Services and applications for a communications network

• US 10,684,350 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 06/16/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Mobile Maven LLC (Dennis J. Dupray)
• Original Assignee: TracBeam LLC (Dennis J. Dupray)
• Inventors: Dupray, Dennis J., Goldberg, Sheldon F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Dao L
• Application Number:
  US13/844,708
• Publication Number:
  US 20130285855A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,650 Days
• Field of Search: 3423572, 342450, 342451, 342457, 342463-465, 4554562, 4554566, 455457
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/46 the supplementary measurement being of a radio-wave signal type
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0278 involving statistical or probabilistic considerations G01S5/0252, G01S5/0294 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• 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 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• 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 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/005 Data network PoA devices

Abstract

A wireless location system is disclosed including one or more location centers for outputting locations of mobile stations (MS) for both local and global MS location requests via Internet communication between a distributed network of location centers. The system uses a plurality of MS locating technologies including those based on: two-way TOA and TDOA; pattern recognition; distributed antenna provisioning; GPS signals. Difficulties, such as multipath, poor location accuracy and poor coverage are alleviated via such technologies in combination with: (a) adapting and calibrating system performance according to environmental and geographical changes; (b) capturing location signal data for continual enhancement of an historical database; (c) evaluating MS locations via heuristics and constraints related to terrain, MS velocity and MS path extrapolation, and (d) adjusting likely MS locations. The system is useful for 911 emergency calls, tracking, routing, people and animal location including applications for confinement to and exclusion from certain areas.

Claims

1. A method for locating a mobile unit using wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between said mobile unit and a plurality of fixed location communication stations, wherein each of said communications stations includes one or more of a transmitter and a receiver for wirelessly communicating with said mobile unit;

wherein there are first and second mobile unit location estimators available for wirelessly locating the mobile unit, wherein said location estimators determine information related to one or more location estimates of said mobile unit when said location estimators are supplied with data having values obtained from wireless signal measurements obtained via transmissions to or from the mobile unit, wherein;

(A) said first location estimator performs one or more of the following techniques (i) through (x);

(i) a first technique for determining, for at least one of the communication stations, one of;

a distance between the mobile unit and the at least one communication station, and a time difference of arrival for the mobile unit and the at least one communication station, wherein said first technique estimates a time of arrival (TOA) of wireless communication between the mobile unit and the at least one communication station;

(ii) a second technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit, dependent upon values from a corresponding instance of said data obtained from geolocation information representative of a time of travel of signals received by the mobile unit from one or more satellites;

(iii) a third technique for recognizing a pattern of characteristics of a corresponding instance of said data, wherein said pattern of characteristics is identified in a plurality of wireless signal transmissions between the mobile unit and one or more of the communication stations;

wherein the recognizing of the pattern of characteristics is determined according to a machine computed similarity between;

the data, and a plurality of data sets, the data sets in a non-transient machine data storage, wherein, for each geographical location, G, of a plurality geographical locations, there is one of the data sets having (1) and (2) immediately following;

(1) a representation of the geographical location G, and

(2) wireless signal transmission related information indicative of a wireless signal transmitted from one of a first location and a second location, and received at the other of the first and second locations;

wherein the wireless signal transmission related information includes data indicative of one or more wireless signal effects of one or more objects along a wireless transmission path of the wireless signal, wherein the objects affect the wireless signal prior to being received at the other location, and wherein the geographical location G designates one of the first and second locations;

(iv) a fourth technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit, wherein the immediately following (a)-(d) are performed;

(a) receiving at an antenna array provided at one of the communication stations, signals originating from the mobile unit, wherein the signals comprise p-dimensional array vectors sampled from p antennas of the array;

(b) determining from the received signals, a signal signature, wherein the signal signature comprises a measured subspace, wherein the array vectors are approximately confined to the measured subspace;

(c) comparing the signal signature to a database comprising calibrated signal signatures and corresponding location data, wherein the comparing comprises calculating differences between the measured subspace and calibrated subspaces; and

