Systems for determining the approximate location of a device from ambient signals
First Claim
1. A system, comprising:
- a signal component that receives a plurality of ambient signals from a plurality of commercial FM radio station transmitters that each provide at least one ambient signal used by a device to determine at least one approximate location of the device;
a ranking component that computes a rank vector of at least the subset of the ambient signals based at least in part on relative signal strengths between the subset of ambient signals and maps the rank vector to an integer;
an analysis component that infers the at least one approximate location of the device based, in part, on comparing the integer to a plurality of hash codes related to one or more disparate permutations of the rank vector; and
a training component for training the analysis component based at least in part on the one or more hash codes corresponding to the one or more permutations of the rank vector and a related location, the one or more rank vectors are computed based at least in part on relative signal strength of the ambient radio signals at the related location;
wherein each ambient signal is associated with a commercial FM radio station.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention leverages changes in the sensed strength of radio signals at different locations to determine a device'"'"'s location. In one instance of the present invention, inference procedures 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 present invention, a system utilizes learning and inference methods that are applied to rank vector of signal strength vectors. Moving to such rank orderings leads to systems that bypass consideration of absolute signal strengths in location calculations. The present invention facilitates approximations for locating a device by providing a system that does not require a substantial number of available ambient signal strengths while still providing useful location inferences in determining locations.
112 Citations
36 Claims
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1. A system, comprising:
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a signal component that receives a plurality of ambient signals from a plurality of commercial FM radio station transmitters that each provide at least one ambient signal used by a device to determine at least one approximate location of the device; a ranking component that computes a rank vector of at least the subset of the ambient signals based at least in part on relative signal strengths between the subset of ambient signals and maps the rank vector to an integer; an analysis component that infers the at least one approximate location of the device based, in part, on comparing the integer to a plurality of hash codes related to one or more disparate permutations of the rank vector; and a training component for training the analysis component based at least in part on the one or more hash codes corresponding to the one or more permutations of the rank vector and a related location, the one or more rank vectors are computed based at least in part on relative signal strength of the ambient radio signals at the related location; wherein each ambient signal is associated with a commercial FM radio station. - 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, 34, 35)
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32. A system, comprising:
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means for receiving a plurality of disparate ambient radio signals, the disparate ambient radio signals are from a plurality of commercial FM radio station transmitters that each provide at least one ambient signal used by a device to determine at least one approximate location of the device; means for computing a rank vector based at least in part on relative strength of the disparate ambient radio signals and mapping the rank vector to an integer; means for inferring the approximate location of the device based, in part, on comparing the integer to one or more hash codes corresponding to one or more permutations of the rank vector; and means for training the means for inferring based at least in part on the one or more hash codes corresponding to the one or more permutations of the rank vector and a related location, the one or more rank vectors are computed based at least in part on relative signal strength of the disparate ambient radio signals at the related location. - View Dependent Claims (33)
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36. A system, comprising:
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a signal component that receives a plurality of ambient signals from a plurality of commercial FM radio station transmitters that each provide at least one ambient signal used by a device to determine at least one approximate location of the device; a ranking component that computes a rank vector of at least the subset of the ambient signals based at least in part on relative signal strengths between the subset of ambient signals and maps the rank vector to an integer; an analysis component that infers the at least one approximate location of the device based, in part, on comparing the integer to a plurality of hash codes related to one or more disparate permutations of the rank vector; and a training component for training the analysis component based at least in part on the one or more hash codes corresponding to the one or more permutations of the rank vector and a related location, the one or more rank vectors are computed based at least in part on relative signal strength of the ambient radio signals at the related location.
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Specification