Use of local position fix when remote position fix is unavailable

• US 20100261484A1
• Filed: 12/05/2006
• Published: 10/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Paulson, Janell, Thomas, George, Ramaswamy, Gurunath
• Granted Patent: US 7,991,408 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.300
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/48 by combining or switching between position solutions derived from the satellite radio beacon positioning system and position solutions derived from a further system

Abstract

A mobile computing device has a transceiver circuit, a location determination circuit, and a processing circuit. The transceiver circuit is configured to receive a remote position fix from a remote computer via a wireless network. The location determination circuit is configured to receive satellite data and to calculate a local position fix. The processing circuit is configured to operate an application, to receive a request for a position fix from the application, to determine whether the remote position fix is available, and to provide the local position fix to the application based on whether the remote position fix is available.

Claims

1. A mobile computing device, comprising:

a transceiver circuit configured to receive a remote position fix from a remote computer via a wireless network;

a location determination circuit configured to receive satellite data and to calculate a local position fix; and

a processing circuit configured to operate an application, to receive a request for a position fix from the application, to determine whether the remote position fix is available, and to provide the local position fix to the application based on whether the remote position fix is available.

2. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the request comprises a characteristic of the position fix.

3. The mobile computing device of claim 2, wherein, based on the characteristic, the processing circuit is configured to select a position fix calculation method requiring the remote position fix from the remote computer, wherein the processing circuit is configured to determine that the remote position fix is not available and to instead provide the local position fix to the application.

4. The mobile computing device of claim 2, wherein the characteristic of the position fix is selected from the group consisting of a calculation speed, a calculation accuracy, and the use of satellite acquisition data received wirelessly from a remote source.

5. A method of providing a position fix for an application operating on a mobile computing device, comprising:

receiving a request from the application for a position fix, wherein the request comprises a position fix calculation characteristic;

selecting one of a plurality of position fix calculation methods based on the position fix calculation characteristic, wherein at least one of the position fix calculation methods comprises receiving a position fix for the mobile computing device wirelessly from a remote computer;

determining whether the position fix from the remote computer is available; and

calculating a position fix using a local location determination circuit based on the determination of whether the position fix from the remote computer is available.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising checking a flag in memory on the mobile computing device and calculating the position fix using the local location determination circuit based on the check.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the flag is stored in non-volatile memory.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the position fix calculation characteristic comprises a calculation speed characteristic.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the position fix calculation characteristic comprises a calculation accuracy characteristic.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the position fix calculation characteristic comprises a requirement that the selected position fix calculation method uses satellite acquisition data.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein determining whether the position fix from the remote computer is available comprises determining whether a wireless network is available.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein determining whether the position fix from the remote computer is available comprises determining whether data available from a wireless network is suitable for calculating the position fix using remote computer.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein the local location determination circuit is integrated within a housing of the mobile computing device.

14. A method, comprising:

receiving a request for a position fix;

determining whether the position fix can be calculated based on a position fix received wirelessly from a remote computer;

if the position fix from the remote computer is not available, calculating the position fix based on a local location determination circuit.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the request for a position fix comprises a desired position fix calculation characteristic.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising checking a flag in memory and calculating the position fix based on the local location determination circuit based on the check.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the desired position fix characteristic comprises a calculation speed characteristic.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the desired position fix characteristic comprises an calculation accuracy characteristic.

19. The method of claim 14 operable on a mobile computing device having an on-board location determination circuit.