Multiple evaluators for evaluation of a purality of conditions

• US 7,274,332 B1
• Filed: 10/21/1998
• Issued: 09/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: TracBeam LLC (Dennis J. Dupray)
• Original Assignee: TracBeam LLC (Dennis J. Dupray)
• Inventors: Dupray, Dennis J.
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAN, DAO LINDA
• Application Number:
  US09/176,587
• Time in Patent Office: 3,261 Days
• Field of Search: 342/450, 342/453, 342/457, 342/357.01
• US Class Current: 342/450
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/45 by combining measurements of signals from the satellite radio beacon positioning system with a supplementary measurement
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/021 Calibration, monitoring or correction G01S5/0252 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0257 Hybrid positioning by coordinating position lines of different shape G01S5/12
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0278 involving statistical or probabilistic considerations G01S5/0252, G01S5/0294 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/005 Data network PoA devices

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed for locating people or objects. In particular, a system and method for locating a wireless mobile station using a plurality of mobile station location estimators is disclosed. The system is useful for 911 emergency calls, tracking, routing, people and animal location including applications for confinement to and exclusion from certain areas. Additionally, a computational system and method for calibrating the relative performance of multiple models for various application domains is disclosed (e.g., medical, vehicle, communication diagnosis, robotics, seismic signal processing, recognition of terrestrial and/or airborne objects from satellites), wherein each such model may generate hypotheses (e.g., estimates and/or predictions) of an unknown condition. Additionally, the computational system and method may be distributed across a network such as the Internet.

Claims

1. A method for locating a particular mobile station, wherein said particular mobile station is one of a plurality of mobile stations, and wireless signal measurements are capable of being obtained using wireless transmissions between each of the plurality mobile stations and a network of communication stations, each said communication station being for at least one of transmitting and receiving the wireless transmissions, comprising:

first providing access to at least some of a plurality of estimators for estimating locations of said mobile stations, wherein each of said at least some estimators provide a corresponding location estimate when supplied with a corresponding portion of said wireless signal measurements obtained from wireless transmissions between said mobile stations and said network of communication stations;

second providing access to a plurality of data item collections, wherein for each of a plurality of geographical locations, there is a corresponding one of said data item collections having parts (a1) and (a2) following;

(a1) a representation of the geographical location, and

(a2) data indicative of said wireless signal measurements between one of the mobile stations and the communication stations when said one mobile station is approximately at the geographical location of (a1);

for each of said at least some estimators and said data item collections, perform (b1) and (b2) following;

(b1) inputting to the estimator said corresponding portion of said wireless signal measurements obtained from each of said data of (a2) for some of said data item collections for generating corresponding location estimates;

(b2) comparing, for each data item collection (D) of at least some of said data item collections providing input in (b1) above, (b2-1) and (b2-2) following;

(b2-1) said representation (a1) of D, with

(b2-2) said corresponding location estimate resulting from the inputting of D in (b1),

for determining one or more corresponding performance measurements of the estimator;

activating one or more of said estimators with their said corresponding portions of wireless signal measurements obtained using wireless transmissions between the particular mobile station and said network of communication stations for providing an estimate of one or more locations of said particular mobile station;

obtaining a resulting location estimate for the particular mobile station using the estimates of said one or more locations;

wherein one of said steps of activating and obtaining is dependent upon one or more of said performance measurements.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said plurality of estimators includes an estimator that outputs a location for at least one of the mobile stations that is dependent upon one of:

(a) satellite signals received by said at least one mobile station, (b) a time of arrival measurement of a signal between said at least one mobile station and the network of communication stations, (c) a time difference of arrival measurement of a signal between said at least one mobile station and the network of communication stations, (d) a recognition of a pattern in signals communicated between said at least one mobile station and the network of communication stations, (e) a statistical prediction technique whose output location is dependent upon said plurality of data item collections, (f) an angle of arrival of signals communicated between said at least one mobile station and the network of communication stations.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said step of activating includes determining said one or more of said estimators using at least one of said corresponding performance measurements for said one or more estimators.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said step of obtaining includes deriving said resulting location estimate from a first location obtained from a first of said one or more estimators, and a second estimate obtained from a second of said one or more estimators.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein said step of deriving includes determining a most likely location for the particular mobile station using said first and second locations and at least one value obtained from said corresponding performance measurements of said first and second estimators.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, further including a step of responding to Internet requests with at least said resulting location estimate.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein said resulting location estimate locates a vehicle.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein for one of said at least some estimators, there is a further step of deriving one of said corresponding performance measurements as a value indicative of a likelihood that a location estimate by said one estimator for said particular mobile station identifies one of the locations.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, further including a step of partitioning said plurality of (a2) parts of said data item collections into a plurality of partition areas, wherein substantially every one of said (a2) parts of said data item collections in a first of said partition areas satisfy an associated constraint for said first partition area;

and

for a first of said at least some estimators, the steps (c1) and (c2) following are performed;

(c1) determining a first of said one or more corresponding performance measurements for said first estimator by using said corresponding location estimates from (b1) wherein said some of said data item collections include those of said first partition area; and

(c2) associating said first performance measurement with said associated constraint, so that if said wireless signal measurements between said particular mobile station and the communication stations satisfy said associated constraint, then said first performance measurement is indicative of a likelihood that a first location obtained from said first estimator in said step of activating identifies a location of the particular mobile station.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said wireless signal measurements between the particular mobile station and the communication stations satisfy said associated constraint when one or more of (a) and (b) following occur:

(a) said wireless signal measurements between the particular mobile station and the communication stations substantially identify a predetermined set of one or more communication stations that detect the particular mobile station, and

(b) said wireless signal measurements between the particular mobile station and the communication stations substantially identify a predetermined set of one or more communication stations that are detected by the particular mobile station.

