Energy-Efficient Location Determination

• US 20150230053A1
• Filed: 02/12/2014
• Published: 08/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Thota, Chandrasekhar, Scellato, Salvatore, Stuttle, Matthew Nicholas
• Granted Patent: US 9,986,375 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0221 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02529 not involving signal parameters, i.e. only involving identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A location management system identifies points of interest that may be of interest to one or more users. The location management system defines a geofence boundary encompassing a particular point of interest. When the location management system determines that the user device is inside the geofence boundary—but not, for example, when the location management system determines that the user determines that the user device is outside the geofence boundary—the location management system instructs the user device to determine wireless signals available to the user device. The location management system then receives wireless signal data from the user device for available wireless signals. By matching the received wireless signal data to known wireless signals available at the identified points of interest, the location management system determines that the user device (and hence the user) is at the point of interest.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for location determination, comprising:

determining, by one or more computing devices and at a first time, that a user computing device is outside a geofence boundary encompassing a particular point of interest, wherein the user computing device is separate and distinct from the one or more computing devices;

determining, by one or more computing devices and at a second time that is subsequent to the first time, that the user computing device is inside the geofence boundary encompassing the particular point of interest; and

,

in response to determining at the second time that the user computing device is inside the geofence boundary encompassing the particular point of interest,

communicating, by the one or more computing devices, instructions to the user computing device to invoke a wireless signal detection module associated with the user computing device;

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, wireless signal data for a particular wireless signal that is available to the user computing device;

determining, by the one or more computing devices and based on the wireless signal data, that the particular wireless signal available to the user computing device is associated with the particular point of interest; and

,

determining, by the one or more computing devices and in response to determining that the particular wireless signal is associated with the particular point of interest, that the user computing device is at the particular point of interest.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying, by the one or more computing devices, a plurality of points of interest, wherein the plurality of points of interest comprises the particular point of interest;

determining, by the one or more computing devices, a location of the user computing device, wherein the user computing device is near the particular point of interest;

in response to determining that the user computing device is near the particular point of interest, determining, by the one or more computing devices, geofence boundary data for the geofence boundary encompassing the particular point of interest; and

,

communicating, by the one or more computing devices, the geofence boundary data to the user computing device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining that the particular wireless signal is associated with the particular point of interest comprises:

identifying, by the one or more computing devices, one or more wireless signals that are available at each of the one or more of the plurality of points of interest;

associating, by the one or more computing devices and in a record for the plurality of points of interest, the identified one or more wireless signals with the one or more points of interest where the wireless signal is available;

reading, by the one or more computing devices, the content of the received wireless signal data;

comparing, by the one or more computing devices, the content of the received wireless signal data with the record of the plurality of points of interest;

identifying, by the one or more computing devices and based on the comparison of the content of the wireless signal data with the record of the plurality of points of interest, a match between the content of the wireless signal data and the particular wireless signal in the record; and

,

associating, by the one or more computing devices and in response to identifying the match for the content of the wireless signal data in the record for the points of interest, the particular wireless signal with the particular point of interest.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating the instructions to the user computing device to invoke a wireless signal detection module in response to determining that the that the user computing device is inside the geofence boundary results in reduced energy consumption of the user device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the user computing device is inside the geofence boundary comprises receiving, by the one or more computing devices, a notification from the user computing device that the user computing device is at or inside the geofence boundary.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless signal data for the particular wireless signal that is available to the user computing device comprises a Wi-Fi wireless local area network (WLAN) signal, a Bluetooth signal, a near field communication (NFC) signal, or combinations thereof.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the wireless signal data comprise a media access control (MAC) address associated with the Wi-Fi wireless local area network (WLAN) signal.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising, communicating, by the one or more computing devices and in response to determining that the user computing device is at the particular point of interest, a signal to the user computer device to cease determining available wireless signal data.

9. A system for location determination, comprising:

a storage device;

a processor communicatively coupled to the storage device, wherein the processor executes application code instructions that are stored in the storage device to cause the system to;

determine at a first time that a user computing device is outside a geofence boundary encompassing a particular point of interest;

determine at a second time that is subsequent to the first time that the user computing device is inside the geofence boundary encompassing the particular point of interest;

communicate, in response to determining at the second time that the user computing device is inside the geofence boundary encompassing the particular point of interest, instructions to the user computing device to invoke a wireless signal detection module associated with user computing device;

receive, in response to invoking the wireless signal detection module associated with user computing device, wireless signal data for a particular wireless signal that is available to the user computing device, wherein the availability of the wireless signal to the user computing device at the point of interest provides an indication that the user computer device is at the point of interest.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising determining, based on the indication that the user computer device is at the point of interest, that the user computing device is at the point of interest.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising providing an alert on the user computer device in response to determining that the user computer device is at the point of interest.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein determining that the user computing device is inside the geofence boundary comprises receiving a notification from the user computing device that the user computing device is at or inside the geofence boundary.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the wireless signal data for the particular wireless signal that is available to the user computing device comprises a Wi-Fi wireless local area network (WLAN) signal, a Bluetooth signal, a near field communication (NFC) signal, or combinations thereof.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the wireless signal data comprise a media access control (MAC) address associated with the Wi-Fi wireless local area network (WLAN) signal.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein communicating the instructions to the user computing device to invoke a wireless signal detection module in response to determining that the that the user computing device is inside the geofence boundary results in reduced energy consumption of the user device.

16. A computer program product, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable storage device having computer-executable program instructions embodied thereon that when executed by a computer cause the computer to determine a location of a user computing device, the computer-executable program instructions comprising;

computer-executable program instructions to determine at a first time a first set of location data for the user computing device, wherein the first set of location data comprises an indication of a first location of the user computer device, the first location being outside a geofence boundary encompassing a point of interest;

computer-executable program instructions to determine at a second time that is subsequent to the first time a second set of location data for the user computing device, wherein the second set of location data comprises an indication of a second location of the user computer device, the second location being at or inside the geofence boundary encompassing the point of interest;

computer-executable program instructions to determine, in response to determining at the second time that the user computing device is at the second location at or inside the geofence boundary, wireless signal data available to the user computing device;

computer-executable program instructions to communicate the wireless signal data to a location management system, wherein the wireless signal data comprises a content identifying the point of interest.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein determining wireless signal data available to the user computing device in response to determining at the second time that the user computing device is at the second location at or inside the geofence boundary reduces energy consumption of the device as compared to determining a wireless signal data available to the user computing when the user device is at the first location.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the content identifying the point of interest comprises a media access control (MAC) address associated with the Wi-Fi wireless local area network (WLAN) signal.

19. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising receiving, in response to communicating the wireless signal data to a location management system, computer-executable instructions to provide an alert on the user computing device, wherein the alert comprises an audible alert, a vibration, a visible alert, or combination thereof.

20. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising receiving, in response to communicating the wireless signal data to a location management system, a communication from the location management system to cease determining the wireless signal data available to the user computing device.