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Location determination using cached location area codes

  • US 8,634,860 B2
  • Filed: 01/15/2010
  • Issued: 01/21/2014
  • Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2010
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method executed by a mobile device, comprising:

  • receiving a set of location area codes (LACs) of a cellular communications network, each LAC in the set being associated with a plurality of cells of the cellular communications network, the LAC further associated with a geographic area, the geographic area including a first circle centered at a location and having a first radius representing an uncertainty of the location;

    determining a current LAC of the mobile device based on a wirelessly received signal;

    determining a first estimated location of the mobile device, including performing a lookup in the received set of LACs using the current LAC;

    providing a representation of the first estimated location for display on the mobile device;

    determining a second estimated location of the mobile device, comprising;

    receiving identifiers of access points of a wireless communications network and a set of locations associated with the access points;

    calculating an average geographic location using the set of locations;

    calculating distances between the average geographic location and locations in the set of locations;

    excluding at least one location from the set based on a distance between the average geographic location and the at least one location;

    repeating calculating the average geographic location, calculating the distances, and excluding at least one location until an exit condition is satisfied; and

    designating the second estimated location of the mobile device using a representation having the average geographic location as a center and at least one calculated distance as a dimension, wherein a size of the representation of the second estimated location is smaller than a size of the representation of the first estimated location; and

    providing for display the representation of the second estimated location replacing the representation of the first estimated location.

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