Peer and composite localization for mobile applications

• US 8,812,013 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2009
• Issued: 08/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Agarwal, Sharad, Bahl, Paramvir, Banerjee, Nilanjan, Chandra, Ranveer, Wolman, Alastair
• Primary Examiner(s): Hu, Jinsong
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hong, Dung
• Application Number:
  US12/395,386
• Publication Number:
  US 20100105409A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,999 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.2, 4554561-4566, 455/457, 455/41.1, 455/41.2, 455/574, 455/553, 455/127.4
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0263 by combining or switching between positions derived from two or more separate positioning systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0289 of multiple transceivers, e.g. in ad hoc networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A system and method for peer based localization system using radio technology, such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi ad-hoc technology that enables mobile devices such as cell phones, smart phones, laptops, handheld communication devices, handheld computing devices, satellite radios, global positioning systems, PDAs, etc. to discover their physical location relative to one another. In addition, the peer based localization can use a plurality of radio technologies to increase the accuracy of the physical location estimates. Additionally or alternatively, the peer based localization technique can be combined with infrastructure based location techniques, such as triangulation, GPS, or infrastructure based Wi-Fi localization in order to transpose virtual coordinates into physical coordinates.

Claims

1. A mobile device, comprising:

a radio component that establishes peer-to-peer communication with an additional mobile device using a plurality of radio technologies concurrently; and

a localization component that;

estimates a first physical distance between the mobile devices based at least in part on first localization data associated with a first of the plurality of radio technologies;

estimates a second physical distance between the mobile devices that is more accurate than the first physical distance based at least in part on second localization data associated with using concurrently the first of the plurality of radio technologies and a second of the plurality of radio technologies, wherein the second localization data is different than the first localization data and the second physical distance is estimated subsequent to the estimation of the first physical distance;

detects a relative position of the mobile device with respect to the additional mobile device based at least in part upon the second physical distance; and

determines a global physical location of the mobile device by combining a global physical location of the additional mobile device determined by the additional mobile device via infrastructure localization with the relative position of the mobile device.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the radio technologies include at least one of Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi ad hoc technology.

3. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the localization component determines the global physical location of the mobile device via the infrastructure localization including at least one of GPS, infrastructure based Wi-Fi localization, or triangulation.

4. The mobile device of claim 3, wherein the localization component transposes virtual coordinates obtained by the infrastructure localization into physical coordinates obtained via the radio component.

5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein a surrogate device scans for other mobile devices, and in response to the surrogate device detecting a new mobile device, the surrogate device signals the mobile device and the additional mobile device to start scanning for the new mobile device.

6. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the localization component estimates the physical distance between the mobile devices based at least in part on a received signal strength indication of the radio communication.

7. The mobile device of claim 1, further comprising an energy management component that controls energy consumption of the mobile device that is used for discovering other devices via cloud coordination with the other devices, wherein the mobile device queries a web service to determine if any of the other devices are within a discovery range and are active.

8. A method for mobile device localization, comprising:

establishing, by a mobile device, peer-to-peer communication with a first additional mobile device;

enabling multi-hop peer-localization;

estimating a physical distance between the mobile device and the first additional mobile device based on a first distance estimated using a first radio and a second distance estimated using the first radio and a second radio concurrently, wherein the second distance is more accurate than the first distance;

estimating a physical distance between the mobile device and a second additional mobile device based at least in part on multi-hop peer-localization, wherein the multi-hop peer-localization includes stuffing position data of the second additional mobile device into a beacon signal of the first additional mobile device, the mobile device receiving the position data of the second additional mobile device via the first additional mobile device, in which the position data of the second additional mobile device stuffed into the beacon signal of the first additional mobile device allows the mobile device to detect a relative position to the second additional mobile device; and

determining a global physical location of the mobile device by combining a global physical location of the second additional mobile device with the relative position of the mobile device, in which the global physical location of the second additional mobile device is determined by the second additional mobile device via infrastructure based localization.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein establishing the peer-to-peer communication further comprises using two or more radio technologies, wherein the radio technologies include at least one of a Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi ad hoc technology.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining the global physical location of the mobile device using the infrastructure based localization including GPS, infrastructure based Wi-Fi localization, or triangulation.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising transposing virtual coordinates obtained via the infrastructure based localization with physical coordinates based on the estimated physical distance.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising managing energy consumption of the mobile device localization via cloud coordination.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the second distance is estimated subsequent to the estimation of the first distance.

14. A method for mobile device localization, comprising:

establishing, by a mobile device, peer-to-peer communication with at least one additional mobile device via two or more radio technologies concurrently;

estimating a physical distance between the mobile devices based at least in part on a first distance obtained via using a first radio technology and a second distance more accurate than the first distance obtained via concurrently using the first radio technology and a second radio technology, wherein the second distance allows the mobile device to determine a relative position to the at least one additional mobile device;

combining global physical location of the at least one additional mobile device determined by the at least one additional mobile device via infrastructure based localization with the relative position of the mobile device to determine a global physical location of the mobile device; and

managing energy consumption of the mobile device localization via cloud coordination.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first and second radio technologies include a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi ad hoc technology.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining the global physical location of the mobile device using the infrastructure based localization including GPS, infrastructure based Wi-Fi localization, or triangulation.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising transposing virtual coordinates obtained via the infrastructure based localization with physical coordinates based on the estimated physical distance.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining the physical location by multi-hop peer-localization, the multi-hop peer-localization including stuffing position data into a beacon signal.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising mapping the location of the mobile devices on a grid.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising using a surrogate device to handle a process of scanning for other mobile devices.