11. A method for evaluating a particular condition of a plurality of conditions, wherein for substantially every one of said conditions there is a corresponding set of data for evaluating the condition, comprising:

accessing a classifier for classifying the particular condition into one or more classes of a plurality of classes for said plurality of conditions, wherein said classifier uses said corresponding set of data for the conditions for classifying the conditions;

selecting between two or more evaluators for evaluating the particular condition, wherein communication with at least one of said two or more evaluators includes a transmission using the Internet;

wherein said step of selecting includes a substep of determining, for each of said evaluators, an indication as to whether information is available in said corresponding set of data for the particular condition for evaluating the particular condition by said evaluator;

activating one or more of said evaluators, selected in said selecting step, for obtaining one or more evaluations of the particular condition, wherein a first of said one or more evaluators receives a portion of said corresponding set of data for the particular condition via the Internet;

first obtaining one or more evaluator related preference data items for identifying a preference among said evaluations, wherein said preference data items are for said one or more classes in which the particular condition is classified;

second obtaining resulting evaluation information for the particular condition using at least one of said evaluations of the particular condition and at least one of said preference data items; and

transmitting said resulting evaluation information on the Internet to a predetermined destination.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein said step of accessing includes:

transmitting, on the Internet, a request to said first evaluator for obtaining one of the evaluations of the particular condition;

transmitting, on the Internet, a request to a second of the evaluators for obtaining one of the evaluations of particular condition; and

wherein the resulting evaluation information is obtained using the evaluations from each of the first and second evaluators.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein

for each of at least some of said classes, assignment of one or more said conditions to said class is dependent upon a predetermined method of determining a similarity in said corresponding set of data for said conditions assigned to the class;

and

wherein said step of second obtaining said resulting evaluation information includes determining a most likely evaluation using a plurality of said evaluations of the particular condition and a corresponding performance measurement for each of said plurality of evaluations.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein said step of first obtaining said one or more evaluator related preference data items includes:

obtaining, for at least one of said one or more evaluators, a corresponding one of said related preference data items by comparing;

(1) evaluations obtained from said one evaluator for other of the conditions in at least one of the classes having the particular condition with (2) known correct identifications of the other conditions;

wherein said corresponding one related preference data item includes a value indicative of a likelihood that one of said evaluations, by the one evaluator, of the particular condition is a correct evaluation.

17. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein said plurality of conditions is one of:

(a) economic market related conditions, wherein said evaluators provide forecasts of future economic conditions;

(b) malfunctions in electronic systems, wherein said evaluators provide diagnoses of the malfunctions;

(c) text in documents for scanning, wherein said evaluators provide evaluations for identifying the scanned text;

(d) vehicle malfunctions, wherein said evaluators provide diagnoses of the vehicle malfunctions;

(e) computer malfunctions, wherein said evaluators provide diagnoses of the computer malfunctions;

(f) communication network malfunctions, wherein said evaluators provide diagnosis of the network malfunctions;

(g) medical conditions, wherein said evaluators provide diagnoses of the medical conditions; and

(h) weather data, wherein said evaluators provide predictions of future weather conditions.

18. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein said classes are hierarchically ordered.

19. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein said resulting evaluation information includes a diagnosis of said particular condition.

20. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein said resulting evaluation information and at least one of said evaluations includes an estimate for said particular condition.

34. The method of claim 11, wherein the activating step includes activating the first evaluator, and a second of said evaluators for determining, respectively, a first and a second evaluation of said particular condition;

and

farther including the steps of;

determining, for said first evaluation, a first of preference measurement from the preference data items, wherein the first preference measurement is indicative of a performance of the first evaluator in at least one of the classes which the particular condition is classified;

determining, for said second evaluation, a second of preference measurement from the preference data items, wherein the second preference measurement is indicative of a performance of the second evaluator in at least one of the classes which the particular condition is classified;

wherein the preference is determined using the first and second preference measurements; and

wherein the step of second obtaining includes obtaining the resulting evaluation for the particular condition using the preference to give a preference to one of said first and second evaluations.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the particular condition relates to a geographic location of a user station that is interactive on a network.

36. The method of claim 11, wherein the selecting step includes selecting the at least one evaluator wherein communication with the at least one evaluator includes the transmission via the Internet.