(d) selecting from the database a most likely calibrated signal signature and a corresponding most likely location of the mobile unit by using the calculated differences;

(v) a fifth technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit, wherein the immediately following (a)-(e) are performed;

(a) receiving, at a multiplicity of the communication stations, a signal transmitted by the mobile unit;

(b) forwarding, by each of a multiplicity of the communication stations, said received signal and timing information to a central processing center;

(c) calculating, within said central processing center, a time difference of arrival (TDOA) location estimate of said mobile unit based upon said timing information;

(d) calculating, within said central processing center, a timing advance (TA) location estimate of said mobile unit based upon said timing information; and

(e) determining a position of said mobile unit using said TDOA and TA location estimates;

(vi) a sixth technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit, wherein the immediately following (a)-(e) are performed;

(a) receiving, in a receiver co-located with the mobile unit, a wireless signal, WS, from at least one satellite of a satellite positioning system;

(b) transmitting cell based communication signals between;

(1) a communications system having a first of the communication stations wirelessly coupled to said mobile unit, and (2) said mobile unit, wherein said cell based communication signals are wireless;

(c) determining a first time measurement which represents a time of travel of a message in said cell based communication signals;

(d) determining a second time measurement representative of a time of travel of said wireless signal WS;

(e) determining a position of said mobile unit from at least said first time measurement and said second time measurement, wherein said cell based communication signals are capable of communicating data messages in a two-way direction between said mobile unit and said communications system;

(vii) a seventh technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit wherein the immediately following (a)-(l) are performed;

(a) transmitting, from said mobile unit, M samples of a signal;

(b) receiving at one of the communication stations, said M samples together with multipath components and noise;

(c) determining an estimated channel power profile for each of said M samples;

(d) selecting a first set of N samples from said M samples;

(e) performing incoherent integration for said estimated channel power profiles for said first set of N samples to form a first integrated signal;

(f) if a quality level of said first integrated signal with respect to signal to noise is less than a predetermined threshold, selecting another sample from said M samples;

(g) performing incoherent integration for said estimated channel power profiles for said first set of N samples and said another sample to form a second integrated signal;

(h) if a quality level of said second integrated signal with respect to signal to noise is greater than or equal to said predetermined threshold, determining a time-of-arrival of a maximum level of said second integrated signal;

(i) entering said time-of-arrival into a time-of-arrival versus frequency of occurrence array;

(j) selecting a second set of N samples from said M samples;

(k) repeating all of said performing of (e) through said entering of (i) for said second set of N samples in place of said first set of N samples for said performing of (e) through said entering of (i); and

(l) determining a minimum value estimated time-of-arrival from said array;

(viii) an eighth technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit, wherein the immediately following (a)-(e) are performed;

(a) within the mobile unit, transmitting a locating signal composed of at least two tone components;

(b) within each of a plurality of the communication stations, receiving the locating signal at one or more antennas, and within at least one of the communication stations, receiving the locating signal with at least two antennas;

(c) coupling each of the one or more and at least two antennas to a corresponding receiver;

(d) within each of the corresponding receiver, generating amplitude and phase values from the locating signal as received by the corresponding antenna, the values indicative of amplitude and phase of the at least two tone components of the locating signal, as received at the corresponding antenna and measured at defined times; and

(e) combining the values indicative of amplitude and phase for the tone components from a plurality of the receivers to determine the position of the mobile unit;

(ix) an ninth technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit, wherein the immediately following (a)-(h) are performed therefor in a mobile radio system providing at least some of the communication stations, said mobile radio system including a network controller and at least three of the communication stations, each of said at least three communication stations including an uplink TOA measuring unit operable to communicate with said network controller, a control unit, and a time reference unit operable to provide timing reference signals to said uplink TOA measuring unit, at least one of said at least three communication stations co-located with and connected to a second mobile unit, said second mobile unit coupled to said network controller via a radio interface, and a service node operable to store known positions of at least two of said at least three communication stations;

(a) receiving a request in said mobile radio system to determine a geographical position of said mobile unit;

