Geolocationing System and Method for Use of Same

• US 20200137452A1
• Filed: 10/23/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Enseo, LLC (Enseo, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Enseo, Inc.
• Inventors: Miller, Thomas R., Fang, William C., Ogle, Vanessa
• Granted Patent: US 10,827,219 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/02 Indoor
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/10 Elderly or infirm
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0231 Emergency, distress or locator beacons
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02521 using a radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/391 Modelling the propagation channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1033 Signalling gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1036 at the edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2143 located in a single building, e.g. hotel, hospital or museum arrangements specially adapted for plural spots in a confined site in broadcast systems H04H20/63; adaptations for transmission by electric cable for domestic distribution in television systems H04N7/106
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2223 being a public access point, e.g. for downloading to or uploading from clients arrangements specially adapted to plural spots in a confined site in broadcast systems H04H20/63
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43637 involving a wireless protocol, e.g. Bluetooth, RF or wireless LAN [IEEE 802.11] arrangements for wireless networking or broadcasting of information in indoor or near-field type systems H04B10/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4516 involving client characteristics, e.g. Set-Top-Box type, software version or amount of memory available
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
• 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

Abstract

A geolocationing system and method for providing awareness in a multi-space environment, such as a hospitality environment or educational environment, are presented. In one embodiment of the geolocationing system, a vertical and horizontal array of gateway devices is provided. Each gateway device includes a gateway device identification providing an accurately-known fixed location within the multi-space environment. Each gateway device includes a wireless transceiver that receives a beacon signal from a proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device. The gateway devices, in turn, send gateway signals to a server, which determines estimated location of the wireless-enabled personal locator device with transmitted signal strength modeling.

Claims

1. A system for providing awareness in a multi-space environment, the system comprising:

a vertical and horizontal array of gateway devices, each gateway device being positioned within a space in the multi-space environment, each gateway device having a gateway device identification providing an accurately-known fixed location;

each gateway device of the vertical and horizontal array including;

a housing,

a wireless transceiver associated with the housing,

a processor located within the housing and coupled to the wireless transceiver,

a memory accessible to the processor, the memory including processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to;

receive a beacon signal via the wireless transceiver from a proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device, the beacon signal including a personal locator device identification and transmitted signal strength identification,

measure received signal strength of the beacon signal,

transmit a gateway signal to a server, the gateway signal including the personal locator device identification, the gateway device identification, the transmitted signal strength identification, and received signal strength measurement; and

the server located within the multi-space environment and in communication with the vertical and horizontal array of gateway devices, the server including;

a processor, and

a memory accessible to the processor, the memory including processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to;

receive a plurality of gateway signals from a plurality of gateway devices of the vertical and horizontal array,

process the plurality of gateway signals with trilateration, received signal strength modeling, and transmitted signal strength modeling, and

determine estimated location of the proximate wireless-enabled personal location device.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the wireless transceiver is configured to communicate with a standard selected from the group consisting of infrared (IR), 802.11, 3G, 4G, Edge, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, near field communications (NFC), Bluetooth and Bluetooth low energy.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the gateway device further comprises a plurality of wireless transceivers.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the trilateration and the received signal strength modeling are at least partially integrated.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the trilateration and the transmitted signal strength modeling are at least partially integrated.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the received signal strength modeling and the transmitted signal strength modeling are at least partially integrated.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the gateway device further comprises device selected from the group consisting of set-top boxes, common space gateway devices, and gateway service devices.

8. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device further comprises a device selected from the group consisting of single button personal locator devices and proximate wireless-enabled interactive programmable devices.

9. The system as recited in claim 8, wherein the proximate wireless-enabled interactive programmable device further comprises a device selected from the group consisting of smart watches, smart phones, and tablet computers.

10. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the server further comprises a back-office hotel server in communication with the vertical and horizontal array of set-top boxes.

11. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to receive a plurality of gateway signals from a plurality of gateway devices of the vertical and horizontal array further comprise processor-executable instructions that, when executed cause the processor to:

receive a plurality of beacon signals via the wireless transceiver from the proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device, each of plurality of beacon signals including a personal locator device identification and transmitted signal strength identification.

12. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to process the plurality of gateway signals with trilateration, signal strength modeling, and transmitted signal strength modeling further comprise processor-executable instructions that, when executed cause the processor to:

utilize at least three distances between at least three gateway signals from respective gateway devices to determine a point of intersection therebetween.

13. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to process the plurality of gateway signals with trilateration, signal strength modeling, and transmitted signal strength modeling further comprise processor-executable instructions that, when executed cause the processor to:

access a signal map stored in the storage, the signal map being a received signal strength model of collected offline signals at the vertical and horizontal array of gateway devices, and

compare a plurality of received signal strength measurements of a respective plurality of gateway signals to the signal map.

14. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to process the plurality of gateway signals with trilateration, signal strength modeling, and transmitted signal strength modeling further comprise processor-executable instructions that, when executed cause the processor to:

utilize at least three received signal strength measurements between at least three gateway signals from respective gateway devices to determine a point of intersection therebetween.

15. The system as recited claim 1, wherein the system further comprises an operational mode selected from the group consisting of alerts-enabled, service request-enabled, tracking-enabled, and non-tracking-enabled.

16. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein in the alerts-enabled mode, the server receives a distress signal from the proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device.

17. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein in the service-request-enabled mode, the server receives a service request from the proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device.

18. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein in the tracking-enabled mode, the server maintains in memory one of a plurality of estimated locations with timestamps associated with the proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device and only the last known locations with timestamps associated with the proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device.

19. A system for providing awareness in a multi-space environment, the system comprising:

a vertical and horizontal array of gateway devices, each gateway device being positioned within a space in the multi-space environment, each gateway device having a gateway device identification providing an accurately-known fixed location;

each gateway device of the vertical and horizontal array including;

a housing,

a wireless transceiver associated with the housing,

a processor located within the housing and coupled to the wireless transceiver,

a memory accessible to the processor, the memory including processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to;

receive a beacon signal via the wireless transceiver from a proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device, the beacon signal including a personal locator device identification and transmitted signal strength identification,

measure received signal strength of the beacon signal,

transmit a gateway signal to a server, the gateway signal including the personal locator device identification, the gateway device identification, and received signal strength measurement; and

the server located within the multi-space environment and in communication with the vertical and horizontal array of gateway devices, the server including;

a processor,

a signal map stored in the storage, the signal map being a received signal strength model of collected offline signals at the vertical and horizontal array of gateway devices, and

a memory accessible to the processor, the memory including processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to;

receive a plurality of gateway signals from a plurality of gateway devices of the vertical and horizontal array,

process the plurality of gateway signals with trilateration by utilizing at least three distances between at least three gateway signals from respective gateway devices to determine a point of intersection therebetween,

process the plurality of gateway signals with transmitted signal strength modeling by assessing the transmitted signal strength identification and received signal strength identification for each of the plurality of gateway signals,

process the plurality of gateway signals with signal strength modeling by accessing the signal map stored in the storage, and

compare a plurality of received signal strength measurements of a respective plurality of gateway signals to the signal map, and

determine estimated location of the proximate wireless-enabled personal location device.

20. A system for providing awareness in a multi-space environment, the system comprising:

a vertical and horizontal array of gateway devices, each gateway device being positioned within a space in the multi-space environment, each gateway device having a gateway device identification providing an accurately-known fixed location;

each gateway device of the vertical and horizontal array including;

a housing,

a wireless transceiver associated with the housing,

a processor located within the housing and coupled to the wireless transceiver,

a memory accessible to the processor, the memory including processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to;

receive a beacon signal via the wireless transceiver from a proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device, the beacon signal including a personal locator device identification and transmitted signal strength identification,

measure received signal strength of the beacon signal,

transmit a gateway signal to a server, the gateway signal including the personal locator device identification, the gateway device identification, the transmitted signal strength identification, and received signal strength measurement; and

the server located within the multi-space environment and in communication with the vertical and horizontal array of gateway devices, the server including;

a processor, and

a memory accessible to the processor, the memory including processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to;

receive a plurality of gateway signals from a plurality of gateway devices of the vertical and horizontal array,

process the plurality of gateway signals with trilateration by utilizing at least three distances between at least three gateway signals from respective gateway devices to determine a point of intersection therebetween,

process the plurality of gateway signals with transmitted signal strength modeling by assessing the transmitted signal strength identification and received signal strength identification for each of the plurality of gateway signals, and

process the plurality of gateway signals with signal strength modeling by utilizing at least three received signal strength measurements between at least three gateway signals from respective gateway devices to determine a point of intersection therebetween, and

determine estimated location of the proximate wireless-enabled personal location device.