13. A method for determining, from a plurality of conditions, first and second conditions, comprising:

providing access to a plurality of evaluators for identifying said conditions, wherein each of said evaluators determine condition identifications when supplied with an available corresponding set of data for one or more of said conditions to be identified, and wherein for at least a first of said evaluators access is provided via the Internet;

evaluating a performance of first and second of the evaluators so that a first indication of a likely effectiveness is associated with condition identifications from the first evaluator, and a second indication of a likely effectiveness is associated with condition identifications from the second evaluator;

first selecting between the first and second evaluators for identifying the first condition, and contacting the first evaluator, via the Internet, for identifying the first condition;

first obtaining from the first evaluator, a first condition identification via the Internet;

first determining, using the first condition identification, first resulting information for identifying the first condition;

wherein the step of first determining includes accessing the first indication of a likely effectiveness when generating the first resulting information;

second selecting between the first and second evaluators for identifying the second condition, and contacting the second evaluator for identifying the second condition, the second evaluator contacted at a site different from a site contacted in said step of contacting the first evaluator;

second obtaining, from the second evaluator, a second condition identification;

second determining, using the second condition identification, second resulting information for identifying the second condition;

wherein the step of second determining includes accessing the second indication of a likely effectiveness when generating the second resulting information.

14. A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein

(a) each said first condition includes a geographical location of a mobile station;

and

(b) said corresponding set of data for identifying the first condition includes wireless signal measurements between the mobile station and a network of communication stations.

92. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein said plurality of conditions is one of:

(a) economic market related conditions, wherein said evaluators provide forecasts of future economic conditions;

(b) malfunctions in electronic systems, wherein said evaluators provide diagnoses of the malfunctions;

(c) text in documents for scanning, wherein said evaluators provide evaluations for identifying the scanned text;

(d) vehicle malfunctions, wherein said evaluators provide diagnoses of the vehicle malfunctions;

(e) computer malfunctions, wherein said evaluators provide diagnoses of the computer malfunctions;

(f) communication network malfunctions, wherein said evaluators provide diagnosis of the network malfunctions;

(g) medical conditions, wherein said evaluators provide diagnoses of the medical conditions; and

(h) weather data, wherein said evaluators provide predictions of future weather conditions.

21. A method for determining, from a plurality of conditions, a condition (CNDN) desired to be identified, wherein for substantially every one of said conditions there is a corresponding set of data for each of one or more of a plurality of estimators for identifying the condition, comprising:

obtaining a plurality of classes for said plurality of conditions, wherein for each said class (C), at least most of said conditions therein are each identified by predetermined criteria, said predetermined criteria for identifying said corresponding set of data for the conditions in the class C;

providing access to the plurality of estimators for determining said conditions when said estimators are supplied with said corresponding sets of data for said conditions;

obtaining a plurality of data item collections, wherein for each of said estimators and each of more than one of said conditions, there is one of said data item collections having;

(a1) a representation of the condition, and

(a2) a representation of a data set for identifying said condition of (a1);

(a3) an estimate of said condition generated by said estimator when said representation of (a2) is input to said estimator;

activating a first of said estimators with said corresponding set of data for said condition CNDN for determining a first estimate for identifying said condition CNDN;

selecting one or more of said data item collections, wherein for each of said selected data item collections, said estimate of (a3);

(i) was generated by said first estimator, and (ii) has a determined relationship to said first estimate that is determined to be satisfied for selecting said one or more data item collections;

determining a second estimate of said condition CNDN using said representations of(a1) from said selected data item collections.

22. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein

(a) each said condition includes a geographical location of a wireless mobile station;

and

(b) each said data set includes wireless signal measurements between the mobile station and a network of communication stations.

23. An apparatus for locating mobile units, wherein wireless signal measurements are capable of being obtained using wireless transmissions between:

(i) the mobile units and (ii) a plurality of terrestrial communication stations, each said communication station being for at least one of transmitting and receiving the wireless transmissions with the mobile units, comprising;

a predetermined interface for accessing a plurality of estimators, each of the estimators for estimating locations of a plurality of said mobile units, wherein for at least a first and a second of said estimators, (a) the first estimator uses a corresponding input that includes data obtained from signals S received by one of the mobile units being located by the first estimator, wherein the signals S are received from a transmitting station that is not supported on the earth'"'"'s surface and (b) the second estimator uses a second corresponding input for one of the mobile units being located by the second estimator, the second corresponding input includes data obtained from one of (b-1) and (b-2) following for determining a location estimate;

(b-1) a time difference of arrival measurement of a signal between one of the mobile units and the communication stations, and (b-2) a recognition of a pattern in signals communicated between one of the mobile units and the communication stations;

wherein a controller the predetermined interface outputs to the first estimator, at a first destination, first information for locating at least some of the mobile units, and outputs to the second estimator, at a second destination, second information for locating at least some of the mobile units;

wherein at least one of;

(c1) the first information is transmitted to the first destination via a transmission on a telecommunications network such that the first and second destinations are distributed thereon, and (c2) the second information is transmitted to the second destination via a transmission on a telecommunications network such that the first and second destinations are distributed thereon;

one or more components for receiving location requests for the plurality of mobile units, and initiating contacts via the predetermined interface with one or more of the plurality of estimators for estimating mobile unit locations to satisfy the requests,

24. The apparatus of claim 23, further including an archive having a plurality of data item collections, wherein for each of a plurality of geographical locations, there is a corresponding one of said data item collections having (a1) and (a2) following:

(a1) a representation of the geographical location, and

(a2) data indicative of said wireless signal measurements between one of the mobile units and the communication stations when said one mobile unit is approximately at the geographical location of (a1); and

further including a comparator for comparing for each estimator, E, of at least some of said estimators, (b1) and (b2) following;

(b1) location estimates, each obtained from inputting to the estimator E a corresponding input from an instance of said data of (a2); and

(b2) the corresponding geographical location representations of (a1) for those of the data item collections also having instances of said data of (a2 from which one of the corresponding inputs is used for obtaining the corresponding location estimates in (b1);

wherein a result from said comparator is used for determining at least one corresponding performance measurement for each of the estimators E.

