Pseudoposition generator

• US 7,477,905 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2004
• Issued: 01/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Skyhook Holding, Inc. (Liberty Broadband Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Useful Networks Canada, Inc.
• Inventors: George, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Ramakrishnaiah; Melur
• Application Number:
  US10/792,385
• Publication Number:
  US 20040229631A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,776 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 455/456.3, 455/456.5, 455/456.6, 455/457, 455/463, 455/91, 342/463, 342/464, 463/41
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0027 of actual mobile position, i.e. position determined on mobile
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0054 of actual mobile position, i.e. position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0294 Trajectory determination or predictive filtering, e.g. target tracking or Kalman filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A method of tracking an object using a mobile transceiver carried by the object, the method comprising the steps of receiving, at a computer, location information from the mobile transceiver; computing a predicted location of the mobile transceiver from the location information; and forwarding the predicted location to a user.

Claims

1. A method processing location information relating to a mobile transceiver carried by an object, the mobile transceiver having an actual location comprising a first set of coordinates in a coordinate system, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving, at a computer, location information from the mobile transceiver or from a computer network server, the location information relating to the actual position of the mobile transceiver;

computing a pseudo-position of the mobile transceiver from the location information, the pseudo-position comprising a second set of coordinates in the coordinate system, the second set of coordinates being different from the first set of coordinates; and

forwarding the pseudo-position to at least one user moving independently from the object.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the location information contains information relating to the motion of the mobile transceiver, and computing the pseudo-position comprises analyzing information relating to the motion of the mobile transceiver.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the location information comprises an estimate of the actual position of the mobile transceiver and a time indicating when the estimate of the actual position was made.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the pseudo-position is forwarded for display to the at least one user, the at least one user being involved in a wireless location based game.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the object is a participant in a game.

6. The method of claim 5 in which the participant is provided with the option of forwarding the actual position of the mobile transceiver or the pseudo-position to the at least one user.

7. The method of claim 6 in which the participant toggles between forwarding the actual position of the mobile transceiver and the pseudo-position to the at least one user.

8. The method of claim 1 in which the pseudo-position and the actual position are displayed to the at least one user.

9. The method of claim 1 in which the pseudo-position is sufficiently spatially displaced relative to the actual position of the mobile transceiver to avoid the mobile transceiver being located by the at least one user.

10. The method of claim 9 in which the location information contains information relating to the motion of the mobile transceiver, and computing the pseudo-position comprises analyzing information relating to the motion of the mobile transceiver.

11. The method of claim 9 in which the location information comprises an estimate of the actual position of the mobile transceiver and a time indicating when the estimate of the actual position was made.

12. The method of claim 9 in which the pseudo-position is forwarded for display to the at least one user, the at least one user being involved in a wireless location based game.

13. The method of claim 9 in which the object is a participant in a game.

14. The method of claim 13 in which the participant is provided with the option of forwarding the actual position of the mobile transceiver or the pseudo-position to the at least one user.

15. The method of claim 14 in which the participant toggles between forwarding the actual position of the mobile transceiver and the pseudo-position to the at least one user.

16. The method of claim 9 in which the pseudo-position and the actual position are displayed to the at least one user.

17. The method of claim 1 in which the coordinate system comprises latitude and longitude coordinates.

18. The method of claim 17 in which the pseudo-position is forwarded for display to the at least one user, the at least one user being involved in a wireless location based game.

19. The method of claim 18 in which the object is a participant in a game.