LOCALIZATION IN MACHINE-TO-MACHINE SYSTEMS

• US 20170280279A1
• Filed: 03/28/2016
• Published: 09/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Ghosh, Chittabrata Chitto, Moustafa, Hassnaa
• Granted Patent: US 10,390,172 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A wireless access device is provided that includes at least one processor, an antennae, and a localization engine. The localization engine is executable by the at least one processor to determine a location of the access device, receive a wireless signal from a particular device that includes presence information corresponding to the particular device that lacks self-localization functionality, and determine a location of the particular device based on the location of the access device and the presence information.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor;

an antennae;

a localization engine executable by the at least one processor to;

determine a location of the apparatus;

receive a wireless signal from a particular device, wherein the wireless signal comprises presence information corresponding to the particular device, and the particular device lacks self-localization functionality; and

determine a location of the particular device based on the location of the apparatus and the presence information.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the presence information comprises an identifier of the particular device and a time stamp.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the wireless signal further comprises sensor data generated by one or more sensors of the particular device.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the localization engine further detects one or more characteristics of the wireless signal and determining the approximate location is further based on the one or more characteristics.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the one or more characteristics comprise one or more of time of travel, signal strength, motion of the particular device, and angle of arrival of the wireless signal.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a gateway to receive signals from a plurality of devices including the particular device and the localization engine determines a respective location for each of the plurality of devices based on the corresponding signals and the location of the apparatus.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the gateway is to send a wireless signal to communicate the location of the particular device to a remote data store over a wireless access point.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the gateway device is one of a plurality of gateway devices in communication with the wireless access point.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the gateway device maintains a database of locations for a plurality of devices within a subnet of the gateway device.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the localization engine is further to:

detect a characteristic of the wireless signal;

access a record in a data store corresponding to the particular device, wherein the record identifies information describing a previously received signal from the particular device and a characteristic of the previously received signal; and

compare the characteristic of the wireless signal with the characteristic of the previously received signal to determine whether to determine the location of the particular device based on the wireless signal.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising the data store.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein accessing the record in the data store comprises:

querying another system for records corresponding to the particular device; and

receiving the record from the other system.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is further to send a wireless signal to communicate the location of the particular device to a remote localization system.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a global positioning system to detect the location of the apparatus.

15. An apparatus comprising:

an Internet of Things (IoT) gateway comprising;

at least one processor;

memory;

a wireless communications module to receive wireless signals from devices in an environment;

a database storing localization records for a plurality of devices in the environment, wherein the records identify previously detected locations for each of the particular plurality of different devices;

a localization engine, executable by the at least one processor to;

identify presence information corresponding to a first one of the particular plurality of devices;

access a particular one of the records from the database corresponding to the first device;

determine location of the first device based on the presence information and a comparison of the presence information with information in the particular record; and

send data to a remote localization service, wherein the data reports the location of the first device to the localization service.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the presence information is received from the first device together with sensor data generated by the first device, the IoT gateway is to determine a location of the IoT gateway, and the location of the first device is based at least in part on location of the IoT gateway.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the presence information identifies characteristics of the particular signal as detected by the IoT gateway and the comparison comprises a comparison of the characteristics of the particular signal with characteristics of a previously received signal from the first device identified in the particular record.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the characteristics comprise one or more of time of travel, signal strength, and angle of arrival of the particular signal.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the location of the first device is determined based at least in part on a difference between characteristics of the previously received signal and the characteristics of the particular signal.

20. A method comprising:

determining, at an access device, a location of the access device;

receiving, at the access device, a wireless signal from a particular device, wherein the wireless signal comprises presence information corresponding to the particular device, and the particular device lacks self-localization functionality; and

determining a location of the particular device based on the location of the access device and the presence information.