25. The apparatus of claim 23, further including an output interface for outputting mobile unit location information obtained using one or more location estimates obtained form said estimators receiving activation requests from the predetermined interface, wherein said output interface includes an access to the Internet for transmitting said location information, via the Internet, to an Internet accessible destination for which a previous request for said location information was received by said apparatus.

37. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein said predetermined interface for accessing includes a routing component for providing information that is used in routing at least one instance of each of the first and second requests via a transmission on the Internet.

38. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the transmitting station not supported on the earth'"'"'s surface includes a satellite.

39. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein for at least one mobile unit (U₁) of the mobile units, the corresponding input for the first estimator includes data obtained from signals received by U₁ from a transmitting station (TS) not supported on the earth'"'"'s surface, wherein the first estimator determines a location of U₁ that is dependent upon a signal time delay of the signals from TS to U₁, and

wherein for at least one mobile unit (U₂) of the mobile units, the corresponding input for the second estimator includes a time difference of arrival measurement of signals between U₂, and at least two terrestrial communication stations of the communication stations.

40. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein at least one of the two terrestrial communication stations receives a wireless signal from U₂ substantially at a time that U₂ is being located.

41. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein for at least one mobile unit (U₁) of the mobile units, the corresponding input for the first estimator includes data obtained from signals received by U₁ from a transmitting station (TS) not supported on the earth'"'"'s surface, wherein the first estimator determines a location of U₁ that is dependent upon a signal time delay of the signals from TS to U₁, and

wherein for at least one mobile unit (U₂) of the mobile units, the corresponding input for the second estimator includes data obtained from signals communicated between the mobile unit U₂ and the communication stations, wherein the second estimator has been trained or calibrated using values obtained from transmissions of wireless signals from a plurality of locations of one or more of the mobile units to associate:

(1) wireless signal characteristics obtained from the signals communicated between the mobile unit U₂ and the communication stations with (2) a geographical location used for locating the mobile unit U₂.

42. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein for at least one mobile unit (U₁) of the mobile units, the corresponding input for the first estimator includes data obtained from the time difference of arrival measurement of signals between U_1, and at least two terrestrial communication stations of the communication stations, and

wherein for at least one mobile unit (U₂) of the mobile units, the corresponding input for the second estimator includes data obtained from signals communicated between the mobile unit U₂ and the communication stations, wherein the second estimator has been trained or calibrated using values obtained from transmissions of wireless signals from a plurality of locations of one or more of the mobile units to associate:

(1) wireless signal characteristics obtained from the signals communicated between the mobile unit U₂ and the communication stations with (2) a geographical location used for locating the mobile unit U₂.

43. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein, the initiated contacts with the first estimator depends on whether said corresponding input is available for said first estimator.

44. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein, the initiated contacts with the second estimator depends on whether said corresponding input is available for said second estimator.

45. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein for at least one of the mobile units (U₁), the one or more components directs the predetermined interface to provide a first activation request to the first estimator, wherein the first estimator locates U₁ using data obtained from an instance of the signals S transmitted from an instance of the transmitting station to U₁, wherein the first estimator determines a location of U₁ using a signal time delay of the instance of the signals S;

wherein for at least one location of one of the mobile units (U₂), the one or more components directs the predetermined interface to provide a second activation request to the second estimator, wherein the second estimator locates U₂ using data obtained from an instance of the time difference of arrival measurement of signals between U₂ and at least two terrestrial communication station of the communication stations; and

wherein for at least one location of one of the mobile units (U₃), the one or more components directs the predetermined interface to provide a third activation request to a third of the estimators, wherein the third estimator locates U₃ using data obtained from an instance of wireless signals communicated between U₃ and the communication stations, wherein for estimating the location of U_3, the third estimator has been trained or calibrated, using values obtained from wireless transmissions of wireless signals from a plurality of locations of the mobile units, to associate;

(1) wireless signal characteristics obtained from the instance of the wireless signals communicated between U₃ and the communication stations with (2) a geographical location for the mobile unit U₃.

46. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein each of the mobile units U₁, U₂and U₃ is different from the other two of the mobile units U₁, U₂, and U₃.

47. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein each of the mobile units U₁, U₂, and U₃ is at substantially different location when locked.

48. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein at least two of the mobile units U₁, U₂, and U₃ are the same mobile unit.

50. The method of claim 23, wherein in order to locate one of the mobile units, an instance of the second corresponding input includes data obtained from a time difference of arrival measurement of signals between the one mobile unit being located, and at least two terrestrial communication stations of the communication stations;

S wherein there is a two-way communication between the one mobile unit and at least one of the communication stations for obtaining the instance of the second corresponding input.

