Peer-to-peer location service

• US 8,364,172 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2010
• Issued: 01/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Bao, Hongji, Chang, Edward, Guanfeng, Li
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo, Chuong A
• Application Number:
  US12/969,291
• Publication Number:
  US 20120157121A1
• Time in Patent Office: 776 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 455/456.6, 455/458, 455/404.2, 455/41.2, 455/433, 370328-338
• US Class Current: 455/456.2
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0018 Transmission from mobile station to base station
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Techniques are described for obtaining high-resolution physical locations for a wireless device by leveraging the high-resolution physical location capabilities of wireless peers of the wireless device to provide a peer-to-peer location service and facilitate location targeting. Wireless devices provide location updates to a computing cloud, which stores records associating wireless device identifiers with received location information for the corresponding wireless devices. A wireless device issues a peer discovery request to dynamically identify nearby wireless peers in its network. The wireless device then sends wireless device identifiers for the nearby wireless peers in a location request to the computing cloud, which estimates a location for the wireless device using the previously recorded location information for the nearby wireless peers. The computing cloud returns the estimated location to the requesting wireless device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

broadcasting a peer discovery request from a wireless communication device to a wireless communication network, wherein the peer discovery request comprises a request for one or more peer identities;

receiving, with the wireless communication device in response to the peer discovery request, one or more peer responses from corresponding one or more peer devices communicatively coupled to the wireless communication network, wherein the one or more peer responses each include a respective peer identity of the one or more peer identities and do not include a respective physical location for a responding one of the corresponding one or more peer devices;

sending a location query that includes the one or more peer identities from the wireless communication device to a server of a location service, wherein the location query comprises a request for a physical location of the wireless communication device that is estimated by the location service based at least on the physical locations of the one or more peer devices; and

receiving, with the wireless communication device in a location response from the location service, the estimated physical location of the wireless communication device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication network comprises an infrastructure network that comprises a base station, the method further comprising:

sending the peer discovery request from the wireless communication device to the base station, wherein the peer discovery request comprises a request for the one or more peer identities, and

wherein receiving the one or more peer identities for the corresponding one or more peer devices comprises receiving one or more peer responses that each comprise a respective peer identity from the base station.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the one or more peer identities comprises monitoring wireless network traffic traversing the wireless communication network and determining the one or more peer identities from the wireless network traffic.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, with the wireless communication device, a physical location of the wireless communication device; and

sending a location update message from the wireless communication device to the server of the location service, wherein the location update message includes the physical location and a peer identity of the wireless communication device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the physical location is selected from a group consisting of Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates, a cellular base station identifier, a wireless access point identifier, Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) localization information, and time difference of arrival (TDOA) information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more peer identities is a privacy-preserved peer identity, wherein a privacy-preserved peer identity prevents identification of the corresponding one or more peer devices.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication network comprises an ad-hoc wireless communication network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication device is a mobile wireless communication device.

9. A method comprising:

receiving, with a server of a location service, location update messages from corresponding wireless communication devices, wherein the location update messages include physical locations and peer identities for the corresponding wireless communication devices, wherein each of the physical locations for the corresponding wireless communication devices comprises Global Positioning System coordinates;

storing, with the server, the physical locations and the peer identities to a storage device that provides data storage and retrieval for the location service;

receiving, with the server, a location query from a first wireless communication device that is a peer of the wireless communication devices, wherein the location query includes the peer identities;

querying, with the server, the storage device using the peer identities to obtain physical locations of the wireless communication devices corresponding to the peer identities;

determining, with the server, an estimated physical location of the first wireless communication device that is a peer of the wireless communication devices based at least on the physical locations; and

outputting the estimated physical location from the server to the first wireless communication device in a location response.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining the estimated physical location of the first wireless communication device based at least on the physical locations comprises applying, with the server, a location model to the physical locations for the wireless communication devices.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the location update messages include location acquisition method identifiers that specify location acquisition methods for corresponding physical locations, and the method further comprising:

applying, with the server, the location model to the location acquisition method identifiers to calculate a confidence level for the estimated physical location; and

outputting the confidence level from the server to the first wireless communication device.

12. The method of claim 9,

wherein the location query further comprises a base station identifier for a base station that serves the first wireless communication device, and

wherein determining the estimated physical location of the first wireless communication device further comprises determining the estimated physical location based at least on a physical location of the base station.

13. The method of claim 9,

calculating, with the server, a confidence level for the estimated physical location based at least on the physical locations of the wireless communication devices;

and

outputting the confidence level from the server to the first wireless communication device.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the server comprises a server of a cloud computing network that operates the location service.

15. A wireless communication device coupled to a wireless communication network, the wireless communication device comprising:

a location module that broadcasts a peer discovery request to the wireless communication network, wherein the peer discovery request comprises a request for one or more peer identities,

wherein the location module receives, in response to the peer discovery request, one or more peer peer responses from corresponding one or more peer devices communicatively coupled to the wireless communication network, wherein the one or more peer responses each include a respective peer identity of the one or more peer identities and do not include a respective physical location for a responding one of the corresponding one or more peer devices of the peer devices,

wherein the location module sends a location query that includes the peer identities to a location service,

wherein the location query comprises a request for a physical location of the wireless communication device that is estimated by the location service based at least on the physical locations of the one or more peer devices, and

wherein the location module receives, in a location response from the location service, the estimated physical location.

16. A system comprising:

an update server that receives location update messages from corresponding wireless communication devices, wherein the location update messages include physical locations and peer identities for the corresponding wireless communication devices, wherein each of the physical locations for the corresponding wireless communication devices comprises Global Positioning System coordinates;

a location data store comprising a computer readable storage medium that stores the physical locations and identifiers to a storage device that provides data storage and retrieval;

a query interface of a query server that receives a location query from a first wireless communication device that is a peer of the wireless communication devices, wherein the location query includes the peer identities;

a database interface of a query server that queries the location data store using the peer identities to obtain the physical locations;

a location estimator that determines an estimated physical location of the first wireless communication device based at least on the physical locations,

wherein the query interface of the query server outputs the estimated physical location to the first wireless communication device in a location response.

17. A tangible computer-readable medium comprising instructions for causing a programmable processor to:

broadcast a peer discovery request from a wireless communication device to a wireless communication network, wherein the peer discovery request comprises a request for one or more peer identities;

receive, with the wireless communication device in response to the peer discovery request, one or more peer responses from corresponding one or more peer devices communicatively coupled to the wireless communication network;

send a location query that includes the one or more peer identities from the wireless communication device to a location service, wherein the location query comprises a request for a physical location of the wireless communication device that is estimated by the location service based at least on the physical locations of the one or more peer devices; and

receive, with the wireless communication device in a location response from the location service, the estimated physical location of the wireless communication device.

18. A tangible computer-readable medium comprising instructions for causing a programmable processor to:

receive, with a server of a location service, location update messages from corresponding wireless communication devices, wherein the location update messages include physical locations and peer identities for the corresponding wireless communication devices, wherein each of the physical locations for the corresponding wireless communication devices comprises Global Positioning System coordinates;

store, with the server, the physical locations and the peer identities to a storage device that provides data storage and retrieval for the location service;

receive, with the server, a location query from a first wireless communication device that is a peer of the wireless communication devices, wherein the location query includes the peer identities;

query, with the server, the storage device using the peer identities to obtain physical locations of the wireless communication devices corresponding to the peer identities;

determine, with the server, an estimated physical location of the first wireless communication device that is a peer of the wireless communication devices based at least on the physical locations; and

output the estimated physical location from the server to the first wireless communication device in a location response.