(b) determining and reporting a position of said second mobile unit to said service node;

(c) directing said mobile unit to transmit digital signals uplink on a traffic channel when said mobile unit is not transmitting or transmitting only analog signals;

(d) measuring in each uplink TOA measuring unit an uplink TOA of the digital signals transmitted by the mobile unit;

(e) receiving in said network controller said uplink TOA measurements from said at least three communication stations and a traffic channel number to said traffic channel;

(f) translating said traffic channel number to an identity of said mobile unit;

(g) conveying said uplink TOA measurements and said identity to said service node; and

(h) calculating in said service node the position of said mobile unit using known positions of said at least three communication stations and said uplink TOA measurements;

(x) a tenth technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit, wherein the immediately following (a)-(d) are performed;

(a) receiving global positioning system (GPS) satellite signals from a plurality of GPS satellites;

(b) receiving a plurality of cellular position signals that do not contain data in a GPS-like format;

(c) calculating a geographic position estimate of the mobile unit using said received GPS satellite signals when a requisite number of the plurality of GPS satellites are in view of a GPS receiver; and

(d) calculating the geographic position estimate of the mobile unit using both said received plurality of cellular position signals and substantially all of said received GPS satellite signals when the requisite number of the plurality of GPS satellites are not in view of the GPS receiver;

(B) for at least a particular one of said techniques performed by said first location estimator, said second location estimator performs a different location technique;

wherein one or more of (a) and (b) immediately following are obtained;

(a) by said first location estimator, first wireless location related information;

(b) by said second location estimator, second wireless location related information;

the method comprising performing the following by electronic computational equipment;

obtaining a resulting location estimate of the mobile unit dependent upon at least one of;

a first value obtained from said first location related information, and a second value obtained from said second location related information;

determining location-based information based on the resulting location estimate and a location of at least one entity, the at least one entity determined by the electronic computational equipment satisfying one or more preferences associated with a user of the mobile unit in a persistent electronic data storage, the location-based information including identification information for identifying the at least one entity, and location data for the at least one entity;

wherein the satisfying of preferences includes satisfying at least one nearness condition indicative of a geographical nearness between the at least one entity and a geographic identification, and satisfying at least one non-geographical condition indicative of the user accessing, or being assessable by, the at least one entity;

wherein for the satisfying of the preferences, the at least one nearness condition is satisfied by obtaining information for a time of travel between a location of the at least one entity, and the geographic identification, or information for a distance of travel between a location of the at least one entity, and the geographic identification;

wherein the geographic identification includes at least one of;

(1) the resulting location estimate, and (2) a route, R, for the mobile unit, the resulting location estimate being substantially on the route R, and a destination for the route R being different from the location of the at least one entity; and

outputting, on a wireless network, the location-based information for wireless transmission to the mobile unit and for presentation on the mobile unit to the user.

11. The method of claim 1, further including performing the following by the computational equipment:

outputting, for transmission to the mobile unit, entity information related to the at least one entity, wherein the entity information is derived using parking information for the at least one entity, the at least one entity includes a parking space.

12. The method of claim 1, further including performing the following by the computational equipment:

outputting, for transmission to the mobile unit, entity information related to the at least one entity, wherein the entity information is derived using time information associated with accessing the at least one entity.

13. The method of claim 1, further including performing the following by the computational equipment:

outputting, for transmission to the mobile unit, entity information related to the at least one entity, wherein the entity information is derived using date information associated with accessing the at least one entity.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one nearness condition includes obtaining a maximum travel distance between the geographic identification and the at least one entity.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one nearness condition includes obtaining a maximum travel time between the geographic identification and the at least one entity.

