Systems and methods for locating geographical regions of mobile computer users
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method, comprising:
- determining a geographical region in which a mobile computing unit is located, wherein the act of determining the geographical region comprises receiving RF signals from a plurality of RF beacons having known locations and using environmental profiling to establish the geographical region of the mobile computing unit, wherein environmental profiling comprises comparing a strength of the received RF signal with a table of known locations inside a plurality of buildings and outside of the buildings and a base station signal strength at those locations;
periodically transmitting, from the mobile computing unit, the geographical region of the mobile computing unit to a network server together with a user name of a user using the mobile computing unit; and
including an active signal with the periodically transmitted information when the user is actively using the mobile computing unit.
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Abstract
System and methods for locating a mobile computing unit are described. In some cases the systems and/or methods determine a geographical region in which a mobile computing unit is located using received radio frequency (“RF”) signals from a plurality of RF beacons having known locations and using environmental profiling to establish the geographical region of the mobile computing unit.
51 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
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determining a geographical region in which a mobile computing unit is located, wherein the act of determining the geographical region comprises receiving RF signals from a plurality of RF beacons having known locations and using environmental profiling to establish the geographical region of the mobile computing unit, wherein environmental profiling comprises comparing a strength of the received RF signal with a table of known locations inside a plurality of buildings and outside of the buildings and a base station signal strength at those locations; periodically transmitting, from the mobile computing unit, the geographical region of the mobile computing unit to a network server together with a user name of a user using the mobile computing unit; and including an active signal with the periodically transmitted information when the user is actively using the mobile computing unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A mobile computing unit, comprising:
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memory; a wireless network interface configured to connect the mobile computing unit to multiple wireless access points of one or more remote servers; a location tracking service configured to determine a geographical region of the mobile computer unit a radio frequency system capable of determining the geographical region by detecting signals transmitted from multiple wireless access points, wherein the location tracking service compares a strength of the received signals with a table of known geographical regions and a base station signal strength at those geographical regions, wherein the geographical regions include a plurality of buildings and locations inside of the buildings and locations outside of the buildings; a location manager configured to periodically transmit the geographical region of the mobile computing unit to one or more of the remote servers via the wireless network interface and to periodically transmit an active signal when a user logged onto the mobile computing unit has actively used the unit within a specified period of time; and wherein the geographical region comprises a state, a county, a city, and a location inside one of the buildings or outside one of the buildings, and wherein the location manager is configured to invoke the location tracking service when commanded to do so by a second computing unit. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method comprising:
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receiving radio frequency transmissions emitted from a plurality of radio frequency base stations of a wireless local area network; measuring relative strengths of the radio frequency transmissions; determining a room in one of a plurality of buildings or a location outside of the buildings where a mobile computing device is located based on the relative strengths by comparing the relative strengths with a table of known rooms in the building and known locations outside of the buildings and a base station signal strength at those rooms in the buildings or those locations outside of the buildings; identifying the room in the building or the location outside of the buildings of the mobile computing device as that of a computer user, wherein the identifying comprises calculating a time differential between a time stamp associated with the room in the building or the location outside of the buildings of the mobile computing device and a current time, comparing the time differential with a predetermined time threshold, and defining the room in the building or the location outside of the buildings of the mobile computing device as that of the computer user if the time differential is less than the time threshold; receiving a request for the room in the building or the location outside of the buildings of the computer user from a computing unit; and transmitting the room in the building or the location outside of the buildings of the computer user to the computing unit. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification