the service located at the network location;

determining a location estimate at the network location based on the radio scene using at least a portion of the 3^rd party temporal location data; and

receiving the location estimate at the mobile device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the 3^rd party temporal location data comprises an expiration time after which the 3^rd party temporal location data is not to be used, wherein the method further comprises:

periodically determining if the expiration time has passed; and

removing the 3^rd party temporal location data when the expiration time has passed.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the 3^rd party temporal location data comprises one or more of:

locations associated with individual communication transceivers; and

locations associated with fingerprints of one or more communication transceivers visible by a capturing mobile device at the respective location.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication transmitters comprise Wi-Fi transceivers.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving additional location-related information or metadata associated with the 3^rd party temporal location data.

15. A mobile device capable of augmenting location data at the mobile device, the mobile device comprising:

a processor for executing instructions; and

a memory for storing instructions, which when executed by the processor configure the mobile device to perform a method comprising;

determining that 3^rd party temporal location data providing physical locations associated with a plurality of communication transmitters is available at a network location; and

augmenting location data used by a location service of the mobile device with the 3^rd party temporal location data available at the network location for use in determining an estimate of a position of the mobile device that detects one or more of the plurality of communication transmitters.

16. The mobile device of claim 15, wherein augmenting the location data comprises retrieving the 3^rd party data from the network location and storing the 3^rd party location data on the mobile device.

17. The mobile device of claim 15, wherein retrieving the 3^rd party temporal location data comprises:

sending from the mobile device to the network location user credentials associated with the user;

verifying, using the user credentials, that the user is authorized to retrieve the 3^rd party temporal location data; and

sending the 3^rd party temporal location data from the network location to the mobile device.

18. The mobile device of claim 16, wherein the method performed by the mobile device further comprises validating that the retrieved 3^rd party temporal location data retrieved from the network location was provided by the 3rd party.

19. The mobile device of claim 16, wherein the method performed by the mobile device further comprises validating that a perimeter of the retrieved 3^rd party temporal location data prior to storing the 3^rd party location data.

20. The mobile device of claim 15, wherein the method performed by the mobile device further comprises:

receiving a location request for determining the location of the mobile device, the location request comprising one or more unique identifiers (IDs) associated with communication transmitters detected by the mobile device, at least one of the unique IDs associated with one of the plurality of communication transmitters included in the 3^rd party temporal location data;

retrieving locations of the communication transmitters associated with each of the one or more unique IDs in the request;

determining the estimate of the location of the mobile device using the retrieved communication transmitter locations.

21. The mobile device of claim 20, wherein the 3^rd party temporal location data comprises an expiration time after which the 3^rd party temporal location data is not to be used, wherein the method further comprises:

determining if the expiration time has passed prior to retrieving the locations of the communication transmitters associated with each of the one or more unique IDs in the request; and

removing the 3^rd party temporal location data when the expiration time has passed.

22. The mobile device of claim 21, further comprising:

determining a length of time the 3^rd party temporal location data is valid for; and

sending as the expiration time the determined length of time to the mobile device with the 3^rd party temporal location data.