51. The method of claim 50, wherein each of the first and second destinations corresponds to a server site of a same telecommunications network.

93. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein for one of the mobile units (M₁) wherein a location estimate (LE₁) is obtained from the first estimator, there is no corresponding location estimate for the mobile unit M₁ from the second estimator for substantially a same time and location of M₁ that LE₁ is obtained.

94. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein for one of the mobile units (M₁) wherein a location estimate (LE₁) is obtained from the first estimator, there is a location estimate (LE₂) for M₁ from the second estimator for substantially a same time and location of M₁ that LE₁ is obtained, and each of LE₁ and LE₂ is determined substantially independently of the other of LE₁and LE₂.

95. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein for determining a location estimate (LE) of a particular one of the mobile units, at least one of the corresponding performance measurements is used for determining a probability of the location estimate LE correctly identifying an actual location of the particular mobile unit.

26. A method for locating a mobile unit (MU), wherein said mobile unit MU is one of a plurality of mobile units, and wherein corresponding wireless signal measurements are capable of being obtained using wireless transmissions between each of the plurality of mobile units and a plurality of terrestrial communication stations, each said communication station being for at least one of transmitting and receiving the wireless transmissions with the mobile units, comprising:

first transmitting, via a network, a first activation request for receipt by a first predetermined destination of the network for activating a first location estimating method for estimating a location of the mobile unit MU,;

second transmitting, via a network, a second activation request for receipt by a second predetermined destination, wherein the second activation request is for activating a second location estimating method, for estimating a same or different location of the mobile unit MU;

wherein the first and second predetermined destinations are different from the mobile unit MU;

wherein, for determining a location estimate, each of said first and second location estimating methods uses data obtained from a different one of (a) and (b) following;

(a) signals S received by the mobile unit MU, the signals S received from a transmitting station that is not supported on the earth'"'"'s surface, and

(b) at least one of (i) and (ii) following;

(i) a time difference of arrival measurement of signals between the mobile unit MU and at least two of the communication stations, wherein at least one of the two communication stations receives a wireless signal from the mobile unit MU, or

(ii) wireless signals (WS'"'"') communicated between the communication stations and one or more of the mobile units different from MU;

wherein when an instance of the data is obtained, at least in part, from the time difference of arrival measurement for determining a location of the mobile unit MU, there is a two-way communication between the mobile unit MU and at least one of the communication stations in order to provide the instance of the data to a corresponding one of first and second location estimating methods;

wherein when an instance of the data is obtained, at least in part, from an instance of the wireless signals WS, a corresponding one of first and second location estimating methods uses location dependent characteristics of the wireless signals WS to determine a correspondence between;

(1) characteristics of the wireless signals transmitted between the mobile unit MU, and one or more of the communication stations, and (2) a geographical location of the mobile unit MU;

wherein when activated for locating MU₁, each of the first and second location estimating methods performs at least one corresponding geographical location determining computation for locating MU, wherein the corresponding computations are performed at network sites distributed from one another.

52. The method of claim 26, wherein the network by which said first estimating method is activated is the Internet, and the network by which said second estimating method is activated is the Internet.

53. The method of claim 26, wherein at least one of the first and second location estimating methods provide a location estimate of the mobile unit MU according to (b)(ii).

54. The method of claim 26, wherein a location estimate for the mobile unit MU from the first location estimating method is independent of a location estimate for the mobile unit MU from the second location estimating method, and a location estimate for the mobile unit MU from the second location estimating method is independent of a location estimate for the mobile unit MU from the first location estimating method.

55. The method of claim 26, wherein one or more of:

the first transmitting step, and the second transmitting step includes transmitting on the Internet.

56. The method of claim 26, wherein at least one of the first and second location estimating methods provides a location estimate of the mobile unit MU according to (a), and the transmitting station is a satellite.

57. The method of claim 26, further including a step of outputting location information for the mobile unit MU, wherein the location information includes a representation of a first location of the mobile unit MU, at a first time, obtained using a location estimate from the first location estimating method, and the location information includes a representation of a second location of the mobile unit MU, at a second time, obtained using a location estimate from the second location estimating method, wherein the first and second locations are different.

58. The method of claim 26, further including receiving a location estimate from the first location estimating method when information is available from corresponding wireless signal measurements for estimating a location of the mobile unit MU by the first location estimating method;

and

receiving a location estimate from the second location estimating method when information is available from corresponding wireless signal measurements for estimating a location of the mobile unit MU by the second location estimating method.

59. The method of claim 26, further including, for a mobile unit (U₁) of the mobile units, a step of receiving a location estimate substantially dependent upon signals S₁ received by the mobile unit U₁the signals S₁ received from a transmitting station that is not supported on the earth'"'"'s surface;

and

for a mobile unit (U₂) of the mobile units, a step of receiving a second location estimate substantially dependent upon a time difference of arrival measurement of signals between the mobile unit U₂ and the communication stations, wherein at least one of the communication stations receives a wireless signal S₂ from the mobile unit U₂, and S₂ is used to provide input to a corresponding one of first and second location estimating methods for determining the second location estimate; and

wherein U₁ and U₂ are different.

