Displaying location uncertainty of a mobile device

• US 9,113,293 B1
• Filed: 11/19/2013
• Issued: 08/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Rayburn, Terry G., Nelson, Rodney D., McMullen, Michael P.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, KHAI MINH
• Application Number:
  US14/084,115
• Time in Patent Office: 637 Days
• Field of Search: 455/457, 455/446, 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 455/456.3, 455/67.11, 455/423, 455/414.1, 455/418, 455/500
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/021 Calibration, monitoring or correction G01S5/0252 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination

Abstract

Methods and systems for displaying location uncertainty of locations of mobile devices are provided. A location of a mobile device may be determined using a location system. The mobile device can be associated with a location service that locates the mobile device. The location system identifies the location of the mobile device that is an approximation of the location of the mobile device. An uncertainty region for the location of the mobile device is identified. The uncertainty region determines an extent of geographic data that is displayed on a location diagram based on a correlation between the uncertainty region and the extent of geographic data. The extent of geographic data that corresponds to the uncertainty region is determined. The location associated with the uncertainty region is communicated such that the location is displayed on the location diagram with the extent of geographic data using the obscuring feature.

Claims

1. Non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, enable a computing device to perform a method for displaying location uncertainty of locations of mobile devices, the method comprising:

determining a location of the mobile device using a location system;

identifying an uncertainty region of the location, wherein the uncertainty region determines an extent of geographic data that is displayed on a location diagram;

determining the extent of geographic data that corresponds to the uncertainty region; and

communicating the location associated with the uncertainty region such that the location is displayed on the location diagram with the extent of geographic data using an obscuring feature.

2. The media of claim 1, wherein the location is associated with at least one of:

an accuracy attribute of the location; and

a precision attribute of the location, wherein each of the accuracy and the precision are computed in part using one or more location system parameters of the location system.

3. The media of claim 1, wherein identifying the uncertainty region further comprises:

identifying the location system used to determine the location of the mobile device;

referencing a set of rules of the location system that identify the location of the mobile device, wherein the set of rules is associated with one or more location system parameters that are used in determining the location of the mobile device; and

identifying the uncertainty region for the location based on one or more location system parameters.

4. The media of claim 1, wherein the extent of geographic data that corresponds to the uncertainty region is such that all geographic data within the uncertainty region is obscured by the obscuring feature.

5. The media of claim 1, wherein the extent of geographic data that corresponds to the uncertainty region is such that an opacity-to-transparency obscuring feature is selected to be displayed at a central portion of the uncertainty region with opacity and at a peripheral portion of the uncertainty region with transparency.

6. The media of claim 1, wherein determining the extent of geographic data that corresponds to the uncertainty region further comprises determining whether the uncertainty region meets a threshold dimension, such that, when the uncertainty region falls below the threshold dimension no geographic data is obscured and when the uncertainty region is above the threshold dimension at least a portion of geographic data is obscured.

7. The media of claim 1, wherein the location is associated with two or more sub-regions of an uncertainty shape, each sub-region having a location score that indicates the likelihood of the mobile device being located within each of the two or more sub-regions, and wherein a first sub-region with a higher location score is more obscured than a second sub-region with a lower location score.

8. The media of claim 7, wherein location score is determined based on one or more location system parameters associated with the location system.

9. A method for displaying location uncertainty of locations of mobile devices, the method comprising:

receiving a request to locate a mobile device;

communicating the request to a location sever to locate the mobile device;

receiving a location having an uncertainty region, wherein the uncertainty region determines an extent of geographic data that is displayed on a location diagram; and

displaying the location of the mobile device using an obscuring feature that reveals the location on the location diagram at the extent of geographic data that corresponds to the uncertainty region.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the obscuring feature comprises one or more selected from:

an opacity-to-transparency effect;

a blurring effect;

a pixilation effect

a shading gradient effect; and

a zoom effect.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the obscuring feature is the opacity-to-transparency effect, wherein an uncertainty shape is increasingly more opaque in a portion more central to the uncertainty shape and increasingly more transparent a portion more peripheral to the uncertainty shape.

12. The media of claim 9, further wherein the location is associated with a location score, wherein the location score indicates the likelihood of the mobile device being at location such that the location score is factored into determining the extent of geographic data displayed.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining whether the location score of the location meets a threshold location score, wherein when it is determined that the location score meets the threshold location, the uncertainty region of the location corresponds to no geographic data being displayed in the uncertainty region.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising identifying the obscuring feature upon receiving the location associated with the uncertainty region, wherein a selected obscuring feature is selected based in part on one or more attributes of the uncertainty region.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein displaying the location of the mobile device further comprises displaying a textual explanation of the uncertainty region of the mobile device.

14. The method of 13, wherein each of one or more sub-regions of an uncertainty shape is associated with a different location score, wherein each of the one or more sub-regions is displayed with a different obscuring feature.

17. A system for displaying location uncertainty of locations of mobile devices, the system comprising:

a location server configured for;

receiving a request to locate a mobile device;

determining a location of the mobile device using a location system;

identifying an uncertainty region used in determining the location of the mobile device, wherein the uncertainty region determines an extent of geographic data that is displayed on a location diagram;

determining the extent of geographic data that corresponds to the uncertainty region;

identifying an obscuring feature for displaying the location of the mobile device at the extent of geographic data; and

communicating the location associated with the uncertainty region and the obscuring feature such that the location is displayed on the location diagram with the extent of geographic data using the obscuring feature; and

a location service device configured for;

receiving the request to locate the mobile device;

communicating the request to the location server;

receiving the location having the uncertainty region, wherein the uncertainty region determines the extent of geographic data that is displayed on a location diagram;

displaying the location of the mobile device using the obscuring feature that reveals the location on the location diagram at the extent of geographic data that corresponds to the uncertainty region.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the mobile device comprises:

a primary location system; and

a backup location system, wherein the primary location system is more certain than the backup location system, and wherein the primary location system is unavailable at the mobile device such that the backup location system is used to determine the location of the mobile device.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein determining the extent of geographic data that corresponds to the uncertainty region further comprises determining whether the uncertainty region meets a threshold dimension, such that, when the uncertainty region falls below the threshold dimension no geographic data is obscured and when the uncertainty region is above the threshold dimension at least a portion of geographic data is obscured.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein determining the extent of geographic data that corresponds to the uncertainty region further comprises:

generating a location score for the location, wherein the location score indicates a likelihood of the mobile device being found at the location; and

identifying the extent of geographic data for displaying the location based on the location score such that when the location score indicates a high likelihood of the mobile device being at the location the a low extent of geographic data is identified and when the location score indicates a low likelihood of the mobile device being at the location a high extent of geographic data is identified.