Systems and methods for determining location from wireless signals

• US 8,816,848 B2
• Filed: 06/22/2010
• Issued: 08/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sling Media Incorporated (Dish Network Corporation)
• Inventors: Marino, Nino
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Hung T
• Application Number:
  US12/820,978
• Publication Number:
  US 20110309933A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,526 Days
• Field of Search: 340/539.21, 340/539.23, 340/539.13, 340/539.32, 340/825.22, 340/825.49, 340/825.69, 340/825.72, 340/539.1, 370/252, 370/338, 455/410, 455/414.1, 455/456, 455/456.1, 725/28, 725/51, 725/58
• US Class Current: 340/539.13
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02521 using a radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/91 Remote control based on location and proximity
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/93 Remote control using other portable devices, e.g. mobile phone, PDA, laptop
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

A computer, media player, remote control or other device is configured to determine its relative location within a home, office or other given environment based upon the reception and/or sensing of wireless network signals and/or other electromagnetic signals emitted by other devices present at any time in the environment. The device receives wireless signals from one or more wireless signal sources, and determines a parameter (e.g., signal strength) for the signals received from each source. The location of the portable device within the environment is determined based on the determined parameters. The location may be used for any purpose, such as adjusting a setting on the portable device, identifying another device to be controlled by a portable remote control, or the like.

Claims

1. A method executable by a device operating within an environment, the method comprising:

receiving wireless signals at the device from at least one wireless signal source;

obtaining a parameter of the wireless signals received from the at least one wireless signal sources by the device;

determining, by the device, a location of the device within the environment based on the measured parameter of the wireless signals; and

adjusting a setting of the device based upon the determined location of the device within the environment, wherein the adjusting comprises the device automatically enabling or disabling a feature of the device based upon the determined location of the device within the environment so that the feature is enabled when the device is located in some parts of the environment but disabled when the device is located in other parts of the environment.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the adjusting comprises disabling some or all operations of the device if the determined location indicates that the device has been moved from a known location.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the adjusting comprises disabling the device if the determined location indicates that the device has been moved from a known location.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one wireless signal source is a wireless network access point that broadcasts wireless signals associated with a wireless network to at least a portion of the environment.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the device is a media player device, and wherein the adjusting comprises adjusting a parental control feature of the media player device based upon the location of the device within the environment so that the media player device is enabled to play at least some types of content while the device is located in certain portions of the environment but disabled from playing the certain types of content when the device is located in other portions of the environment.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the adjusting further comprises adjusting a user interface feature of the device based upon the location of the device within the environment.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless signals are wireless networking signals, and wherein the parameter describes measured signal strengths of the wireless networking signals, and wherein the receiving comprises receiving the wireless networking signals from each of a plurality of wireless transmitters, and wherein the determining comprises correlating the measured signal strengths with previously-stored signal strength values from each of the plurality of wireless transmitters.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the correlating is based upon a range of signal strengths.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless signals are wireless networking signals, wherein the parameter identifies a network associated with each of the wireless networking signals, and wherein the receiving comprises receiving the wireless networking signals from each of a plurality of wireless networks.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless signals are wireless networking signals.

11. A device configured to operate within an environment, the device comprising:

a wireless receiver within the device configured to receive wireless networking signals from each of a plurality of wireless transmitters and to determine signal strengths of the wireless networking signals received from each of the plurality of wireless transmitters;

a memory configured to store a plurality of settings at the device; and

a controller coupled to the wireless receiver and to the memory, wherein the controller is configured to determine a location of the device within the environment based upon the signal strengths of the wireless networking signals received from each of the plurality of wireless transmitters, and to automatically disable at least one feature of the device based upon the location of the device within the environment so that the at least one feature of the device is enabled at at least one location within the environment and disabled at at least one other location within the environment.

12. The device of claim 11 wherein device is disabled if the determined location indicates that the device has been moved from a known location.

13. The device of claim 11 wherein the controller is configured to determine the location of the device by comparing the signal strengths of the wireless networking signals received from each of the plurality of wireless transmitters with stored values representing strengths of wireless networking signals previously received from each of the wireless transmitters when the portable device was in relative proximity to one of the plurality of controllable devices.

14. The device of claim 11 further comprising an antenna that provides a baseband signal that comprises the received wireless networking signals to the wireless receiver, and wherein the wireless receiver determines the signal strengths of the wireless networking signals based upon the intensity of the baseband signal.

15. The device of claim 11 wherein the device comprises a media player, and wherein the controller is configured to disable playback of certain types of content by the device when the device is located at certain portions of the environment but to enable playback of the certain types of content by the device when the device is located in other portions of the environment.

16. A method executable by a portable media player device, the method comprising:

for each of a plurality of known locations, the portable media player device initially measuring signal strengths of signals received at the portable media player device from each of a plurality of wireless networks;

storing the measured signal strengths at the portable media player device;

subsequently measuring the strengths of the signals received at the portable media player device from each of the plurality of wireless networks by the portable media player device;

comparing, by the portable media player device, the subsequently-measured strengths to the initially-measured signal strengths to thereby select one of the known locations as a determined location of the portable media player device; and

the portable media player automatically implementing a location-based parental control for content presented by the portable media player device so that playback of at least some types of media content is enabled when the portable media player device determines that it is located at certain known locations and disabled when the media player device determines that it is located at other known locations.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising changing a user interface associated with the portable device based upon the determined location of the portable media player device.