60. The method of claim 59, further including, for a mobile unit (U₃) of the mobile units, a step of receiving a location estimate (LE), wherein the location estimate LE is determined using values of a wireless transmissions, T, from a plurality of locations of the plurality of mobile units different from the mobile unit U₃;

wherein LE is determined as a result of one of adaptively associating or statistically correlating the values of the wireless transmissions T with data from wireless signals communicated between the mobile unit U₃ and the communication stations.

61. The method of claim 26, wherein for determining the location of the mobile unit MU, and for each of the first and second location estimating methods, at least one geographical location determining computation using data from wireless signals communicated between the mobile unit MU and the communication stations is performed at a location remote from the location of the mobile unit MU.

62. The method of claim 26, wherein each of the first and second predetermined destinations are server sites on a same telecommunications network.

63. The method of claim 26, wherein for each mobile unit (U_k) of a plurality mobile units different from the mobile unit MU, at least one value obtained from a wireless transmission between the different mobile unit U_k to the communication stations is used for associating, or statistically correlating:

(1) data from wireless signals communicated between the mobile unit MU and the communication stations, and (2) a geographical location of MU.

64. The method of claim 26, further including a step of receiving one or more location estimates for locating the mobile unit MU, the location estimates obtained from one or more of the first and second location estimating methods;

and

transmitting location information determined from the one or more location estimates to a predetermined destination as a response to a location request for locating the mobile unit MU.

27. A method for locating a mobile unit MU, wherein said mobile unit MU is one of a plurality of mobile units, and corresponding wireless signal measurements are capable of being obtained using wireless transmissions between each of the plurality mobile units and a plurality of communication stations residing on a surface of the earth, each said communication station being for at least one of transmitting and receiving the wireless transmissions with the mobile units, comprising:

selecting between at least two or more location estimating methods for estimating a location of the mobile unit MU, wherein each of first and second of the location estimating methods is dependent upon corresponding data provided by at least one of (a) through (d) following;

(a) signals received by the mobile unit MU from a transmitting station not supported on the earth'"'"'s surface,

(b) a time difference of arrival measurement of a wireless signals between the mobile unit MU and the communication stations,

(c) an angle of arrival measurement of a signal between the mobile unit MU and at least one of the communication stations, and

(d) wireless signals (WS) transmitted between the communication stations and one or more of the mobile units different from MU;

wherein said step of selecting includes a substep of determining, for at least one of said location estimating methods, an indication as to whether information is available for estimating a location of the mobile unit MU;

requesting activation of one or more of said first and second location estimating methods, selected in said selecting step, for estimating one or more locations of said mobile unit MU;

wherein a preference is given to locating the mobile unit MU by one of the location estimating methods;

(i) that uses data obtained from available wireless signals received by the mobile unit MU from a transmitting station not supported on the earth'"'"'s surface, over (ii) locating the mobile unit MU by one of the location estimating methods that is more dependent upon the corresponding data available for locating the mobile unit MU from (b) through (d) hereinabove;

wherein when the corresponding data for a selected location estimating method (LEM) of the first and second location estimating methods is provided, at least in part, by an instance of (c) hereinabove, there is a two-way communication between the mobile unit MU and at least one of the communication stations in order to provide the corresponding data to the location estimating method LEM;

wherein when the corresponding data for a selected location estimating method (LSM_ws) of the first and second location estimating methods includes an instance of the wireless signals WS, the selected location estimating method LSM_ws uses location dependent characteristics of the wireless signals WS to determine a correspondence between;

(1) characteristics of the wireless signals transmitted between the mobile unit MU, and one or more of the communication stations, and (2) a geographical location of the mobile unit MU.

65. The method of claim 27, wherein for one of the first and second location estimating methods, the corresponding data includes data provided by (a), and

wherein for the other of the first and second location estimating methods, the corresponding data therefore includes a collection of the wireless signals WS, wherein this other location estimating method has been trained or calibrated using location dependent characteristics of the collection of wireless signals WS to associate:

(1) characteristics of the wireless signals transmitted from the mobile unit MU to at least one of the communication stations, with (2) a geographical location for locating the mobile unit MU.

66. The method of claim 27, wherein for one of the first and second location estimating methods, the corresponding data includes data provided by (b);

and

wherein for the other of the first and second location estimating methods, the corresponding data therefore includes a collection of the wireless signals WS, wherein this other location estimating method has been trained or calibrated using location dependent characteristics of the collection of wireless signals WS to associate;

(1) characteristics of the wireless signals transmitted from the mobile unit MU to at least one of the communication stations, with (2) a geographical location for locating the mobile unit MU.

67. The method of claim 27, wherein requests for activating the first location estimating method for locating at least some of the mobile units includes contacting a predetermined first destination, and requests for activating the second location estimating method for locating at least some of the mobile units includes contacting a predetermined second destination, and the predetermined first and second destinations are different from the mobile unit MU.

68. The method of claim 67, wherein the predetermined first and second destinations are different from one another.

69. The method of claim 27, wherein for at least one mobile unit (U₁) of the mobile units, a location estimating method (E) of the two or more location estimating methods is used to locate U₁, wherein the estimator E uses satellite signals received by the mobile unit U₁.

