Geographic location using multiple location estimators
DC CAFCFirst Claim
1. A method for locating communication devices in communication with a communications network having a plurality of geographically dispersed network communication components operably connected together for communicating with the communication devices, comprising:
- performing the steps (1) and (2) following for locating each communication device (CD) of various ones of the communication devices, wherein each one of a plurality of location determiners is used for determining corresponding geographic location information for locating each communication device of various ones of the communication devices, and wherein at least a first and a second of the location determiners utilize a different geographic location process from the other, such that (A1) and (A2) following hold;
(A1) for at least one actual geographic location (L) of at least one of the communication devices, a difference between the first location determiner and the second location determiner includes one or more processing steps that result in a geographical location or extent such that (A1-1) and (A1-2) following hold;
(A1-1) an identification of a potential geographic location of L, output by the first location determiner, is substantially dependent upon an instance of the geographical location or extent resulting from performing the one or more processing steps, and an identification of a potential geographic location of L, output by the second location determiner, is not substantially dependent upon an instance of the geographical location or extent resulting from performing the one or more processing steps, and(A1-2)) the one or more processing steps are used by the first location determiner for locating communication devices in a plurality of geographically spaced apart locations; and
(A2) for at least one actual geographical location of at least one of the communication devices, each of (A2-1) and (A2-2) following does not substantially affect a determination of the other of (A2-1) and (A2-2);
(A2-1) a first identification of a potential first geographic location or geographic extent output by the first location determiner, and(A2-2) a second identification of a potential second geographic location or geographic extent output by the second location determiner;
(1) obtaining, from each of one or more of the location determiners, corresponding output geographic location information for locating CD when the one or more location determiners are each provided with a corresponding input of geolocation indicative data from transmissions between the communication device CD and at least one of the network communication components, wherein the corresponding output geographic location information for at least one of the location determiners includes one or more geographic identifications, each geographic identification representing at least one of;
a potential geographic location and a potential geographic extent for an actual location of CD;
(2) providing resulting geographic location information of the communication device CD, wherein said resulting location information is obtained by accessing, for each of the one or more of the location determiners, its corresponding output geographic location information;
wherein for at least one instance of locating the communications device CD, a corresponding performance of said steps of obtaining and providing includes performing at least two of (B1) through (B4) following;
(B1) for at least two of the geographic identifications (GI1 and GI2) for CD, obtained, in said obtaining step, from different ones of the location determiners, a step of at least one of;
(a) combining, or (b) resolving a difference between;
(i) GI1 (or location data derived therefrom) and (ii) GI2 (or location data derived therefrom) so that said resulting geographic location information is dependent on each of GI1 and GI2;
(B2) for each of at least two of the geographic identifications (GI3 and GI4) for CD, obtained from different corresponding ones of the location determiners, a step of obtaining a corresponding rating value for each of G13 (or location data derived therefrom), and GI4 (or location data derived therefrom), wherein said rating values are indicative of relative expected performances of the different corresponding location determiners in locating the communication devices, and wherein each corresponding rating value is determined after its corresponding geographic identification is identified by its location determiner;
(B3) for each of at least two of the geographic identifications (GI5 and GI6) for CD, obtained from different corresponding ones of the location determiners, a step of selecting one of;
GI5 (or location data derived therefrom), and GI6 (or location data derived therefrom), for receiving a preference in determining said resulting geographic location information; and
(B4) obtaining information indicative of a reliability of at least one geographic identification (GI7) of CD from one of the one or more location determiners, wherein the reliability represents a likelihood that CD is within the potential geographic location or the potential geographic extent identified by GI7, and wherein the reliability is determined after the at least one geographic identification is obtained from its location determiner.
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Litigations
7 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A location system is disclosed for commercial wireless telecommunication infrastructures. The system is an end-to-end solution having one or more location centers for outputting requested locations of commercially available handsets or mobile stations (MS) based on, e.g., CDMA, AMPS, NAMPS or TDMA communication standards, for processing both local MS location requests and more global MS location requests via, e.g., Internet communication between a distributed network of location centers. The system uses a plurality of MS locating technologies including those based on: (1) two-way TOA and TDOA; (2) pattern recognition; (3) distributed antenna provisioning; and (4) supplemental information from various types of very low cost non-infrastructure base stations for communicating via a typical commercial wireless base station infrastructure or a public telephone switching network. Accordingly, the traditional MS location difficulties, such as multipath, poor location accuracy and poor coverage are alleviated via such technologies in combination with strategies for: (a) automatically adapting and calibrating system performance according to environmental and geographical changes; (b) automatically capturing location signal data for continual enhancement of a self-maintaining historical data base retaining predictive location signal data; (c) evaluating MS locations according to both heuristics and constraints related to, e.g., terrain, MS velocity and MS path extrapolation from tracking and (d) adjusting likely MS locations adaptively and statistically so that the system becomes progressively more comprehensive and accurate. Further, the system can be modularly configured for use in location signaling environments ranging from urban, dense urban, suburban, rural, mountain to low traffic or isolated roadways. Accordingly, the system is useful for 911 emergency calls, tracking, routing, people and animal location including applications for confinement to and exclusion from certain areas.
