System and method for gathering information about a subject in close proximity to a user

• US 9,538,333 B2
• Filed: 08/18/2016
• Issued: 01/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: B2 Equity Holdings, Inc.
• Original Assignee: B2 Equity Holdings, Inc.
• Inventors: Eaton, Bradley Alan, Biggers, David Pyron Jr., Moore, Dustin Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): CASCA, FRED A
• Application Number:
  US15/240,262
• Publication Number:
  US 20160360365A1
• Time in Patent Office: 138 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.3, 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 455/404.2, 455/418, 455/457, 455/41.2, 455/420, 455/67.11, 370/252, 370/338
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• 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 8/183 Processing at user equipment or user record carrier

Abstract

Techniques where a computer system is able to obtain information about a subject by communicating with a device that employs a limited range communication technology and is associated with the subject are described.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of limited range wireless transmitters located at a plurality of positions within a real estate property, each limited range wireless transmitter configured to wirelessly transmit a limited range signal that includes information about the real estate property and information indicative of the position at which the limited range wireless transmitter is located, wherein a plurality of the limited range signals include different information about the real estate property, and wherein the position-indicative information in each limited range signal comprises data indicative of an elevation or floor for the limited range wireless transmitter that transmitted that limited range signal;

a mobile computing device, the mobile computing device configured to execute a mobile application, the mobile application configured to (1) determine data indicative of a position for the mobile computing device within the real estate property, (2) process a plurality of limited range signals wirelessly received by the mobile computing device from a plurality of the limited range wireless transmitters, (3) resolve which of the limited range signals were transmitted from a limited range wireless transmitter having a correspondence in elevation or floor with the determined position for the mobile computing device based on the elevation-indicative or floor-indicative data within a plurality of the processed limited range signals, (4) select a limited range signal from among the plurality of received limited range signals based at least in part on (i) relative signal strengths between the received limited range signals, and (ii) the resolved correspondence in elevation or floor such that the selected limited range signal was transmitted from one of the limited range transmitters sharing the correspondence in elevation or floor with the mobile computing device'"'"'s determined position, (5) select and extract floor-specific information about the real estate property from the selected limited range signal such that the selected and extracted floor-specific information is specific to the floor that relates to the determined position for the mobile computing device, and (6) based on the extracted floor-specific information about the real estate property, generate data for a visual display about the real estate property corresponding to the selected limited range signal for consumption by a user of the mobile computing device through a display screen of the mobile computing device.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the limited range wireless transmitters are programmable in response to administrator input to define the elevation-indicative or floor-indicative data for inclusion in the limited range signals.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the limited range wireless transmitters comprise a plurality of Bluetooth transmitters.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the limited range wireless transmitters comprise a plurality of WiFi transmitters.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the limited range wireless transmitters comprise a plurality of infrared transmitters.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the position-indicative information in each limited range signal comprises data indicative of a floor for the limited range wireless transmitter that transmitted that limited range signal, and wherein the mobile application is further configured to resolve which of the limited range signals were transmitted from a limited range wireless transmitter having a correspondence in floor with the determined position for the mobile computing device based on the floor-indicative data within a plurality of the processed limited range signals.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the position-indicative information in each limited range signal comprises data indicative of an elevation for the limited range wireless transmitter that transmitted that limited range signal, and wherein the mobile application is further configured to resolve which of the limited range signals were transmitted from a limited range wireless transmitter having a correspondence in elevation with the determined position for the mobile computing device based on the elevation-indicative data within a plurality of the processed limited range signals.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the limited range wireless transmitters is positioned at a transition point within the real estate property between floors or elevations, and wherein the mobile application is further configured to determine data indicative of the position for the mobile computing device within the real estate property by detecting when the mobile computing device comes within close proximity to the limited range wireless transmitter at the transition point based on a signal strength detected by the mobile computing device for the limited range signal produced by the limited range wireless transmitter at the transition point.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the transition point comprises a member of the group consisting of a stairway and an elevator, and wherein the at least one limited range wireless transmitter positioned at the transition point comprises a first limited range wireless transmitter positioned at an ingress to the member and a second limited range wireless transmitter positioned at an egress from the member.

