Determining a position of a mobile device

• US 8,694,027 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2007
• Issued: 04/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Fletcher, Ben J., Jones, Gareth E., Whitehead, Matthew R
• Primary Examiner(s): RAMPURIA, SHARAD K
• Application Number:
  US11/857,463
• Publication Number:
  US 20080076431A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,393 Days
• Field of Search: 455/41.1, 455/41.2, 455/553, 455/424, 455/422.1, 455436-444, 455/404.2, 4554561-457, 455517-519, 455/434, 370/328, 370/338
• US Class Current: 455/456.5
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A method, apparatus and software are disclosed in which the position of a mobile device is determined by proximity detection from a first node using one wireless communications protocol and the position of the first node is determined using a set of signals from base stations having known locations and using a second wireless communications protocol.

Claims

1. A method for approximating a location of a mobile device, the method comprising:

receiving, by a computer, a plurality of wireless local area network communication signals, each signal being received from one of a plurality of base stations, wherein each of the plurality of base stations has a known location;

identifying, by the computer, a signal strength for each of the plurality of wireless local area network communication signals;

determining, by the computer, a location of the computer from the signal strength for each of the plurality of wireless local area network communication signals and the known location of each of the plurality of base stations;

scanning, by the computer, for one or more mobile devices within a proximity of the computer, wherein the scanning utilizes a personal area network communication protocol;

responsive to scanning for one or more mobile devices, detecting, by the computer, one or more mobile devices within the proximity using the personal area network communication protocol;

storing, by the computer, an identifier of the one or more mobile devices and the location of the computer in an access list as data representing a location of the one or more mobile devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the personal area network protocol is used at the computer to perform a scan for the one or more mobile devices and by the one or more mobile devices to respond to the scan.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein, in response to the scan, the identifier of the one or more mobile devices is received from the one or more mobile devices, each identifier is stored in the access list as data representing the location of the one or more mobile devices, and the access list is sent to a collating application executing on a server computer, wherein the collating application is configured to receive location information from a set of computers.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the access list identifies a mobile device of the one or more mobile devices having a predetermined relationship with the computer, wherein the step of storing the identifier of the one or more mobile devices further comprises-storing data representing the location of the computer as a location of only the mobile device having the predetermined relationship with the computer.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising storing data representing a signal transmission range of the personal area network communication protocol is stored with said data representing the location of the one or more mobile devices.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of base stations comprises wireless access points for a network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the personal area network communication protocol comprises a Class 2 Bluetooth communication protocol.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of wireless local area network communication signals comprises a WiFi wireless local area network protocol.

9. The method of claim 1, said method further comprising:

receiving, by a second computer, a second plurality of wireless local area network communication signals, each second signal being received from one of the plurality of base stations;

identifying, by the second computer, a second signal strength for each of the second plurality of wireless local area network communication signals;

determining, by the second computer, a location of the second computer from the second signal strength for each of the second plurality of wireless local area network communication signals and the known location of each of the plurality of base stations;

detecting the one or more mobile devices within a proximity of a second computer within a predetermined time period using the personal area network communication protocol at the second computer;

determining said location of said one or more mobile devices using data representing the location of the computer and data representing the location of the second computer.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising disseminating data representing the location of the one or more mobile devices using a publish and subscribe message broker.

11. An apparatus comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having a plurality of instructions executable by a machine embodied therein;

a bus connecting the computer readable storage medium to a processor;

a processor, wherein the processor executes the plurality of instructions;

to receive a plurality of wireless local area network communication signals, each signal being received from one of a plurality of base stations, wherein each of the plurality of base stations has a known location;

to identify a signal strength for each of the plurality of wireless local area network communication signals;

to determine a location of the computer from the signal strength for each of the plurality of wireless local area network communication signals and the known location of each of the plurality of base stations;

to scan for one or more mobile devices within a proximity of the computer, wherein the scanning utilizes a personal area network communication protocol;

responsive to scanning for one or more mobile devices, to detect one or more mobile devices within the proximity using the personal area network communication protocol;

to store an identifier of the one or more mobile devices and the location of the computer in an access list as data representing a location of the one or more mobile devices.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the processor further executes the plurality of instructions:

to receive a second plurality of wireless local area network communication signals, each second signal being received from one of the plurality of base stations;

to identify a second signal strength for each of the second plurality of wireless local area network communication signals;

to determine a location of the second computer from the second signal strength for each of the second plurality of wireless local area network communication signals and the known location of each of the plurality of base stations;

to detect the one or more mobile devices within a proximity of a second computer within a predetermined time period using the personal area network communication protocol at the second computer;

to determine said location of said one or more mobile devices using data representing the location of the computer and data representing the location of the second computer.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a plurality of instructions executable by a machine embodied therein, wherein said plurality of instructions when executed cause said machine to perform a method comprising:

receiving, by a computer, a plurality of wireless local area network communication signals, each signal being received from one of a plurality of base stations, wherein each of the plurality of base stations has a known location;

identifying, by the computer, a signal strength for each of the plurality of wireless local area network communication signals;

determining, by the computer, a location of the computer from the signal strength for each of the plurality of wireless local area network communication signals and the known location of each of the plurality of base stations;

scanning, by the computer, for one or more mobile devices within a proximity of the computer, wherein the scanning utilizes a personal area network communication protocol;

responsive to scanning for one or more mobile devices, detecting, by the computer, one or more mobile devices within the proximity using the personal area network communication protocol;

storing, by the computer, an identifier of the one or more mobile devices and the location of the computer in an access list as data representing a location of the one or more mobile devices.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, said method further comprising:

receiving, by a second computer, a second plurality of wireless local area network communication signals, each second signal being received from one of the plurality of base stations;

identifying, by the second computer, a second signal strength for each of the second plurality of wireless local area network communication signals;

determining, by the second computer, a location of the second computer from the second signal strength for each of the second plurality of wireless local area network communication signals and the known location of each of the plurality of base stations;

detecting the one or more mobile devices within a proximity of a second computer within a predetermined time period using the personal area network communication protocol at the second computer;

determining said location of said one or more mobile devices using data representing the location of the computer and data representing the location of the second computer.