SYSTEM AND METHODS OF DEPLOYING LOCATION TRACKING TAGS

• US 20180027384A1
• Filed: 07/25/2016
• Published: 01/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Symbol Technologies, LLC (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Symbol Technologies, LLC (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Inventors: SUNDARAM, SUNDARESAN, TANDON, VARUN, CHANDRA, SUMAN
• Granted Patent: US 10,142,797 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0045 Transmission from base station to mobile station G01S5/009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0249 Determining position using measurements made by a non-stationary device other than the device whose position is being determined
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0252 Radio frequency fingerprinting
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02524 Creating or updating the radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0294 Trajectory determination or predictive filtering, e.g. target tracking or Kalman filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/30 Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

System and methods of deploying location tracking tags are provided. A device receives: identifiers of a plurality of tags fixed at locations in a physical space, each of the plurality of tags configured to broadcast: a respective identifier; and identifiers of respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags. The device further receives respective locations of a subset of the plurality of tags. The device determines remaining respective locations of the plurality of tags not in the subset from: the respective locations of the plurality of tags in the subset and the identifiers of respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags. The device can populate a memory and/or a database with the remaining respective locations of the plurality of tags not in the subset for use by a location tracking server.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a processor;

memory; and

a communication interface, the processor configured to;

receive, using the communication interface;

(i) identifiers of a plurality of tags fixed at locations in a physical space, each of the plurality of tags configured to broadcast;

a respective identifier of the tag, and identifiers of neighboring ones of the tags; and

(ii) identifiers of respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags;

receive respective locations of a subset of the plurality of tags; and

,

determine remaining respective locations of the plurality of tags not in the subset from;

the respective locations of the plurality of tags in the subset and the identifiers of respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine the remaining respective locations of the plurality of tags not in the subset using one or more of;

an intersection operation and triangulation based on a detected broadcast power level of each of the respective neighboring tags received with the identifiers of the respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein at least three of the tags in the subset are neighbors, and the processor is further configured to:

determine common neighboring tags of the at least three of the tags using an intersection of the identifiers of the respective neighboring tags of the at least three of the tags, the common neighboring tags not in the subset; and

,

determine the remaining respective locations of the common neighboring tags from a respective detected broadcast power level of each of the common neighboring tags associated with each of the at least three of the tags, the respective broadcast power level received with the respective identifiers of the respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to iteratively:

determine common neighboring tags of the plurality of tags for which respective physical locations have been previously determined; and

determine the remaining respective locations of the common neighboring tags from a respective detected broadcast power level of each of the common neighboring tags associated with each of the plurality of tags for which the respective physical locations have been previously determined, the respective detected broadcast power level received with the identifiers of the respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein each of the respective locations comprises one or more of GPS (global positioning system) coordinates, absolute location data, and relative location data, the relative location data being relative to a given position in the physical space.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the memory stores a map of zones of the physical space, the respective locations of the subset of the plurality of tags each comprising a respective zone, the processor further configured to:

determine that each of the zones comprises one of the plurality of tags; and

,

determine remaining respective locations of the plurality of tags not in the subset from intersections of the identifiers of the respective neighboring tags of the tags in the subset and the map.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine a distance between neighboring tags based on a respective detected broadcast power level, of each of the respective neighboring tags, received with the identifiers of the respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

populate one or more of a database and a table stored at the memory with data associated with the plurality of tags, the data including the respective location of each of the plurality of tags and the identifiers of the respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of tags comprises one or more of a location tracking tag, a BLE (Bluetooth™

low energy) tag, a Bluetooth™

Smart tag, and an iBeacon™

tag, each configured to determine and broadcast a respective identifier and identifiers of the neighboring tags.

10. (canceled)

11. A method comprising:

receiving, at a device, using a communication interface;

(i) identifiers of a plurality of tags fixed at locations in a physical space, each of the plurality of tags configured to broadcast;

a respective identifier of the tag, and identifiers of neighboring ones of the tags; and

(ii) identifiers of respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags;

receiving, at the device, respective locations of a subset of the plurality of tags; and

,

determining, at the device, remaining respective locations of the plurality of tags not in the subset from;

the respective locations of the plurality of tags in the subset and the identifiers of respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining the remaining respective locations of the plurality of tags not in the subset using one or more of;

an intersection operation and triangulation based on a detected broadcast power level of each of the respective neighboring tags received with the identifiers of the respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein at least three of the tags in the subset are neighbors, and the method further comprises:

determining common neighboring tags of the at least three of the tags using an intersection of the identifiers of the respective neighboring tags of the at least three of the tags, the common neighboring tags not in the subset; and

,

determining the remaining respective locations of the common neighboring tags from a respective detected broadcast power level of each of the common neighboring tags associated with each of the at least three of the tags, the respective broadcast power level received with the respective identifiers of the respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising iteratively:

determining common neighboring tags of the plurality of tags for which respective physical locations have been previously determined; and

determining the remaining respective locations of the common neighboring tags from a respective detected broadcast power level of each of the common neighboring tags associated with each of the plurality of tags for which the respective physical locations have been previously determined, the respective detected broadcast power level received with the identifiers of the respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the memory stores a map of zones of the physical space, the respective locations of the subset of the plurality of tags each comprising a respective zone, and the method further comprises:

determining that each of the zones comprises one of the plurality of tags; and

,

determining remaining respective locations of the plurality of tags not in the subset from intersections of the identifiers of the respective neighboring tags of the tags in the subset and the map.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining a distance between neighboring tags based on a respective detected broadcast power level, of each of the respective neighboring tags, received with the identifiers of the respective neighboring tags of each of the plurality of tags.

18. The tag of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine detected broadcast power levels of the neighboring tags and modify the broadcast of the identifier to include the identifiers of the neighboring tags and their detected broadcast power levels.

19. The tag of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine broadcast power levels of the neighboring tags, store the identifiers of the neighboring tags in the memory in association with their broadcast power levels and modify the broadcast of the identifier to include the identifiers of the neighboring tags and their detected broadcast power levels.

20. The tag of claim 11, further comprising one or more of a location tracking tag, a BLE (Bluetooth™

low energy) tag, a Bluetooth™

Smart tag, an iBeacon™

tag, and one or more mounting devices.

17. A tag comprising:

a processor, a memory storing an identifier, and a wireless communication interface configured to broadcast the identifier, the processor configured to;

receive, from the wireless communication interface, identifiers of neighboring tags;

store the identifiers of the neighboring tags in the memory; and

,

modify the broadcast of the identifier to include the identifiers of the neighboring tags.