Position detection

• US 8,164,444 B2
• Filed: 04/29/2009
• Issued: 04/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Best Buy Health Incorporated (Best Buy Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Healthsense, Inc. (Best Buy Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Anderson, Dean S., Vatland, Danny J., Thielen, Christopher M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bugg, George
• Assistant Examiner(s): McNally, Kerri
• Application Number:
  US12/432,565
• Publication Number:
  US 20100277309A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,091 Days
• Field of Search: 340/539.13
• US Class Current: 340/539.13
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2505/07 Home care
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1113 Local tracking of patients, e.g. in a hospital or private home
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/043 detecting an emergency event, e.g. a fall
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0446 worn on the body to detect changes of posture, e.g. a fall, inclination, acceleration, gait
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/22 responsive to presence or absence of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods, devices, and systems for position detections of an individual. One method to detect a position of an individual includes creating a zone map by mapping locations of a number of fixed sensors in a zone and signal strengths of a number of communications between the fixed sensors and at least two wireless access points. The method also includes determining signal strength values of a number of communications between the wireless access points and a mobile sensor and comparing the signal strength values of the number of communications between at least two wireless access points and the mobile sensor with the zone map to determine the mobile sensor'"'"'s position in relation to the zone.

Claims

1. A method for detecting a position of an individual, comprising:

creating a zone map by mapping locations of a number of fixed sensors in a zone and signal strengths of a first number of communications between the fixed sensors and a number of wireless access points;

determining signal strength values of a number of communications between the number of wireless access points and a mobile sensor; and

comparing the signal strength values of the number of communications between at least two of the number of wireless access points and the mobile sensor with the zone map to determine the mobile sensor'"'"'s position in relation to the zone.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein creating the zone map includes updating one or more signal strength values based on an evaluation of a second number of communications between the at least two wireless access points and at least one of the number of fixed sensors in the zone at multiple periodic intervals.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein creating the zone map includes updating one or more signal strength values based on an evaluation of the second number of communications between the at least two wireless access points and at least one of the number of fixed sensors in the zone wherein the number or position of the wireless access points or fixed sensors has changed between two periodic intervals.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein updating one or more signal strength values occurs at a periodic interval selected from the range of intervals from 1 to 4 minutes for a period selected from a range of 2 to 4 hours.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first number of communications between the at least two wireless access points and the number of fixed sensors in the zone and the number of communications between the at least two of the number of wireless access points and the mobile sensor are on one or more discrete communication channels.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining signal strength values of the number of communications between the number of wireless access points and the mobile sensor occurs during a period selected from a range of 5 to 15 minutes.

7. A method for detecting a position of an individual, comprising:

scanning one or more communication channels, utilized by at least two wireless access points, with one or more fixed sensors, wherein at least one of the one or more fixed sensors records the signal strength of a signal received during communication with each of the wireless access points;

transmitting data representing the recorded signal strength from the one or more fixed sensors to a data center;

scanning one or more channels for a number of wireless access points with a mobile sensor, wherein the mobile sensor records the signal strength received during communication with each of the number of wireless access points;

transmitting data representing the recorded signal strength from the mobile sensor to the data center; and

analyzing the data representing the recorded signal strength from the one or more fixed sensors and the data representing the recorded signal strength from the mobile sensor to determine the position of the mobile sensor in relation the one or more fixed sensors.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the method includes applying a Bayesian filter when analyzing the data representing the recorded signal strength from at least one of the fixed sensors and the data representing the recorded signal strength from the mobile sensor to determine the position of the mobile sensor in relation to the at least one of the fixed sensors.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the method includes recording the mobile sensor signal strength received during communication with at least one of the wireless access points multiple times and analyzing the multiple recorded signal strengths to determine the position of the mobile sensor in relation to the one or more fixed sensors.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein analyzing the data representing the recorded signal strength from the one or more fixed sensors and the data representing the recorded signal strength from the mobile sensor to determine the position of the mobile sensor in relation the one or more fixed sensors includes analyzing a relative difference between signal strength recordings of the one or more fixed sensors.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein analyzing the data representing the recorded signal strength from the one or more fixed sensors and the data representing the recorded signal strength from the mobile sensor to determine the position of the mobile sensor in relation the one or more fixed sensors includes analyzing a ratio of the signal strength recording of one fixed sensor to another one of the one or more fixed sensors.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein analyzing the data representing the recorded signal strength from the one or more fixed sensors and the data representing the recorded signal strength from the mobile sensor to determine the position of the mobile sensor in relation the one or more fixed sensors includes identifying a wireless access point that a particular sensor was associated with when a particular signal strength was recorded.

13. A system for detecting a position of an individual, comprising:

a number of fixed sensors located in a zone;

a mobile sensor that is moved by a user;

a data center; and

a number of wireless access points,

wherein the wireless access points provide wireless access to a network that includes the number of fixed sensors, the mobile sensor, the number of wireless access points, and the data center, and

wherein the fixed sensors and the mobile sensor periodically report the signal strength of communications between at least two wireless access points and at least one of the number of fixed sensors to the data center to determine the position of the mobile sensor in relation to the number of fixed sensors.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the position of the mobile sensor in relation to the number of fixed sensors is reported to a monitoring individual as a mobile sensor zone status.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the mobile sensor zone status indicates whether the mobile sensor is located in the zone or located out of the zone.

16. A system for detecting a position of an individual, comprising:

a number of fixed sensors located in a zone, wherein the zone is defined by an area less than or equal to a range of wireless communication for all of the number of fixed sensors;

a mobile sensor that is moved by a user, wherein the mobile sensor transmits one or more wireless signals to a wireless network;

at least two wireless access points, where the wireless access points provide wireless access to the wireless network; and

a data center, wherein the data center includes executable instructions to create a zone map of signal strengths communicated by the number of fixed sensors based on data received via the wireless network and wherein the data center determines the position of the mobile sensor based upon the zone map and mobile sensor signal strength data sent from the mobile sensor to the data center on the wireless network via the at least two wireless access points.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the executable instructions are executable by a device selected from the group including devices having one or more software, firmware, or solid-state components.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the fixed sensors of the wireless network are used for monitoring activity of an individual and used to initiate an alert based on a set of rules associated with activations of the fixed sensors.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein a Bayesian filter is used on the mobile sensor signal strength data to determine the position of the mobile sensor based upon the zone map and mobile sensor signal strength data.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the zone map is updated with the signal strengths of a number of communications between the wireless access points and the number of fixed sensors located in the zone.