10. A computer program product comprising:

a plurality of instructions resident on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for execution as a mobile application by a mobile computing device, wherein the instructions are configured, upon execution by the mobile computing device, to cause a processor of the mobile computing device to;

interact with a wireless receiver of the mobile computing device to process a plurality of limited range signals wirelessly received from a plurality of limited range wireless transmitters located at a plurality of positions within a real estate property, wherein the positions include a plurality of floors of the real estate property, each limited range signal including (1) information about the real estate property, wherein the real estate property information includes floor-specific real estate property information, and (2) data indicative of an elevation or floor for the limited range wireless transmitter that transmitted that limited range signal;

determine data indicative of a current position for the mobile computing device relative to a plurality of the limited range wireless transmitters based at least in part on relative signal strengths as between the received limited range signals;

determine data indicative of a current position for the mobile computing device relative to a floor of the real estate property based at least in part on the elevation-indicative or floor-indicative data within the processed limited range signals;

select and extract floor-specific information about the real estate property from a processed limited range signal based at least in part on the determined current relative positions such that the selected and extracted floor-specific information is specific to the floor that relates to the determined current position for the mobile computing device; and

generate data for a visual display about the real estate property based on the selected and extracted floor-specific information for consumption by a user of the mobile computing device through a display screen of the mobile computing device.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the limited range signals comprise Bluetooth signals, and wherein the instructions are configured, upon execution by the mobile computing device, to cause a processor of the mobile computing device to interact with a Bluetooth receiver of the mobile computing device to process the Bluetooth signals.

12. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the limited range signals comprise WiFi signals, and wherein the instructions are configured, upon execution by the mobile computing device, to cause a processor of the mobile computing device to interact with a WiFi receiver of the mobile computing device to process the WiFi signals.

13. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the limited range signals comprise infrared signals, and wherein the instructions are configured, upon execution by the mobile computing device, to cause a processor of the mobile computing device to interact with an infrared receiver of the mobile computing device to process the infrared signals.

14. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the information in each limited range signal comprises data indicative of a floor for the limited range wireless transmitter that transmitted that limited range signal, and wherein the instructions are further configured, upon execution by the mobile computing device, to cause a processor of the mobile computing device to determine the data indicative of a current position for the mobile computing device relative to a floor of the real estate property based at least in part on the floor-indicative data within the processed limited range signals.

15. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the information in each limited range signal comprises data indicative of an elevation for the limited range wireless transmitter that transmitted that limited range signal, and wherein the instructions are further configured, upon execution by the mobile computing device, to cause a processor of the mobile computing device to determine the data indicative of a current position for the mobile computing device relative to a floor of the real estate property based at least in part on the elevation-indicative data within the processed limited range signals.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the instructions are further configured, upon execution by the mobile computing device, to cause a processor of the mobile computing device to:

interact with an altimeter of the mobile computing device;

determine a current elevation for the mobile computing device based on the altimeter interaction; and

determine the data indicative of a current position for the mobile computing device relative to a floor of the real estate property based at least in part on a correspondence in elevation between the determined current elevation for the mobile computing device and the elevation-indicative data within the processed limited range signals.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the positioning step comprises positioning at least one of the limited range wireless transmitters at a transition point within the real estate property between floors or elevations for use by the mobile computing device to determine when the mobile computing device moves to a new floor or elevation based on detecting when the mobile computing device comes within close proximity to the limited range wireless transmitter at the transition point based on a signal strength detected by the mobile computing device for the limited range signal produced by the limited range wireless transmitter at the transition point.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the transition point comprises a member of the group consisting of a stairway and an elevator, and wherein the positioning step comprises (1) positioning a first limited range wireless transmitter at an ingress to the member and (2) positioning a second limited range wireless transmitter at an egress from the member.

17. A method comprising:

positioning a plurality limited range wireless transmitters at a plurality of positions within a real estate property such that the limited range wireless transmitters are positioned on a plurality of floors of the real estate property;

programming each of a plurality of the limited range wireless transmitters to transmit a limited range signal such that each limited range signal includes (1) information about the real estate property, wherein the real estate property information includes floor-specific real estate property information, and (2) data indicative of an elevation or floor for the limited range wireless transmitter that transmitted that limited range signal; and

wirelessly transmitting the limited range wireless signals from the positioned limited range wireless transmitters for reception by a mobile computing device that executes a mobile application, the mobile application configured to;

interact with a wireless receiver of the mobile computing device to process a plurality of the wirelessly transmitted limited range signals that are received by the wireless receiver;

determine data indicative of a current position for the mobile computing device relative to a plurality of the limited range wireless transmitters based at least in part on relative signal strengths as between the received limited range signals;

determine data indicative of a current position for the mobile computing device relative to a floor of the real estate property based at least in part on the elevation-indicative or floor-indicative data within the processed limited range signals;

select and extract floor-specific information about the real estate property from a processed limited range signal based at least in part on the determined current relative positions such that the selected and extracted floor-specific information is specific to the floor that relates to the determined current position for the mobile computing device; and

generate data for a visual display about the real estate property based on the selected and extracted floor-specific information for consumption by a user of the mobile computing device through a display screen of the mobile computing device.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the limited range wireless transmitters comprise at least one member of the group consisting of (1) a plurality of Bluetooth transmitters, (2) a plurality of WiFi transmitters, and (3) a plurality of infrared transmitters.