70. The method of claim 27, wherein for at least one mobile unit (U₁) of the mobile units, a location estimating method (E) of the two or more location estimating methods is used to locate U₁, wherein the location estimating method E uses a time difference of arrival measurement of a signal between the mobile unit U₁ and the communication stations, wherein there is a two-way communication between the mobile unit U₁ and at least one of the communication stations in order to provide input to the location estimating method E.

71. The method of claim 27, wherein for at least one mobile unit (U₁) of the mobile units, a location estimating method (E) of the two or more location estimating methods is used to locate U₁, wherein the location estimating method E uses an angle of arrival measurement of a signal between the mobile unit U₁ and at least one of the communication stations.

72. The method of claim 27, wherein for at least one mobile unit (U₁) of the mobile units, a location estimating method (E) of the two or more location estimating methods is used to locate U₁, wherein the location estimating method E is dependent upon information obtained from a collection of the wireless signals received at the communication stations from one or more of the mobile units different from U₁, wherein the information from the collection is input to the location estimating method E for training or calibrating E to identify a corresponding geographical location for U₁ from characteristics of wireless signals communicated between U₁ and one or more of the communication stations.

73. The method of claim 27, wherein at least one of the first and second location estimating methods is substantially dependent upon an instance of the corresponding data provided by a particular one of (a) through (d), and the other of the first and second location estimating methods is not substantially dependent on the particular one;

wherein the requesting activation step includes a step of providing to a first destination a first request for activating the first estimator, and for providing to a second destination a second request for activating the second estimator, wherein at least the first request is provided to the first destination via a transmission on a communications network such that the first and second destinations correspond to distinct server sites on the communications network.

74. The method of claim 27, wherein the transmitting station is a satellite.

75. The method of claim 27, further including outputting, to a destination, location information that provides at least one location of the mobile unit MU, the location information obtained using one or more location estimates provided by said one or more of the first and second of said location estimating methods;

wherein the destination uses the location information, and the step of outputting includes a transmission on a communications network.

28. A method for locating mobile units MU₁ and MU₂, wherein said mobile units MU₁ and MU₂ are each from a plurality of mobile units, and wireless signal measurements are capable of being obtained using wireless transmissions between each of the plurality of mobile units, and a plurality of communication stations supported on the surface of the earth, each said communication station being for at least transmitting some of the wireless transmissions to the mobile units for determining geographic locations of the mobile units, comprising:

transmitting, to a first destination, a first request for activating a first location estimator for determining a first location estimate of the mobile unit MU₁;

wherein for determining the first location estimate, the first location estimator uses first data obtained from signals received by the mobile unit MU₁ from a transmitting station not supported on the earth'"'"'s surface;

providing, to a second destination, a second request for activating of a second location estimator for determining a second location estimate of the mobile unit MU₂ using second data obtained from location indicative data from one or more signals communicated between the mobile unit MU₂ and one of the communication stations, wherein there is a two-way communication between the mobile unit MU₂ and at least one of the communication stations in order to provide the second data to the second location estimator, the second data providing information indicative of a position of MU₂ relative to at least one of the communication stations;

wherein the first and second destinations are distributed from one another on a telecommunications network, wherein at least one of the first and second location estimates is transmitted on the telecommunications network to a predetermined site on the telecommunications network as a response to a corresponding one of the first and second requests; and

wherein for locating at least one mobile unit (MU_n) of the plurality of mobile units, a preference is given for;

(i) determining a location of the mobile unit MU_n using data (D) obtained from wireless signals received by the mobile unit MU_n from a transmitting station not supported on the earth'"'"'s surface, over (ii) determining a location of the mobile unit MU_n using, instead of the data D, alternative available location indicative data obtained from one or more signals communicated between the mobile unit MU_n and one of the communication stations, wherein there is a two-way communication between the mobile unit MU_n and at least one of the communication stations in order to obtain the alternative location data, wherein the alternative location data provides information indicative of a position of MU_n relative to at least one of the communication stations.

30. The method of claim 28, further including

(a) a step of activating one or more location estimators for obtaining one or more additional location estimates of a location of one of said mobile units MU₁ and MU₂, and

(b) a step of outputting location information based, at least in part, on at least one of the additional location estimates;

wherein said step of activating is for obtaining a more accurate location estimate of the one mobile unit.

31. The method of claim 30, further including a step of using a frequency of performing said step of outputting for providing one or more instances of said location information to a location information receiving application.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein said location information receiving application uses the location information for a predetermined service.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein said location information receiving application is for determining whether there is a predetermined distance between the one mobile unit and another one of the mobile units.

76. The method of claim 28, wherein at least one of first and second requests is received by an Internet server site corresponding to one of the first and second destinations.

77. The method of claim 28, wherein the telecommunications network includes server sites for the first and second destinations.