16. The method of claim 1, further including performing the following by the computational equipment:

receiving, from the mobile unit, a transmission for requesting categorical information, the transmission including identification of a user identified category, the transmission including a request for information on one or more items that are designated as belonging to the user identified category; and

determining location-based categorical information using the user identified category and the resulting location estimate, the location-based categorical information including information on at least one item of the one or more items that belong to the user identified category, wherein the at least one item satisfies a proximity condition in relation to the resulting location estimate, the proximity condition determined according to at least one of an estimated time of travel, and a distance of travel to the at least one item.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, for including in a persistent electronic data storage, data indicative of an identification and location of the at least one entity, wherein after the outputting of the location based information, the data indicative of an identification and location of the at least one entity is accessible by the user via the mobile unit.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the data indicative of an identification and location of the at least one entity is available to the user for one or more predetermined durations of time.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one of the one or more predetermined durations of time is specified by the at least one entity.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one of the one or more predetermined durations of time is specified by the user.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the data indicative of an identification and location of the at least one entity is made accessible to the user depending on an availability of an item identified by the user.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the data indicative of an identification and location of the at least one entity is made accessible to the user depending on one or more quality values indicative of a performance of a service at the least one entity.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein the data indicative of an identification and location of the at least one entity is available to the user while the mobile unit is within a predetermined proximity for the location of the at least one entity.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographical nearness includes the mobile unit being within a predetermined proximity for the location of the at least one entity, and the non-geographical condition includes an identification of one or more times the user accessed or was accessible by the at least one entity.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the satisfying of the preferences further includes comparing the time of travel to the one or more times the user accessed or was accessible by the at least one entity.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic identification includes at least one direction of a route for routing the mobile unit to the at least one entity.

2. A method for locating a wireless communication mobile unit using wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between said mobile unit and a plurality of fixed location communication stations, wherein each of said communications stations includes one or more of a transmitter and a receiver for wirelessly communicating with said mobile unit;

wherein there are first and second mobile unit location estimators available for wirelessly locating the mobile unit, wherein said location estimators determine information related to one or more location estimates of said mobile unit when said location estimators are supplied with data having values obtained from wireless signal communications to or from the mobile unit, wherein;

(A) said first location estimator performs one or more of the following techniques (i), (ii) and (iii);

(i) a first technique for determining, for at least one of the communication stations, one of;

a distance between the mobile unit and the at least one communication station, and a time difference of arrival for the mobile unit and the at least one communication station, wherein said first technique estimates a time of arrival (TOA) of wireless communication between the mobile unit and the at least one communication station;

(ii) a second technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit, dependent upon values from a corresponding instance of said data obtained from geolocation information representative of a time of travel of signals received by the mobile unit from one or more satellites;

(iii) a third technique for recognizing a pattern of characteristics of a corresponding instance of said data, wherein said pattern is identified in a plurality of wireless signal transmissions between the mobile unit and one or more of the communication stations;

wherein the recognizing of the pattern of characteristics is determined according to a machine computed similarity between;

the data, and a plurality of data sets, the data sets in a non-transient machine data storage, wherein, for each geographical location, G, of a plurality geographical locations, there is one of the data sets having (1) and (2) immediately following;

(1) a representation of the geographical location G, and

(2) wireless signal transmission related information indicative of a wireless signal transmitted from one of a first location and a second location, and received at the other of the first and second locations;

wherein the wireless signal transmission related information includes data indicative of one or more wireless signal effects of one or more objects along a wireless transmission path of the wireless signal, wherein the objects affect the wireless signal prior to being received at the other location, and wherein the geographical location G designates one of the first and second locations; and

(B) for at least a particular one of said techniques performed by said first location estimator, said second location estimator performs a different location technique;

wherein one or more of (a) and (b) following are obtained;

(a) by said first location estimator, first wireless location related information;

(b) by said second location estimator, second wireless location related information;

the method comprising performing the following by electronic computational equipment;

obtaining a resulting location estimate of the mobile unit dependent upon at least one of;

