Methods and apparatuses for mobile station centric determination of positioning assistance data

• US 9,148,763 B2
• Filed: 07/26/2011
• Issued: 09/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Gupta, Rajarshi, Garin, Lionel James, Khorashadi, Behrooz
• Primary Examiner(s): Arevalo, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US13/191,233
• Publication Number:
  US 20120028654A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,526 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.2, 455/456.1, 709/223, 709/227, 709/236, 709/226, 709/225, 370/466, 370/419, 370/474
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0236 Assistance data, e.g. base station almanac
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02521 using a radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses are provided which may be implemented in various devices to generate positioning assistance data and/or the like by mobile station with regard to at least one of a plurality of different indoor regions.

Claims

1. A method comprising, at a mobile station:

transmitting a request, via a communication network, to a first repository device corresponding to at least a first one of two or more identifiers, the request to indicate at least a portion of a region that includes a rough location estimate of the mobile device and to request a stored description or characterization of an environment comprising the at least a portion of the region;

receiving the stored description or characterization of the environment from the first repository in response to the request, the stored description or characterization of the environment indicating one or more locations of one or more wireless transmitters in the environment;

generating positioning assistance data at the mobile station for use in providing a location-based service based, at least in part, on the stored description or characterization;

transmitting at least a second one of said two or more identifiers to a second repository device over a wireless communication network; and

in response to transmission of said at least a second one of said file location identifiers, receiving descriptions of one or more transmitters located in or transmitting into the area including said rough location.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the description or characterization of the environment comprises a CAD file or document, and wherein generating the positioning assistance data further comprises extracting map features from the CAD file or document.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the extracted map features include one or more of:

walls;

doors and entry/exit points.

4. The method of claim 2, and further comprising, at said mobile device:

determining of feasible and infeasible regions of the map based, at least in part, on said extracted features;

determining a dense connectivity graph based, at least in part, on said determined feasible an infeasible regions;

reducing the connectivity graph into a routing graph; and

determining a probability map of the region based, at least in part, on said routing graph.

5. The method of claim 2, and further comprising, at said mobile device:

generating an electronic map suitable for presentation on a display device of the mobile station based, at least in part, on the extracted map features.

6. The method of claim 5, and further comprising, at said mobile device:

extracting one or more points of interest (POIs) from said CAD file; and

annotating said electronic map for indications of said POIs.

7. The method of claim 6, and further comprising, at said mobile device:

inferring a semantic meaning with at least one of said extracted POIs; and

annotating POIs in said electronic map with metadata based, at least in part, on said inferred semantic meaning.

8. The method of claim 1, and further comprising, at said mobile device:

computing a radio heatmap covering the portion of the region based, at least in part, on the received descriptions of the one or more transmitters.

9. The method of claim 1, and further comprising, at said mobile device:

determining an access point locator based, at least in part, on the received descriptions of the one or more transmitters.

10. The method of claim 1, and further comprising, at said mobile device:

transmitting a request having an indication of a rough location of the mobile station toward a directory device; and

receiving the two or more identifiers in response to the request transmitted toward the directory device.

11. The method of claim 1, and further comprising using the generated positioning assistance data at the mobile station for estimating a location of the mobile station.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the description or characterization of the environment of at least a portion of the region comprises receiving the description or characterization at the mobile station as one or more raster maps.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the positioning assistance data comprises at least a signal heatmap, probability map, routing graph, connectivity graph or feasibility graph.

14. A mobile station comprising:

a network interface; and

a processor to;

initiate transmission of a request through said network interface to a first repository device corresponding to at least one a first of two or more identifiers, the request to indicate at least a portion of a region that includes a rough location estimate of the mobile device and to request a stored description or characterization of an environment comprising the at least a portion of the region;

obtain the stored description or characterization of the environment received from said network interface in response to the request, the stored description or characterization of the environment indicating one or more locations of one or more wireless transmitters in the environment;

generate positioning assistance data for use in providing a location-based service at the mobile station based, at least in part, on the stored description or characterization;

transmit at least a second one of said two or more identifiers to a second repository device over a wireless communication network; and

in response to said transmit of said at least a second one of said file location identifiers, receive descriptions of one or more transmitters located in or transmitting into the area including said rough location.

15. The mobile station of claim 14, wherein the description or characterization of the environment includes a description of walls and obstructions and locations of wireless transmitter devices within the region.

16. The mobile station of claim 15, wherein the wireless transmitter devices comprise a WLAN access point, Bluetooth transmitter, beacon or audio transmitter.

17. The mobile station of claim 14, wherein the description or characterization is obtained, at least in part, in a markup language format.

18. The mobile station of claim 14, wherein the description or characterization is obtained, at least in part, in one or more vector maps.

19. An article comprising:

a non-transitory storage medium having machine-readable instructions stored thereon which are executable by a special purpose computing apparatus in a mobile station to;

initiate transmission of a request from the mobile station to a first repository device according to at least a first one of two or more identifiers, the request to indicate at least a portion of a region that includes a rough location estimate of the mobile device and to request a stored description or characterization of an environment comprising the at least a portion of the region;

obtain the stored description or characterization of the environment in response to the request, the stored description or characterization of the environment indicating one or more locations of one or more wireless transmitters in the environment;

generate positioning assistance data at the mobile station for use in providing a location-based service at the mobile station based, at least in part, on the stored description or characterization;

transmit at least a second one of said two or more identifiers to a second repository device over a wireless communication network; and

in response to said transmit of said at least a second one of said file location identifiers, receive descriptions of one or more transmitters located in or transmitting into the area including said rough location.

20. The article of claim 19, wherein the description or characterization of the environment comprises a CAD file or document, and wherein the positioning assistance data is generated, at least in part, by extraction of map features from the CAD file.

21. The article of claim 20, wherein the machine-readable instructions are further executable by the special purpose computing apparatus to:

generate an electronic map suitable for presentation on a display device of the mobile station based, at least in part, on the extracted map features.

22. The article of claim 20, wherein the machine-readable instructions are further executable by the special purpose computing apparatus to:

initiate transmission of a request from the mobile station to a directory device having an indication of a rough location of the mobile station; and

obtain the two or more identifiers in response to the request transmitted to the directory device.

23. An apparatus comprising:

means for transmitting a request from a mobile station, via a communication network, to a first repository device according to at least a first one of two or more identifiers, the request to indicate at least a portion of a region that includes a rough location estimate of the mobile device and to request a stored description or characterization of an environment comprising the at least a portion of the region;

means for receiving the stored description or characterization of the environment in response to the request, the stored description or characterization of the environment indicating one or more locations of one or more wireless transmitters in the environment;

means for generating positioning assistance data at the mobile station for use in providing a location-based service at the mobile station based, at least in part, on the stored description or characterization;

means for transmitting at least a second one of said two or more identifiers to a second repository device over a wireless communication network; and

means for receiving descriptions of one or more transmitters located in or transmitting into the area including said rough location in response to transmission of said at least a second one of said file location identifiers.