Utilization of the approximate location of a device determined from ambient signals

• US 7,202,816 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2003
• Issued: 04/10/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Horvitz, Eric J., Krumm, John C., Cermak, Gerald F., Youssef, Adel Amin AbdelAzim, Miller, Edward C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Issing; Gregory C.
• Application Number:
  US10/742,198
• Publication Number:
  US 20050020210A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,208 Days
• Field of Search: 342/451, 342/463, 342/464, 342/465
• US Class Current: 342/451
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0027 of actual mobile position, i.e. position determined on mobile
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0252 Radio frequency fingerprinting
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02521 using a radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0967 Systems involving transmission of highway information, e.g. weather, speed limits transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station

Abstract

The present invention employs approximate device locations determined from changes in the sensed strength of radio signals at different locations. In one instance of the invention, the approximate device locations are based on inference procedures that are used to process ambient commercial radio signals, to estimate a location or a probability distribution over the locations of a device. In another instance of the invention, approximate device locations derived from learning and inference methods that are applied to rank vector of signal strength vectors are utilized. Moving to such rank orderings leads to methods that bypass consideration of absolute signal strengths in location calculations. The invention utilizes approximations for a device location that is based on a method that does not require a substantial number of available ambient signal strengths while still providing useful location inferences in determining locations. Several location-centric services are supported, including receipt of location-specific information such as traffic reports, emergency information, transmission about device location, and time-sensitive promotions such as discounts offered by businesses for load balancing the provision of services.

Claims

1. A system that utilizes approximately determined locations of a device, the system is recorded on a computer-readable medium and capable of execution by a computer, comprising:

a signal processor that receives a plurality of ambient signals;

an analysis processor that infers at least one approximate location of a device based, in part, on relative signal strengths of at least a subset of the ambient signals, the analysis processor employs an algorithm that infers the approximate location of the device by scanning a list of radio frequencies, resulting in a corresponding vector of measured signal strengths, s=(s₁, s₂, . . . , s_n), and utilizing a sort routine to compute a rank vector of the signal strengths, v=(r₁, r₂, . . . , r_n) in ascending order,where each r_i gives the rank of the corresponding s_i in s;

wherein the rank vector is insensitive to any monotonically increasing function of elements of s, such that the rank vector does not require absolute signal strength to determine the approximate location of the device; and

a location association processor that utilizes the approximate location of the device to provide geocentric device specific resource management that includes automatically configuring the device with a time zone and a language based on the approximate location.

2. The system of claim 1, the approximate location of the device utilized to provide memory management for storage of geocentric related data.

3. The system of claim 1, the approximate location of the device facilitating at least one entity utilizing, at least in part, proximity data.

4. The system of claim 3, the entity comprising at least one selected from the group consisting of at least one software application and at least one computing device.

5. The system of claim 4, the proximity data utilized to establish at least one selected from the group consisting of a time zone for utilization by the computing device, a country location for utilization by the computing device, and a language for utilization by the computing device.

6. The system of claim 1, the inferred approximate location facilitating, at least in part, at least one navigation system.

7. The system of claim 6, the navigation system comprising a terrain vehicle navigation system.

8. The system of claim 1, the inferred approximate location facilitating, at least in part, in emergency-based devices for providing information during a crisis.

9. The system of claim 8, the emergency-based devices providing at least one selected from the group consisting of information for radio frequency dissemination of a device'"'"'s location, stolen item recovery assistance, lost person location assistance, emergency maps for locating water sources, local building structural drawings, medical service locations, utility locations, and weather reports.

10. The system of claim 1, the inferred approximate location facilitating in distribution of location-specific information.

11. The system of claim 10, the location-specific information comprising at least one selected from the group consisting of time-sensitive information, advertising related information, weather related information, emergency related information, and proximity information of at least one entity.

12. The system of claim 11, the entity comprising a predetermined person.

13. The system of claim 11, the proximity information utilized to promote at least one entity selected from the group consisting of clustering of entities and disassociate entities.

14. The system of claim 1, the inferred approximate location utilized to facilitate, at least in part, in locating computing devices.

15. The system of claim 1, the inferred approximate location utilized for logging historical locations of a device.

16. The system of claim 1, the inferred approximate location facilitates grouping at least one item based on location of an event.

17. The system of claim 16, the event occurring indoors.

18. The system of claim 16, the event comprising capturing an image.

19. The system of claim 18, the image comprising at least one selected from the group consisting of a motionless image and a motion image.

20. The system of claim 19, the image comprising a digital image.

21. A method for utilizing an approximately determined location, comprising:

receiving a plurality of ambient signal strengths;

determining an approximate location of a device based, in part, upon relative signal strengths of at least a subset of the ambient signal strengths ascertained via employment of an algorithm that infers the approximate location of the device by scanning a list of radio frequencies, resulting in a corresponding vector of measured signal strengths, s=(s₁, s₂, . . . , s_n), and utilizing a sort routine to compute a rank vector of the signal strengths, v=(r₁, r₂, . . . , r_n) in ascending order, where each r_i gives the rank of the corresponding s_i in s;

wherein the rank vector is insensitive to any monotonically increasing function of elements of s, such that the rank vector does not require absolute signal strength to determine the approximate location of the device;

employing the approximate location of the device to provide time-sensitive information related to at least one location; and

instigating location-based device specific resource management functionality based at least in part on the approximate location, the resource management functionally includes disseminating time-sensitive information and proximity information related to disparate devices.

22. The method of claim 21, the time-sensitive information comprising at least one selected from the group consisting of time-sensitive advertising and time-sensitive alerts.

23. The method of claim 22, the time-sensitive advertising comprising, at least in part, a redemption code for an offer.

24. The method of claim 22, the time-sensitive alerts comprising, at least in part, transmission of a displayable numeric code for facilitating redemption of an offer.