A METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RECORDING INFORMATION FROM A PLURALITY OF MOBILE DEVICES IN AN AREA

• US 20160105866A1
• Filed: 05/20/2013
• Published: 04/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Ruckus Wireless Singapore, Pte. Ltd. (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Han, Yang
• Granted Patent: US 9,877,295 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 5/02526 using non-dedicated equipment, e.g. user equipment or crowd-sourcing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/043 using ambient awareness, e.g. involving buildings using floor or room numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A method and apparatus for recording information from a plurality of mobile devices in an area, the method comprising listening for data packets from the plurality of mobile devices in a predetermined time period, creating a record for containing addresses and signal strength readings associated with the plurality of mobile devices, determining whether a data packet received during the predetermined time period is from a mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices, determining whether an address associated with the mobile device is recorded in the record, updating the record with the address and a signal strength reading associated with the mobile device, and updating the signal strength reading associated with the mobile device updating the record depending upon the number of times the record has been updated with a signal strength reading associated with the mobile device during the predetermined time period.

Claims

1. A method for recording information from a plurality of mobile devices in an area, the method comprising:

listening for data packets from the plurality of mobile devices in a predetermined time period using a wireless device;

creating a record for containing addresses and signal strength readings associated with the plurality of mobile devices, the addresses and signal strength readings of the mobile devices being retrieved from data packets received by the wireless device when the wireless device is listening;

determining whether a data packet received by the wireless device during the predetermined time period is from a mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices;

determining whether an address associated with the mobile device is recorded in the record if the data packet received by the wireless device during the predetermined time period is from the mobile device;

updating the record with the address associated with the mobile device and a signal strength reading associated with the mobile device if the data packet received is from the mobile device and the address has not been previously recorded into the record during the predetermined time period; and

updating the record with a signal strength reading associated with the mobile device if the data packet is from the mobile device and the address of the mobile device is previously updated into the record, and updating the record depending upon the number of times the record has been updated with a signal strength reading associated with the mobile device during the predetermined time period.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, the method comprising:

increasing a count associated with the address of the mobile device each time the record is updated as a result of the wireless device receiving a data packet from the mobile device during the predetermined time period, the count being reset at beginning of the predetermined time period.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein updating of the record with a signal strength reading associated with the mobile device during the predetermined time period stops when the count reaches a predetermined number.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the wireless device communicates with the plurality of mobile devices based on Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) technology.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the predetermined time period comprises:

a first time period for recording received addresses and signal strength readings associated with one or more of the plurality of mobile devices into the record for tracking footfall of the plurality of mobile devices in the area; and

a second time period for recording received addresses and signal strength readings associated with one or more of the plurality of mobile devices into a second record created and updated in same manner as the record for estimating location of one or more of the plurality of mobile devices in the area.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, the method comprising:

updating the record with a null signal strength reading if the address of the mobile device is previously updated into the record, and if a data packet is not received from the mobile device before a predetermined sampling time within the predetermined time period expires.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, the method comprising:

generating a report by

extracting all signal strength readings of the mobile device in the record;

discarding null signal strength reading, if any is present in the record; and

calculating a truncated mean value from the extracted and non-discarded signal strength readings of the mobile device.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, the method further comprising:

transmitting from the wireless device one or more data packets associated with the report to a collating application of a server for collating a collated report for the mobile device based on data of reports received by the server from the wireless device.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, the method further comprising:

formatting the collated report;

forwarding the collated report to a processor for calculating an estimated location of the mobile device based on data in the collated report; and

storing the estimated location in a database accessible by the mobile device via a network.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9, the method further comprising:

generating footfall tracking analytics based on estimated locations of more than one of the plurality of mobile devices; and

storing the generated footfall tracking analytics in a footfall tracking database accessible by networked devices.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1, the method further comprising:

transmitting the address of the mobile device to a data management application of a server via a data communication protocol requiring no acknowledgement from a receiver upon receiving a data message from a sender; and

updating the address received by the data management application into a server record, the server record residing in a memory accessible to the server.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11,

the step of creating the record for containing addresses and signal strength readings associated with the plurality of mobile devices further comprising:

appending the address received by the data management application to a data message at the server;

sending the data message from the server to an agent application associated with the wireless device; and

adding the address retrieved from the data message received by the agent application into a third record residing in a memory accessible to the wireless device.

