Operating geographic location systems

• US 8,738,031 B2
• Filed: 05/25/2012
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: MacGougan, Glenn Donald, Bruins, Jay N., Mayor, Robert, Huang, Ronald Keryuan, Rhee, Stephen J., Prunty, Jay L., Kazemi, Pejman Lotfali
• Primary Examiner(s): MITCHELL, NATHAN A
• Application Number:
  US13/481,298
• Publication Number:
  US 20130316725A1
• Time in Patent Office: 732 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-4566
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0251 using monitoring of local events, e.g. events related to user activity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/22 Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Among other things, we describe a method that includes receiving, on a mobile device, an indication that an application executing on the mobile device has entered a background state, receiving, from the application, a value indicating a condition for providing location data to the application, disabling a resource associated with the application, while the resource associated with the application is disabled, storing location data received from a location system of the mobile device, and when the condition indicated by the value is met, enabling the resource associated with the application, and providing the stored location data to the application.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, on a mobile device, an indication that an application executing on the mobile device has entered a background state;

receiving, from the application, a value indicating a condition for providing location data to the application;

disabling a resource associated with the application;

while the resource associated with the application is disabled, storing location data received from a location system of the mobile device; and

when the condition indicated by the value is met, enabling the resource associated with the application, and providing the stored location data to the application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the condition indicated by the value comprises a time at which to enable the resource.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the condition indicated by the value comprises a distance traveled at which to enable the resource.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource associated with the application is a component of the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the component of the mobile device is an application processor of the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the location data received from the location system of the mobile device is stored by a baseband processor of the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 6, comprising providing, to the baseband processor, the value indicating the condition for providing location data to the application.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein disabling a resource associated with the application comprises placing the application into a pause state.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising

receiving, on the mobile device, an indication that the application executing on the mobile device has entered a foreground state;

and

providing the stored location data to the application.

10. The method of claim 6, comprising

receiving, at the baseband processor, from the application executing on the mobile device, an indication to provide the stored location data to the application;

and

providing the stored location data to the application.

11. A computer readable storage device storing a computer program product configured to cause a mobile device to perform operations comprising:

receiving, on a mobile device, an indication that an application executing on the mobile device has entered a background state;

receiving, from the application, a value indicating a condition for providing location data to the application;

disabling a resource associated with the application;

while the resource associated with the application is disabled, storing location data received from a location system of the mobile device; and

when the condition indicated by the value is met, enabling the resource associated with the application, and providing the stored location data to the application.

12. The computer readable storage device of claim 11, wherein the condition indicated by the value comprises a time at which to enable the resource.

13. The computer readable storage device of claim 11, wherein the condition indicated by the value comprises a distance traveled at which to enable the resource.

14. The computer readable storage device of claim 11, wherein the resource associated with the application is a component of the mobile device.

15. The computer readable storage device of claim 14, wherein the component of the mobile device is an application processor of the mobile device.

16. The computer readable storage device of claim 11, wherein the location data received from the location system of the mobile device is stored by a baseband processor of the mobile device.

17. The computer readable storage device of claim 16, comprising providing, to the baseband processor, the value indicating the condition for providing location data to the application.

18. The computer readable storage device of claim 11, wherein disabling a resource associated with the application comprises placing the application into a pause state.

19. The computer readable storage device of claim 11, the operations comprising

receiving, on the mobile device, an indication that the application executing on the mobile device has entered a foreground state;

and

providing the stored location data to the application.

20. The computer readable storage device of claim 16, the operations comprising

receiving, at the baseband processor, from the application executing on the mobile device, an indication to provide the stored location data to the application;

and

providing the stored location data to the application.

21. A mobile device comprising:

a location system configured to determine a current location of the mobile device;

an application processor configured to operate in a low-power state and configured to operate in a full-power state; and

a baseband processor configured to receive and store location data from the location system of the mobile device when the application processor is in the low-power state and configured to provide the stored location data to the application processor when the application processor is in a full-power state.

22. The mobile device of claim 21, wherein the application processor is configured to enter the full-power state after a period of time of operation in the low-power state, the period of time defined by a condition value.

23. The mobile device of claim 22, wherein the condition value specifies the period of time.

24. The mobile device of claim 22, wherein the condition value specifies a distance traveled at which to enter the full-power state.

25. The mobile device of claim 22, wherein the application processor is configured to provide the condition value to the baseband processor.

26. The mobile device of claim 21, wherein the baseband processor is configured to provide an indication to the application processor to exit the low-power state and enter the full-power state.