System and method for determining geographic location of wireless computing devices

• US 7,696,923 B2
• Filed: 10/16/2006
• Issued: 04/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Skyhook Holding, Inc. (Liberty Broadband Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Mexens Intellectual Property Holding LLC
• Inventors: Houri, Cyril
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza, Thomas H
• Assistant Examiner(s): LIU, HARRY K
• Application Number:
  US11/549,703
• Publication Number:
  US 20070126635A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,275 Days
• Field of Search: 34235701- 17, 342/357.09
• US Class Current: 342/357.66
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0242 Determining the position of transmitters to be subsequently used in positioning G01S5/0289 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location

Abstract

System for enabling a wireless computing device to determine its position includes a server with a database of identification and positional information about wireless beacons and a wireless computing device arranged to wirelessly communicate using the Internet with the server. The server determines the geographic location of the wireless computing device upon receiving data from the wireless computing device relating to reception of signals by the wireless computing device from at least one wireless beacon and analysis of the signals in light of the information contained in the database of the server. The server applies a calculation algorithm which determines the geographic location of the wireless computing device upon input of identification and signal strength information about the wireless beacon(s) derived from the received signals.

Claims

1. A system for enabling a wireless computing device to determine its position when communicating with one or more wireless beacons having fixed physical locations, comprising:

a server comprising a database of identification and positional information about wireless beacons having fixed physical locations; and

a wireless computing device arranged to wirelessly communicate using the Internet with said server,

said wireless computing device being arranged to directly receive a transmission from at least one wireless beacon and generate identification information about said at least one wireless beacon, the identification information being generated by said wireless computing device based on the transmission from said at least one wireless beacon which is received by said wireless computing device,

said wireless computing device being arranged to generate a request for a determination of its position and send the position determination request with the generated identification information about said at least one wireless beacon to said server, the generated and sent identification information being the information previously generated by said wireless computing device based on an earlier transmission from said at least one wireless beacon which is received by said wireless computing device,

said server being arranged to receive the position determination request and the generated information about said at least one wireless beacon sent by said wireless computing device and determine the geographic position of said wireless computing device from the identification information generated and sent by said wireless computing device and the identification and positional information about wireless beacons contained in said database of said server,

said server being arranged to undertake an action based on the determined geographic position of said wireless computing device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said wireless computing device is non-GPS enabled.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said wireless computing device is arranged to display an icon which when selected, causes the generation of the position determination request and sending of the generated position determination request and the generated identification information about said at least one wireless beacon from said wireless computing device to said server.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the action undertaken by the server based on the determined geographic position of said wireless computing device is to direct a transmission of the determined geographic position of said wireless computing device to said wireless computing device which generated and sent the information, and said wireless computing device is, upon receipt of the transmission of the determined geographic position from said server, arranged to display the determined geographic position of said wireless computing device on a portion of a screen of said wireless computing device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the action undertaken by the server based on the determined geographic position of said wireless computing device is to direct a transmission of the determined geographic position of said wireless computing device to said wireless computing device which generated and sent the information, and said wireless computing device is arranged to continuously or periodically generate the information about said at least one wireless beacon and send the generated information about said at least one wireless beacon to said server upon selection by the user, said wireless computing device being further arranged to display an icon which causes the determined geographic position of said wireless computing device, received in the transmission from said server based on the information generated and sent by said wireless computing device, to be displayed upon selection by the user.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said wireless computing device is arranged to display the position of the wireless computing device on a portion of a screen of said wireless computing device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said server is arranged to provide at a minimum a country identifier as the geographic position of said wireless computing device when said server is unable to determine a region identifier from the transmission received by said wireless computing device from said at least one wireless beacon.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said server is arranged to provide at a minimum a country identifier and a region identifier as the geographic position of said wireless computing device when said server is unable to determine a more precise position from the transmission received by said wireless computing device from said at least one wireless beacon.

9. The system of claim 1, said wireless computing device includes a scanner arranged to obtain positional information about itself and identification and signal strength information about wireless beacons, whose positional information is not present in said database, in order to derive positional information about at least one such identified wireless beacon from the signal strength information to enable the derived positional information to be included in said database.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said scanner is arranged to analyze strength of signals received from the wireless beacons at a plurality of different positions of said scanner and apply an algorithm to determine the positional information about the wireless beacons therefrom.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein said scanner is arranged to obtain identification and signal strength information about the wireless beacons, whose positional information is not present in said database, at a plurality of different locations and derive positional information for each identified wireless beacon from the signal strength information at the plurality of different locations.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one wireless beacon comprises a plurality of wireless beacons and the information about said wireless beacons that said wireless computing device is arranged to generate from the transmission from said wireless beacons is identification information about said wireless beacons,

said wireless computing device being arranged to send the generate identification information about said wireless beacons to said server,

said server being arranged to determine the geographic position of said wireless computing device from the identification information generated and sent by said wireless computing device and identification and positional information about wireless beacons contained in said database of said server.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one wireless beacon comprises a plurality of wireless beacons and the information about said wireless beacons that said wireless computing device is arranged to generate from the transmission from said wireless beacons is identification information about said wireless beacons and signal strength information about the strength of a signal being transmitted by said wireless beacons and received by said wireless computing device,

said wireless computing device being arranged to send the generated identification information about said wireless beacons and signal strength information to said server,

said server being arranged to determine the geographic position of said wireless computing device from the identification and signal strength information generated and sent by said wireless computing device and identification and positional information about wireless beacons contained in said database of said server.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said server is arranged to apply a calculation algorithm which determines the geographic position of said wireless computing device upon input of the identification and signal strength information sent by said wireless computing device.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the action undertaken by the server based on the determined geographic position of said wireless computing device is to direct a transmission of the determined geographic position of said wireless computing device to said wireless computing device which generated and sent the information.

22. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of using the determined geographic position of the wireless computing device comprises directing a transmission of the determined geographic position of the wireless computing device from the server to the wireless computing device from which the transmission containing the position determination request and the generated information about the at least one wireless beacon was directed.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising displaying the geographic position of the wireless computing device to the user on the user'"'"'s wireless computing device after receipt of the transmission of the determined geographic position of the wireless computing device from the server to the wireless computing device.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the geographical position of the wireless computing device is displayed only upon receiving user input.

16. A method for determining a position of a wireless computing device when communicating with one or more wireless beacons having fixed physical locations, comprising:

providing a server containing a database of identification and positional information about wireless beacons having fixed physical locations;

generating at the wireless computing device, identification information about at least one wireless beacon transmitting directly to the wireless computing device, the identification information being generated by the wireless computing device based on the transmission from the at least one wireless beacon which is received by the wireless computing device;

generating a request at the wireless computing device for a determination of the position of the wireless computing device;

directing a transmission from the wireless computing device to the server, the transmission containing the position determination request and the generated identification information about the at least one wireless beacon, the generated identification information being the information previously generated by the wireless computing device based on an earlier transmission from the at least one wireless beacon which is received by the wireless computing device;

receiving at the server the position determination request and the generated identification information about the at least one wireless beacon sent from the wireless computing device; and

then

determining at the server the geographic position of the wireless computing device from the identification information generated and sent by the wireless computing device and the database of identification and positional information about wireless beacons contained in the server.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein

identification information about a plurality of wireless beacons, each directly communicating with the wireless computing device, is generated at the wireless computing device from a transmission from each of the wireless beacons, respectively,

the transmission directed from the wireless computing device to the server contains the generated identification information about each of the wireless beacons.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the transmission from the wireless computing device is directed to the server only upon receiving user input.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

directing input from the user relating to the user'"'"'s position; and

confirming the user input position by comparing the user input position to the position determined at the server.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising building a database at the server for use in determining the geographic position of the wireless computing device based on the information generated and sent by the wireless computing device, by using the wireless computing device to generate identification and signal strength information about wireless beacons at a plurality of locations at which a signal from each wireless beacon is being received, applying an algorithm to determine positional information about the wireless beacons based on the signal strength information generated by the wireless computing device, and including in the database, the determined positional information about wireless beacons not already included in the database along with identification information about the wireless beacons.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising building a database at the server for use in determining the geographic position of the wireless computing device based on the information generated and sent by the wireless computing device, by using a plurality of wireless computing devices to generate identification and signal strength information about wireless beacons at a plurality of locations at which a signal from each wireless beacon is being received, applying an algorithm to determine positional information about the wireless beacons based on the signal strength information generated by the wireless computing device, transmitting from the plurality of wireless computing devices, the determined positional information about wireless beacons not already included in the database along with identification information about the wireless beacons, and including the transmitted information into the database.

26. The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving user input to the user'"'"'s wireless computing device indicative of a request by the user to obtain information about the position of the user'"'"'s wireless computing device.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising displaying an icon on a screen of the wireless computing device such that clicking on the icon constitutes the user input.

25. A method for enabling establishment of a network of wireless computing devices, comprising:

providing a database of identification and positional information about wireless beacons having fixed physical locations;

installing the database in a deployable server;

coupling wireless computing devices to the server;

generating at each wireless computing device, identification information about at least one wireless beacon transmitting directly to the wireless computing device, the identification information being previously generated by the wireless computing device based on an earlier transmission from the at least one wireless beacon which is received by the wireless computing device;

generating a request at at least one of the wireless computing devices for a determination of the position of that wireless computing device;

directing a transmission from each wireless computing device to the server, the transmission containing the position determination request and the generated identification information about the at least one wireless beacon, the generated identification information being the information generated by the wireless computing device from the transmission from the at least one wireless beacon;

receiving at the server the position determination request and the generated information about the at least one wireless beacon sent from each wireless computing device;

then

determining the geographic position of each of the wireless computing devices at the server from the identification information generated and sent by each wireless computing device to the server and the identification and positional information about wireless beacons in the database; and

providing third party management of the database including updating of the database.

28. The method of claim 25, further comprising

generating at the wireless computing device, signal strength information about the strength of a signal being transmitted by the at least one wireless beacon and received by the wireless computing device,

the information generated at each wireless computing device including the identification information about the wireless beacon transmitting directly to the wireless computing device and the signal strength information,

the transmission being directed to the server from the wireless computing device containing the generated identification information about the wireless beacons and the signal strength information,

the geographic position of each of the wireless computing devices being determined at the server from the identification information and signal strength information generated and sent by each wireless computing device to the server and the identification and positional information about wireless beacons in the database.

29. The method of claim 25, further comprising directing a transmission of the determined geographic position of each wireless computing device from the server to that wireless computing device.