Locating services

• US 9,752,881 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2014
• Issued: 09/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Moraru, Catalin, Petria, Silviu
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G
• Assistant Examiner(s): LOUIE, WAE LENNY
• Application Number:
  US14/581,824
• Publication Number:
  US 20160178379A1
• Time in Patent Office: 987 Days
• Field of Search: 701209, 701532, 701533, 455418
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A method and apparatus for locating points of interest using an ad-hoc network is provided. An exemplary method includes establishing an ad-hoc network between mobile devices and fixed location devices, wherein the fixed location devices are associated with points of interest. A distance from a mobile device to a point of interest is determined based, at least in part, on the number of hops between the mobile device and other mobile devices to reach the point of interest. A direction to the point of interest is determined based, at least in part, on the number of hops between mobile devices proximate to the mobile device and the point of interest.

Claims

1. An apparatus for locating a point of interest, comprising a mobile device, wherein the mobile device comprises:

a processor;

a radio transceiver; and

a storage device, wherein the storage device comprises code to direct the processor to;

join an ad-hoc network;

interface with a user to initiate navigation to a point of interest;

determine a direction to a point of interest based, at least in part, on the number of hops between the mobile device and other mobile devices to reach the point of interest; and

determine an estimated distance to the point of interest based, at least in part, on the number of hops between the mobile device and other mobile devices to reach the point of interest on the ad-hoc network.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising code to present a list of available points of interest.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a Bluetooth®

transceiver.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the radio transceiver is to determine a direction for devices that the mobile device is in communication.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage device comprises a solid state disk drive.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a touch screen display.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the mobile device comprises a cellular phone or a tablet.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the code comprises a navigation application (app), downloaded for a venue.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the point of interest is in a stadium, a concert hall, a sports complex, a convention center, a convention site, or any combinations thereof.

11. A method for locating points of interest, comprising:

establishing an ad-hoc network between mobile devices and fixed location devices, wherein the fixed location devices are associated with points of interest;

determining a distance from a mobile device to a point of interest, based at least in part, on the number of hops between the mobile device and other mobile devices to reach the point of interest; and

determining a direction to the point of interest, based at least in part, on the number of hops between other mobile devices proximate to the mobile device and the point of interest.

12. The method of claim 11, comprising:

displaying a list of points of interest on the mobile device; and

providing navigation information for a selected point of interest.

13. The method of claim 11, comprising displaying a directional indicator on the mobile device, wherein the direction indicator indicates the direction to move to reach the point of interest.

14. The method of claim 11, comprising displaying a distance indicator on the mobile device, wherein the distance indicator provides an estimate of the distance to the point of interest.

15. The method of claim 11, comprising determining a direction to proximate mobile devices, based at least in part, on a radio location determination.

16. The method of claim 15, comprising determining the direction to the point of interest as an average direction of the proximate mobile devices having the lowest number of hops to the point of interest.

17. The method of claim 11, comprising determining the direction to the point of interest by comparing the shortest paths to a plurality of points of interest to the distances between those points of interest.

18. The method of claim 11, comprising determining the distance in physical units, based, at least in part, by comparing the number of hops to each of a plurality of points of interest to the physical distance between the plurality of the points of interest.

19. The method of claim 11, comprising obtaining the distances between each of a plurality of points of interest from the ad-hoc network.

20. The method of claim 11, comprising downloading the distances between each of a plurality of points of interest with a navigation application.

21. The method of claim 11, comprising navigating between an indoor venue and an outdoor venue to reach the point of interest.

22. A non-transitory, machine readable medium comprising code to direct a processor to:

establish communications with proximate devices in an ad-hoc network;

determine a direction to a point of interest from the ad-hoc network based, at least in part, on the number of hops between the mobile device and other mobile devices to reach the point of interest; and

determine a distance to a point of interest from the ad-hoc network based, at least in part, on the number of hops between the mobile device and other mobile devices.

23. The non-transitory, machine readable medium of claim 22, comprising code to direct the processor to:

provide a list of points of interest; and

record a selection of the point of interest.

24. The non-transitory, machine readable medium of claim 22, comprising code to direct the processor to identify directions for the proximate devices.

25. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 22, comprising determining a relative location for a mobile device by comparing path lengths to a plurality of points of interest to a distance between each of the plurality of points of interest.