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Citations
80 Claims
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1. A method for locating communication devices in communication with a communications network having a plurality of geographically dispersed network communication components operably connected together for communicating with the communication devices, comprising:
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performing the steps (1) and (2) following for locating each communication device (CD) of various ones of the communication devices, wherein each one of a plurality of location determiners is used for determining corresponding geographic location information for locating each communication device of various ones of the communication devices, and wherein at least a first and a second of the location determiners utilize a different geographic location process from the other, such that (A1) and (A2) following hold; (A1) for at least one actual geographic location (L) of at least one of the communication devices, a difference between the first location determiner and the second location determiner includes one or more processing steps that result in a geographical location or extent such that (A1-1) and (A1-2) following hold; (A1-1) an identification of a potential geographic location of L, output by the first location determiner, is substantially dependent upon an instance of the geographical location or extent resulting from performing the one or more processing steps, and an identification of a potential geographic location of L, output by the second location determiner, is not substantially dependent upon an instance of the geographical location or extent resulting from performing the one or more processing steps, and (A1-2)) the one or more processing steps are used by the first location determiner for locating communication devices in a plurality of geographically spaced apart locations; and (A2) for at least one actual geographical location of at least one of the communication devices, each of (A2-1) and (A2-2) following does not substantially affect a determination of the other of (A2-1) and (A2-2); (A2-1) a first identification of a potential first geographic location or geographic extent output by the first location determiner, and (A2-2) a second identification of a potential second geographic location or geographic extent output by the second location determiner; (1) obtaining, from each of one or more of the location determiners, corresponding output geographic location information for locating CD when the one or more location determiners are each provided with a corresponding input of geolocation indicative data from transmissions between the communication device CD and at least one of the network communication components, wherein the corresponding output geographic location information for at least one of the location determiners includes one or more geographic identifications, each geographic identification representing at least one of;
a potential geographic location and a potential geographic extent for an actual location of CD;(2) providing resulting geographic location information of the communication device CD, wherein said resulting location information is obtained by accessing, for each of the one or more of the location determiners, its corresponding output geographic location information; wherein for at least one instance of locating the communications device CD, a corresponding performance of said steps of obtaining and providing includes performing at least two of (B1) through (B4) following; (B1) for at least two of the geographic identifications (GI1 and GI2) for CD, obtained, in said obtaining step, from different ones of the location determiners, a step of at least one of;
(a) combining, or (b) resolving a difference between;
(i) GI1 (or location data derived therefrom) and (ii) GI2 (or location data derived therefrom) so that said resulting geographic location information is dependent on each of GI1 and GI2;(B2) for each of at least two of the geographic identifications (GI3 and GI4) for CD, obtained from different corresponding ones of the location determiners, a step of obtaining a corresponding rating value for each of G13 (or location data derived therefrom), and GI4 (or location data derived therefrom), wherein said rating values are indicative of relative expected performances of the different corresponding location determiners in locating the communication devices, and wherein each corresponding rating value is determined after its corresponding geographic identification is identified by its location determiner; (B3) for each of at least two of the geographic identifications (GI5 and GI6) for CD, obtained from different corresponding ones of the location determiners, a step of selecting one of;
GI5 (or location data derived therefrom), and GI6 (or location data derived therefrom), for receiving a preference in determining said resulting geographic location information; and(B4) obtaining information indicative of a reliability of at least one geographic identification (GI7) of CD from one of the one or more location determiners, wherein the reliability represents a likelihood that CD is within the potential geographic location or the potential geographic extent identified by GI7, and wherein the reliability is determined after the at least one geographic identification is obtained from its location determiner. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 80)
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- 48. The method of Clam 47, wherein said locus computing technique performs one of a trilateration and a triangulation technique for determining a location estimate of the communication device CD at a site not co-located with the communication device CD.