(a) a first value obtained from said first wireless location related information, and (b) a second value obtained from said second wireless location related information;

determining location-based information based on the resulting location estimate and a location of at least one entity, the at least one entity determined by the electronic computational equipment satisfying one or more preferences associated with a user of the mobile unit in a persistent electronic data storage, the location-based information including identification information to identify the at least one entity, and location data for the at least one entity;

wherein the satisfying of the preferences includes satisfying at least one nearness condition indicative of a geographical nearness between the at least one entity and a geographic identification, and satisfying at least one non-geographical condition indicative of the user accessing, or being assessable by, the at least one entity;

wherein for the satisfying of the preferences, the at least one nearness condition is satisfied by obtaining information for a time of travel between a location of the at least one entity, and the geographic identification, or information for a distance of travel between a location of the at least one entity, and the geographic identification;

wherein the geographic identification includes at least one of;

(1) the resulting location estimate, and (2) a route, R, for the mobile unit, the resulting location estimate being substantially on the route R, and a destination for the route R being different from the location of the at least one entity; and

outputting, on a wireless network, the location-based information for wireless transmission to the mobile unit and for presentation on the mobile unit to the user.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said mobile unit is co-located with a processor for activating at least one of said location estimators.

4. The method of claim 2, further including performing the following by the computational equipment:

outputting, for the mobile unit, entity information related to the at least one entity, wherein the entity information is derived using parking information for the at least one entity, the at least one entity includes a parking space.

5. The method of claim 2, further including performing the following by the computational equipment:

outputting, for transmission to the mobile unit, entity information related to the at least one entity, wherein the entity information is derived using time information associated with accessing the at least one entity.

6. The method of claim 2, further including performing the following by the computational equipment:

outputting, for transmission to the mobile unit, entity information related to the at least one entity, wherein the entity information is derived using date information associated with accessing the at least one entity.

7. The method of claim 2, further including performing the following by the computational equipment:

identifying a plurality of routes based on the resulting location estimate and the destination;

wherein the route R is one of the plurality of routes; and

wherein the preferences are satisfied for visiting the at least one entity, the location of the at least one entity being rendezvous location for the user and the at least one entity.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one nearness condition includes obtaining a maximum travel distance between the geographic identification and the at least one entity.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one nearness condition is dependent upon a maximum travel time geographic identification and the at least one entity.

10. The method of claim 2, further including performing the following by the computational equipment:

receiving, from the mobile unit, a transmission for requesting categorical information, the transmission including identification of a user identified category, the transmission including a request for information on one or more items that are designated as belonging to the user identified category; and

determining location-based categorical information using the user identified category and the resulting location estimate, the location-based categorical information including information on at least one item of the one or more items that belong to the user identified category, wherein the at least one item satisfies a proximity condition in relation to the resulting location estimate, the proximity condition determined according to at least one of an estimated time of travel, and a distance of travel to the at least one item.

27. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving, for including in a persistent electronic data storage, data indicative of an identification and location of the at least one entity, wherein after the outputting of the location based information, the data indicative of an identification and location of the at least one entity is accessible by the user via the mobile unit.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the data indicative of an identification and location of the at least one entity is available to the user for one or more predetermined durations of time.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein at least one of the one or more predetermined durations of time is specified by the at least one entity.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein at least one of the one or more predetermined durations of time is specified by the user.

31. The method of claim 27, wherein the data indicative of an identification and location of the at least one entity is made accessible to the user depending on an availability of an item identified by the user.

32. The method of claim 27, wherein the data indicative of an identification and location of the at least one entity is made accessible to the user depending on one or more quality values indicative of a performance of a service at the least one entity.

33. The method of claim 27, wherein the data indicative of an identification and location of the at least one entity is available to the user while the mobile unit is within a predetermined proximity for the location of the at least one entity.

34. The method of claim 2, wherein the geographical nearness includes the mobile unit being within a predetermined proximity for the location of the at least one entity, and the non-geographical condition includes an identification of one or more times the user accessed or was accessible by the at least one entity.

35. The method of claim 2, wherein the satisfying of the preferences further includes comparing the time of travel to the one or more times the user accessed or was accessible by the at least one entity.

36. The method of claim 2, wherein the geographic identification includes at least one direction of a route for routing the mobile unit to the at least one entity.