DISTRIBUTED METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING THE POSITION OF A MOBILE DEVICE USING LONG-RANGE SIGNALS AND CALIBRATING THE POSITION USING SHORT-RANGE SIGNALS
First Claim
1. A method of determining a location of a mobile device, the method comprising:
- receiving positioning assistance data from a plurality of short-range position reference devices, the positioning assistance data from each position reference device comprising a location of the corresponding position reference device;
calculating a weighted sum of the locations of the position reference devices, the locations being weighted based on a set of criteria; and
setting the location of the mobile station to the calculated weighted sum of the locations of the position reference devices.
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Abstract
A method and system is described where a plurality of position reference devices use short-range wireless communication protocols to transmit positioning assistance data to nearby mobile devices, and the mobile devices use the assistance data to model errors and re-calibrate their positioning systems. The short-range communication methods include NFC, RFID, Bluetooth®, short-range 802.11, Wi-Fi Direct, and high frequency focused beams such as 60 GHz. The position reference devices are passive or active NFC tags, passive or active RFID tags, other devices that include such tags as their components, Bluetooth®-enabled devices, 60 GHz-enabled devices, and 802.11 access points that can lower their transmit power. The reference devices are located at various indoor and outdoor locations such as smart posters, kiosks, ATM machines, malls, store checkout counters, store security gates, wireless access points, cellular base-stations, tollbooths, traffic lights, and street lamp posts.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method of determining a location of a mobile device, the method comprising:
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receiving positioning assistance data from a plurality of short-range position reference devices, the positioning assistance data from each position reference device comprising a location of the corresponding position reference device; calculating a weighted sum of the locations of the position reference devices, the locations being weighted based on a set of criteria; and setting the location of the mobile station to the calculated weighted sum of the locations of the position reference devices. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for determining a location of a mobile device comprising a plurality of radios, each radio in the plurality of radios using a different communication protocol, the program executable by at least one processing unit of the mobile device, the program comprising:
- sets of instructions for
receiving a plurality of signals through each radio; determining a location of the mobile device from the plurality of signals received through each radio using a positioning method corresponding to each radio; setting the location of the mobile device to a computed weighted sum of the determined locations; receiving positioning assistance data from a short-range position reference device, the positioning assistance data comprising a location of the position reference device; and calibrating each positioning method such that the location determined by the method is a same as the location received from the position reference device. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
- sets of instructions for
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13-14. -14. (canceled)
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15. A method of determining a position of a mobile device, the method comprising:
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receiving a plurality of signals from a plurality of transmitting devices; calculating a position of the mobile device based on the received signals and a positioning model; receiving positioning assistance data from a position reference device, the positioning assistance data comprising a position of the position reference device; and calibrating the positioning model such that the calculated position of the mobile device coincides with the received position of the position reference device. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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16-17. -17. (canceled)
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25. (canceled)
Specification