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59. A system to estimate a geographic location associated with each of a plurality of networked entities, each of the networked entities having a corresponding network identifier, the system including:
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one or more data collections for storing information indicative of a plurality of locations for the networked entities, wherein said information is obtained from communications from one or more communication networks communicating with the networked entities; a plurality of geographic location estimators to identify a plurality of geographic locations as potential locations of the networked entities, and to attach a corresponding confidence factor to each of the plurality of geographic locations, wherein some of the location estimators access the one or more data collections for determining the potential locations of the networked entities; wherein at least a first and a second of the plurality of location estimators utilize a different geographic location process from the other, such that (A1) and (A2) following hold; (A1) for at least one actual geographic location (L) of at least one of the networked entities, a difference between the first location estimator and the second location estimator includes one or more processing steps such that (A1-1) and (A1-2) following hold; (A1-1) an identification of a potential geographic location of L, output by the first location estimator, is substantially dependent upon geographical location or extent resulting from performing the one or more processing steps, and an identification of a potential geographic location of L, output by the second location estimator, is not substantially dependent upon an instance of a geographical location or extent resulting from performing the one or more processing steps, and (A1-2) the one or more processing steps are used by the first location estimator for locating various ones of the network entities in a plurality of geographically spaced apart locations; and (A2) for at least one actual geographical location of at least one of the networked entities, each of (A2-1) and (A2-2) following does not substantially affect a determination of the other of (A2-1) and (A2-2); (A2-1) a first identification of a potential first geographic location or geographic extent output by the first location estimator, and (A2-2) a second identification of a potential second geographic location or geographic extent output by the second location estimator; an estimator to determine, for each networked entity (NE) of at least a geographically dispersed collection of the networked entities, an estimated geographic location wherein the estimator utilizes corresponding ones of the identified geographic locations for NE, and their corresponding confidence factors to determine the estimated geographic location as an improved estimate for NE.
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60. A method for locating communication devices, wherein each one of a plurality of location determiners is used for determining corresponding geographic location information for each of various ones of the communication devices, and wherein for at least one actual geographic location (L) of at least one of the communication devices (CD), at least a first and a second of the location determiners determine different corresponding geographic location information for locating the communication device CD, comprising:
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obtaining, from each of the first and second location determiners, respectively, first and second corresponding geographic location information for locating CD at the location L; determining resulting geographic location information of the communication device CD, wherein said resulting location information is obtained by accessing the first and second corresponding geographic location information; wherein for at least one instance of locating the communications device CD, a corresponding performance of said determining step includes performing (B1) and (B2) following; (B1) obtaining information indicative of a reliability of at least one of the first corresponding geographic location information (or location data derived therefrom) and the second corresponding geographic location information (or location data derived therefrom), wherein the reliability represents a likelihood that CD is within a geographic location or a geographic extent identified by at least one of;
the first corresponding geographic location information (or location data derived therefrom), and the second corresponding geographic location information (or location data derived therefrom); and(B2) at least one of;
(a) combining, or (b) resolving a difference between;(i) the first corresponding geographic location information (or location data derived therefrom), and (ii) the second corresponding geographic location information (or location data derived therefrom),
so that said resulting geographic location information is dependent on each of the first corresponding geographic location information (or location data derived therefrom) and the second corresponding geographic location information (or location data derived therefrom). - View Dependent Claims (61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76)
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77. A system to estimate a geographic location associated with each of a plurality of networked entities, each of the networked entities having a corresponding network identifier, the system including:
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a plurality of geographic location determiners, each location determiner for determining a corresponding potential location of each of at least some of the networked entities, wherein the potential locations have corresponding location reliability confidence factors; wherein at least a first of the location determiners, when determining a potential location of each networked entity (NEk) of at least some of the networked entities, accesses information indicative of a plurality of locations for some of the networked entities different from NEk, wherein said information includes data identifying a portion of a communications path for communicating with the networked entities different from NEk; wherein at least the first and a second of the plurality of location determiners utilize a different geographic location process from the other, such that for at least one actual geographic location (L) of at least one of the networked entities, a difference between the first location determiner and the second location determiner includes one or more processing steps such that (A1-1) and (A1-2) following hold; (A1-1) an identification of a potential geographic location of L, output by one of the first and second location determiners, is substantially dependent upon an instance of a geographical location or extent resulting from performing the one or more processing steps, and an identification of a potential geographic location of L, output by the other of the first and second location determiners, is not substantially dependent upon an instance of the geographical location or extent resulting from performing the one or more processing steps, and (A1-2) the one or more processing steps are used by the one location determiner for locating various ones of the network entities in a plurality of geographically spaced apart locations; and an estimator to determine, for each networked entity (NE) of at least some of the networked entities, a corresponding geographic location estimate, wherein for determining the location estimate of NE the estimator utilizes;
(i) from the first location determiner a first potential location for NE, (ii) from the second location determiner, a second potential location for NE and (iii) the corresponding location reliability confidence factors for each of the first and second potential locations. - View Dependent Claims (78, 79)
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Specification