78. The method of claim 28, wherein the location indicative data from the one or more signals communicated between the mobile unit MU₂ and one of the communication stations includes at least one of:

(a) a time of arrival measurement of a signal communicated between the mobile unit MU₂ and one of the communication stations, wherein there is a two-way communication between the mobile unit MU₂ and at least one of the communication stations in order to provide the second data to the second location estimator;

(b) a time difference of arrival measurement of a signal between the mobile unit MU₂ and the communication stations, wherein there is a two-way communication between the mobile unit MU₂ and at least one of the communication stations in order to provide the second data to the second location estimator;

(c) data for identifying a direction of arrival measurement of a signal between the mobile unit MU₂ and one of the communication stations; and

(d) wireless signals (WS₂) communicated between the communication stations and one or more of the mobile units different from MU₂, wherein the second location estimator uses location dependent characteristics of the wireless signals WS₂ to determine a correspondence between;

(1) characteristics of the wireless signals transmitted between the mobile unit MU₂, and one or more of the communication stations, and (2) a geographical location of the mobile unit MU₂.

79. The method of claim 78, wherein the second location estimator requires data obtained from the wireless signals WS₂.

80. The method of claim 79, wherein to obtain a geographical location for MU₂ from the second location estimator, values obtained from the wireless signals WS₂ are associated with, or statistically correlated with, data from wireless signals communicated between the mobile unit MU₂ and the communication stations.

81. The method of claim 78, wherein the second location estimator requires data obtained from the data for identifying a direction of arrival measurement.

82. The method of claim 28, further including, for at least one of the mobile units MU₁ and MU₂, a step of selecting the corresponding first or second location estimator, wherein the step of selecting is dependent upon an availability of the corresponding first and second data.

83. The method of claim 28, further including obtaining a location estimate of the mobile unit MU₁ from the first location estimator via the telecommunications network;

and

transmitting to a network address, location information that provides a location of the mobile unit MU₁, the location information obtained using the first location estimate, and the network address used for providing the location information to a predetermined application that uses the location information for performing a predetermined service.

29. A method for locating mobile units, wherein wireless signal measurements are capable of being obtained using wireless transmissions between each of the plurality mobile units and a plurality of communication stations supported on the surface of the earth, each said communication station being for at least one of transmitting and receiving the wireless transmissions with the mobile units for determining geographic locations of the mobile units, comprising:

selecting between first and second location estimating methods, or location estimates therefrom, for estimating a location of one of the mobile units (MU₁), wherein for obtaining a location estimate of the mobile unit MU₁, said first location estimating method is dependent upon corresponding data obtained using signals received by the mobile unit MU₁ from a transmitting station not supported on the earth'"'"'s surface, and said second location estimating method is dependent upon corresponding data obtained using wireless signals (WS) communicated between the communication stations and one or more of the mobile units different from MU₁;

wherein said step of selecting includes a substep of determining, for at least one of said first and second location estimating methods, an indication as to an availability of an acceptable resulting location estimate for the mobile unit MU₁.

49. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein for estimating a location of at least one mobile unit (U₁) of the mobile units, one of the first and second estimators has been trained or calibrated using values obtained from wireless signals for prior locations of one or more different ones of the mobile units to associate or correlate:

(1) wireless signal characteristics obtained from wireless signals transmitted between the mobile unit U₁ and at least one of the communication stations, with (2) a geographical location for the mobile unit U₁.

84. The method of claim 29, wherein when the corresponding data for a selected one of the first and second location estimating methods, or location estimate therefrom, is obtained using an instance of the wireless signals WS.

85. The method of claim 84, wherein the selected location estimating method, or location estimate therefrom, is dependent upon characteristics of the wireless signals WS to determine a correspondence between:

(1) characteristics of the wireless signals transmitted between the mobile unit MU₁, and one or more of the communication stations, and (2) a geographical location of the mobile unit MU₁.

86. The method of claim 29, further including a step of requesting activation of at least said first location estimating method for estimating one or more locations of said mobile unit MU₁, wherein the corresponding data for said first location estimating method is obtained from the signals received by the mobile unit MU₁ from a satellite.

87. The method of claim 29, further including first requesting activation of at least one of the first and second location estimating methods for obtaining a first location estimate of MU₁, wherein the activation request is transmitted to a first destination, via a transmission on a communications network.

88. The method of claim 87, further including a step of providing to a second destination, a request for activation of the other of the first and second location estimating methods different from the at least one location estimating method, the request for activation of the other location estimating method for obtaining a second location estimate of a second of the mobile units MU₂.

89. The method of claim 88, wherein the other location estimating method is activated for estimating the second location estimate of the second mobile unit MU₂, wherein the activation of the other location estimating method is dependent upon wireless signals (WS₂) communicated between the communication stations and one or more of the mobile units different from MU₂.

90. The method of claim 29, wherein the first and second location estimating methods are, respectively, accessed via first and second destinations that are distributed from one another on a communications network;

wherein for at least one of a first request for activating the first location estimating method, and a second request for activating the second location method, at least one resulting location estimate therefrom is transmitted on the communications network to a predetermined site on the communications network as a response to a corresponding one of the first and second requests.

91. The method of claim 29, wherein for locating the mobile unit MU₁, there are one or more mobile units (MU_k) of the mobile units different from MU₁, wherein at each of one or more locations of each of the mobile units MU_k, one or more values of one or more wireless transmissions between the mobile unit MU_k and the communication stations are used in training, or stochastically correlating, the second location estimating method to associate:

(i) each of a plurality of geographic locations, and (ii) for each of the geographic locations, GL, corresponding values of wireless communications between the communication stations and the geographic location GL.