Methods of and systems for extracting patterns of human extent and density from geographically anchored radio signal sources

• US 9,612,315 B2
• Filed: 07/03/2013
• Issued: 04/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Skyhook Wireless Incorporated (Liberty Broadband Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Skyhook Wireless Incorporated (Liberty Broadband Corp.)
• Inventors: Sutton, Richard J., Jones, Russel K.
• Primary Examiner(s): LIU, HARRY K
• Application Number:
  US13/934,717
• Publication Number:
  US 20140009339A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,371 Days
• Field of Search: 342451, 342454, 342463
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0242 Determining the position of transmitters to be subsequently used in positioning G01S5/0289 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0289 of multiple transceivers, e.g. in ad hoc networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment

Abstract

A method of and system for estimating at least one of a human development level and a human activity level. A method of estimating at least one of a human development level and a human activity level includes estimating positions of radio broadcast beacons. The positions of the radio broadcast beacons are stored in an electronically readable catalog. Each of the positions is grouped into sets of positions. Each set of positions includes positions of one or more geographically-related radio broadcast beacons. For each of the sets, at least one of a human development level and a human activity level is estimated for an area encompassing the positions of the set.

Claims

1. A method of estimating at least one of a human development type and a population density, the method comprising:

estimating, by a positioning system, positions of a plurality of radio broadcast beacons within a geographic area based on radio signals emitted from the plurality of radio broadcast beacons and received by one or more devices;

storing, by the positioning system, the positions of the radio broadcast beacons in an electronically readable catalog;

grouping each position of a corresponding radio broadcast beacon into sets of positions, wherein each set comprises positions of one or more geographically-related radio broadcast beacons within the geographic area;

for each of the sets,

determining a beacon density of the set, and

estimating at least one of a human development type and a population density for an area encompassing the positions of the set based on the beacon density,

wherein the human development type categorizes the area as at least one of urban, suburban or rural, and the population density indicates a density of human presence in the area.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the positions of the plurality of radio broadcast beacons is estimated based on radio signals emitted from radio broadcast beacons received using a mobile scanning device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the positions of the plurality of radio broadcast beacons is estimated using data determined from radio signals received at a mobile device, said mobile device determining the data during a process for locating a geographic position of the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the data comprises the geographic position of the mobile device and a strength of a signal received by the mobile device from a radio broadcast beacon.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining an attribute of one of the plurality of radio broadcast beacons other than position and storing the attribute in the electronically readable catalog.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein at least one of the sets is determined based on the attribute stored in the electronically readable catalog.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising estimating a uniform human population density for a geographic area encompassing two or more of the sets, the uniform human population density exceeding a threshold density.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the threshold density is determined based on population demographics associated with the geographic area.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the threshold density is a previously detected density of radio beacons in a second geographic area having a particular land class.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the particular land class is estimated using at least one of density of road segments in the area, number of utility connections in the area, or analysis of aerial photographs of the area.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein grouping each position comprises at least one of density based adaptive tiling, kernel density graphing and vectorization to discrete class thresholds, Voronoi decomposition, gridded feature counts, or volumetric modeling.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating at least one of the sets with a named place in geographic proximity to the positions of the at least one set.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing the population density to a previously estimated population density for the area encompassing the positions of the set to determine if a difference between the estimated population density and the previously estimated population density exceeds a difference threshold.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the sets includes only positions located within a single structure.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein estimating at least one of a human development type and a population density for each set comprises using a known correlation between human population densities and radio broadcast beacon density.

16. A system for estimating at least one of a human development type and a population density, the system comprising:

a computer readable media including instructions that when executed by a computer system cause the computer system to;

use a positioning system to estimate positions of a plurality of radio broadcast beacons within a geographic area based on radio signals emitted from the plurality of radio broadcast beacons and received by one or more devices and store the positions of the radio broadcast beacons in an electronically readable catalog;

group each position of a corresponding radio broadcast beacon into sets of positions, wherein each set comprises positions of one or more geographically-related radio broadcast beacons within the geographic area;

for each of the sets,

determine a beacon density of the set, and

estimate at least one of a human development type and a population density for an area encompassing the positions of the set based on the beacon density,

wherein the human development type categorizes the area as at least one of urban, suburban or rural, and the population density indicates a density of human presence in the area.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein at least one of the positions of the plurality of radio broadcast beacons is estimated based on radio signals emitted from radio broadcast beacons received using a mobile scanning device.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein at least one of the positions of the plurality of radio broadcast beacons is estimated using data determined from radio signals received at a mobile device, said mobile device having determining the data during a process for locating a geographic position of the mobile device.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the data comprises the geographic position of the mobile device and a strength of a signal received by the mobile device from a radio broadcast beacon.

20. The system of claim 16, the computer readable media further including instructions that when executed by the computer system cause the computer system to determine an attribute of one of the plurality of radio broadcast beacons other than position and storing the attribute in the electronically readable catalog.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein at least one of the sets is determined based on the attribute stored in the electronically readable catalog.

22. The system of claim 16, the computer readable media further including instructions that when executed by the computer system cause the computer system to estimate a uniform human population density for a geographic area encompassing two or more of the sets, the uniform human population density exceeding a threshold density.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the threshold density is determined based on population demographics associated with the geographic area.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the threshold density is a previously detected density of radio beacons in a second geographic area having a particular land class.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the particular land class is estimated using at least one of density of road segments in the area, number of utility connections in the area, or analysis of aerial photographs of the area.

26. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions that when executed by the computer system cause the computer system to group each position comprise instructions that when executed by the computer system cause the computer system to perform at least one of density based adaptive tiling, kernel density graphing and vectorization to discrete class thresholds, Voronoi decomposition, gridded feature counts, or volumetric modeling.

27. The system of claim 16, the computer readable media further including instructions that when executed by the computer system cause the computer system to associate at least one of the sets with a named place in geographic proximity to the positions of the at least one set.

28. The system of claim 16, the computer readable media further including instructions that when executed by a computer system cause the computer system to compare the estimated population density to a previously estimated population density for the area encompassing the positions of the set to determine if a difference between the estimated population density and the previously estimated population density exceeds a difference threshold.

29. The system of claim 16, wherein at least one of the sets includes only positions located within a single structure.

30. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions that when executed by the computer system cause the computer system to estimate at least one of a human development type and a population density for each set comprise instructions that when executed by the computer system cause the computer system to use a known correlation between human population densities and radio broadcast beacon density.