Agile acquisition of location services in a device

• US 9,188,446 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2013
• Issued: 11/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Zukerman, Gil, Miskiewicz, Anna, Rotstein, Ron
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheung, Mary
• Assistant Examiner(s): BERNS, MICHAEL ANDREW
• Application Number:
  US14/142,816
• Publication Number:
  US 20150185015A1
• Time in Patent Office: 689 Days
• Field of Search: 701/468
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Aspects of the disclosure permit agile acquisition of a location service in a device. In one aspect of such acquisition, the device can rely on location signals available globally in order to determine a region associated with the device, and in response to determination of the region, the device can acquire service information representative or otherwise indicative of the location service based at least on the region. In another aspect, the device can be configured to consume the location service. The agility of such acquisition can stem from the absence of (i) scanning for location services associated with the area in which the device is present and/or (ii) a predefined pool of location services established in production of the device.

Claims

1. At least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium encoded with computer-accessible instructions that, in response to execution, cause at least one processor to perform acquisition of location service availability operations comprising:

acquiring global location signals from a global location infrastructure, the global location signals comprising a logical address associated with a computing device;

determining a regional location based at least in part on the global location signals, the regional location is representative of a region where the computing device is present;

determining information indicative of the determined regional location, the information indicative of the region comprising a country code of the region;

communicating a request for location services that are available in the region to a database contained in the global location infrastructure, the request comprising the information indicative of the regional location;

mapping the logical address associated with the computing device to the information indicative of the regional location;

receiving identifying service information from the database in response to the request, the service information is indicative of a location service available in the region;

configuring the computing device to detect local location signals from a local location infrastructure associated with the location service; and

outputting the service information.

2. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 1, wherein the acquisition of location service availability operations further comprises:

determining a location of the computing device based at least in part on the detected local location signals.

3. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 2, wherein determining the regional location of the computing device based at least on the global location signals comprises:

querying a remote computing device for information indicative of the regional location.

4. At least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium encoded with computer-accessible instructions that, in response to execution, cause at least one processor to perform acquisition of location service availability operations comprising:

identifying a region associated with a computing device based on first location signals from a first location unit, wherein the first location signals comprise a logical address associated with the computing device;

determining information indicative of the region, the information indicative of the region comprising a country code of the region;

communicating a request for location services that are available in the region to a database associated with the first location unit, the request comprising the information indicative of the region;

mapping the logical address associated with the computing device to the information indicative of the region;

accessing identifying, in response to the request, information indicative of a location service available in the region based at least on information indicative of the region, the location service is provided at least in part by a second location unit;

configuring the computing device to access the location service via at least the second location unit; and

outputting the service information.

5. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 4, wherein the acquisition of location service availability operations further comprises:

acquiring a location of the computing device based at least on location information acquired from the second location unit.

6. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 4, wherein configuring the computing device to access the location service via at least the second location unit comprises:

configuring the computing device to detect regional location signals, and to process at least a portion of the regional location signals.

7. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 4, wherein accessing identifying the information indicative of the location service available in the region comprises:

querying a remote computing device for information indicative of location services available in the region, and

receiving the information indicative of the location service available in the region in response to the querying.

8. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 4, wherein identifying the region associated with the computing device comprises:

acquiring global location signals from a remote computing device, and obtaining a regional location of the computing device based at least on the global location signals, the regional location being indicative of the region associated with the computing device.

9. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 4, wherein identifying the region associated with the computing device comprises:

acquiring global location signals from a cellular telecommunication network, and

acquiring a regional location of the computing device based at least on the global location signals, the regional location being indicative of the region associated with the computing device.

10. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 9, wherein acquiring the regional location of the computing device based at least on the global location signals comprises:

determining/extracting the country code from at least a portion of the global location signals, the country code being representative of the regional location.

11. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 4, wherein identifying the region associated with the computing device comprises:

acquiring global location signals from a global navigation satellite system, and acquiring a regional location of the computing device based at least on the global location signals, the regional location being indicative of the region associated with the computing device.

12. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 11, wherein acquiring the regional location of the computing device based at least on the global location signals comprises:

generating information indicative of the regional location by the computing device.

13. The at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 11, wherein acquiring the regional location of the computing device based at least on the global location signals comprises:

querying a remote computing device for information indicative of the regional location.

14. A computing device for acquisition of location service availability, comprising:

at least one memory device having programmed instructions; and

at least one processor functionally coupled to the at least one memory device and configured to execute the programmed instructions, and in response to execution of the programmed instructions, further configured to;

identify a region associated with a computing device based on first location signals from a first location unit, wherein the first location signals comprise a logical address associated with the computing device;

determine information indicative of the region, the information indicative of the region comprising a country code of the region;

communicate a request for location services that are available in the region to a database associated with the first location unit, the request comprising the information indicative of the region;

map the logical address associated with the computing device to the information indicative of the region;

identify, in response to the request, information indicative of a location service available in the region based at least on information indicative of the region, the location service is provided at least in part by a second location unit;

configure the computing device to access the location service via at least the second location unit; and

output the service information.

15. The computing device of claim 14, in response to execution of the programmed instructions, the at least one processor being further configured to:

acquire a location of the computing device based at least on location information acquired from the second location unit.

16. The computing device of claim 14, in response to execution of the programmed instructions, the at least one processor being further configured to:

configure the computing device to detect regional location signals; and

configure the computing device to process at least a portion of the regional location signals.

17. The computing device of claim 14, in response to execution of the programmed instructions, the at least one processor being further configured to:

query a remote computing device for information indicative of location services available in the region, and

receive the information indicative of the location service available in the region.

18. The computing device of claim 14, in response to execution of the programmed instructions, the at least one processor being further configured to:

acquire global location signals from a remote computing device, and obtain a regional location of the computing device based at least on the global location signals via a mapping of a logical address contained in the global location signals to the regional location, the logical address being associated with the computing device, the regional location being indicative of the region associated with the computing device.

19. The computing device of claim 14, in response to execution of the programmed instructions, the at least one processor being further configured to:

acquire global location signals from a cellular telecommunication network, and acquire a regional location of the computing device based at least on the global location signals, the regional location being indicative of the region associated with the computing device.

20. The computing device of claim 19, in response to execution of the programmed instructions, the at least one processor being further configured to:

determine the country code from at least a portion of the global location signals, the country code being representative of the regional location.

21. The computing device of claim 14, in response to execution of the programmed instructions, the at least one processor being further configured to:

acquire global location signals from a global navigation satellite system, and acquire a regional location of the computing device based at least on the global location signals, the regional location being indicative of the region associated with the computing device.

22. The computing device of claim 21, in response to execution of the programmed instructions, the at least one processor being further configured to:

query a remote computing device for information indicative of the regional location.