Indoor positioning systems and meeting room occupancy

• US 9,860,707 B2
• Filed: 04/20/2017
• Issued: 01/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Jampani, Krishnam Raju, Martin, Daryl Joseph, Tsai, I-Ming, Beckett, Jason Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DANH C
• Application Number:
  US15/492,423
• Publication Number:
  US 20170223511A1
• Time in Patent Office: 257 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561, 4554563, 4554566, 455418
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/30 for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2120/10 Occupancy
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/02 Indoor
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02526 using non-dedicated equipment, e.g. user equipment or crowd-sourcing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/30 Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings

Abstract

A method of determining room occupancy of a room in a facility having an indoor positioning system with wireless access point fingerprints each correlated to a location in the facility. The method may include receiving a request from a computing device for a room occupancy assessment associated with the room. It may further include obtaining location data that correlates to the locations of wireless devices associated with one or more people from the indoor positioning system and determining based on the location data whether the room is occupied. The determination of whether the room is occupied is then sent to the computing device.

Claims

1. A method of determining room occupancy of a room in a facility having an indoor positioning system with wireless access point fingerprints each correlated to a location in the facility, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a computing device for a room occupancy assessment associated with the room;

determining whether the room is occupied, the determining including;

receiving, from at least one wireless device, an indication that a user associated with the at least one wireless device is occupying the room;

obtaining measurements of received signal strength for one or more wireless access point signals detected by the at least one wireless device;

determining that the at least one wireless device has left the room based on detecting that the obtained measurements of received signal strength deviates from a current wireless access point fingerprint for the room by more than a threshold amount; and

updating an assessment of room occupancy based on the determination that the at least one wireless device has left the room, and

sending the determination of whether the room is occupied to the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a wireless access point fingerprint for the room based on the obtained measurements of received signal strength.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising refining a first wireless access point fingerprint for the room based on the obtained measurements of received signal strength, the first wireless access point fingerprint being stored in a database of wireless access point fingerprints for the facility.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the measurements comprises obtaining a series of measurements of received signal strength for the detected wireless access point signals.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the room is occupied further includes determining a level of confidence in the determination of whether the room is occupied.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising obtaining data correlated to room occupancy from other sources and wherein the level of confidence is based upon the data correlated to room occupancy.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the data correlated to room occupancy includes data from at least one of a room check-in scanner, an in-room data port, an in-room charging port, an in-room telephone, or a room scheduling system.

8. A server to determine room occupancy of a room in a facility having an indoor positioning system with wireless access point fingerprints each correlated to a location in the facility, the server comprising:

a network connection to receive a request from a computing device for a room occupancy assessment associated with the room; and

a processor to;

determine whether the room is occupied, the determining including;

receiving, from at least one wireless device, an indication that a user associated with the at least one wireless device is occupying the room;

obtaining measurements of received signal strength for one or more wireless access point signals detected by the at least one wireless device;

determining that the at least one wireless device has left the room based on detecting that the obtained measurements of received signal strength deviates from a current wireless access point fingerprint for the room by more than a threshold amount; and

updating an assessment of room occupancy based on the determination that the at least one wireless device has left the room, and

send the determination of whether the room is occupied to the computing device via the network connection.

9. The server of claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to generate a wireless access point fingerprint for the room based on the obtained measurements of received signal strength.

10. The server of claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to refine a first wireless access point fingerprint for the room based on the obtained measurements of received signal strength, the first wireless access point fingerprint being stored in a database of wireless access point fingerprints for the facility.

11. The server of claim 8 , wherein obtaining the measurements comprises obtaining a series of measurements of received signal strength for the detected wireless access point signals.

12. The server of claim 8, wherein the processor is to obtain data correlated to room occupancy from other sources and wherein the determining whether the room is occupied further includes determining a level of confidence in the determination of whether the room is occupied, the level of confidence being based upon the data correlated to room occupancy.

13. The server of claim 12, wherein the data correlated to room occupancy includes data from at least one of a room check-in scanner, an in-room data port, an in-room charging port, an in-room telephone, or a room scheduling system.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing processor-executable instructions for determining room occupancy of a room in a facility having an indoor positioning system with wireless access point fingerprints each correlated to a location in the facility, the processor-executable instructions comprising instructions for:

receiving a request from a computing device for a room occupancy assessment associated with the room;

determining whether the room is occupied, the determining including;

receiving, from at least one wireless device, an indication that a user associated with the at least one wireless device is occupying the room;

obtaining measurements of received signal strength for one or more wireless access point signals detected by the at least one wireless device;

determining that the at least one wireless device has left the room based on detecting that the obtained measurements of received signal strength deviates from a current wireless access point fingerprint for the room by more than a threshold amount; and

updating an assessment of room occupancy based on the determination that the at least one wireless device has left the room, and

sending the determination of whether the room is occupied to the computing device.