13. An apparatus for recording information from a plurality of mobile devices in an area, the apparatus comprising:

a wireless device configured for listening for data packets from the plurality of mobile devices in a predetermined time period; and

a processing unit configured for

creating a record for containing addresses and signal strength readings associated with the plurality of mobile devices, the addresses and signal strength readings of the mobile devices being retrieved from data packets received by the wireless device when the wireless device is listening;

determining whether a data packet received by the wireless device during the predetermined time period is from a mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices;

determining whether an address associated with the mobile device is recorded in the record if the data packet received by the wireless device during the predetermined time period is from the mobile device;

updating the record with the address associated with the mobile device and a signal strength reading associated with the mobile device if the data packet received is from the mobile device and the address has not been previously recorded into the record during the predetermined time period; and

updating the record with a signal strength reading associated with the mobile device if the data packet is from the mobile device and the address of the mobile device is previously updated into the record, and updating the record depending upon the number of times the record has been updated with a signal strength reading associated with the mobile device during the predetermined time period.

14. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13, the processing unit being configured for

increasing a count associated with the address of the mobile device each time the record is updated as a result of the wireless device receiving a data packet from the mobile device during the predetermined time period, the count being reset at beginning of the predetermined time period.

15. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein updating of the record with a signal strength reading associated with the mobile device during the predetermined time period stops when the count reaches a predetermined number.

16. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein the wireless device communicates with the plurality of mobile devices based on Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) technology.

17. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein the predetermined time period comprises a first time period for recording received addresses and signal strength readings associated with one or more of the plurality of mobile devices into the record for tracking footfall of the plurality of mobile devices in the area, and a second time period for recording received addresses and signal strength readings associated with one or more of the plurality of mobile devices into a second record created and updated in same manner as the record for estimating location of one or more of the plurality of mobile devices in the area.

18. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13, the processing unit being configured for

updating the record with a null signal strength reading if the address of the mobile device is previously updated into the record, and if a data packet is not received from the mobile device before a predetermined sampling time within the predetermined time period expires.

19. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13, the processing unit being configured for generating a report by

extracting all signal strength readings of the mobile device in the record;

discarding null signal strength readings, if any are present in the record; and

calculating a truncated mean value from the extracted and non-discarded signal strength readings of the mobile device.

20. The apparatus as claimed in claim 19, the apparatus further comprising a server and the wireless device being configured for

transmitting one or more data packets associated with the report to a collating application of the server for collating a collated report for the mobile device based on data of reports received by the server from the wireless device.

21. The apparatus as claimed in claim 20, the server being configured for

formatting the collated report;

forwarding the collated report to a processor for calculating an estimated location of the mobile device based on data in the collated report; and

storing the estimated location in a database accessible to the mobile device via a network.

22. The apparatus as claimed in claim 21, the server being configured for

generating footfall tracking analytics based on estimated locations of more than one of the plurality of mobile devices;

and

storing the generated footfall tracking analytics in a footfall tracking database accessible to networked devices.

23. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13, the mobile device being configured for

transmitting its address to a data management application run by a server,

the server being configured for

updating a server record with the address received by the data management application, the server record residing in a memory accessible to the server running the data management application.

24. The apparatus as claimed in claim 23, the server running the data management application being configured for

appending the address received by the data management application to a data message;

sending the data message to an agent application associated with the wireless device; and

updating the address retrieved from the data message received by the agent application into a third record residing in a memory accessible to the wireless device.

25. A non-transitory machine-readable medium, having stored thereon machine-readable instructions for executing, in a machine, a method for creating a record, the method comprising:

listening for data packets from the plurality of mobile devices in a predetermined time period using a wireless device;

creating a record for containing addresses and signal strength readings associated with the plurality of mobile devices, the addresses and signal strength readings of the mobile devices being retrieved from data packets received by the wireless device when the wireless device is listening;

determining whether a data packet received by the wireless device during the predetermined time period is from a mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices;

determining whether an address associated with the mobile device is recorded in the record if the data packet received by the wireless device during the predetermined time period is from the mobile device;

updating the record with the address associated with the mobile device and a signal strength reading associated with the mobile device if the data packet received is from the mobile device and the address has not been previously recorded into the record during the predetermined time period; and

updating the record with a signal strength reading associated with the mobile device if the data packet is from the mobile device and the address of the mobile device is previously updated into the record, and updating the record depending upon the number of times the record has been updated with a signal strength reading associated with the mobile device during the predetermined time period.