Method and system for providing enhanced location based trilateration

• US 9,485,623 B2
• Filed: 01/12/2016
• Issued: 11/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rivada Networks, LLC
• Original Assignee: Rivada Research, Llc (Rivada Networks, LLC)
• Inventors: Surampudi, Purnima, Smith, Clint
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, NHAN T
• Application Number:
  US14/993,618
• Publication Number:
  US 20160127871A1
• Time in Patent Office: 294 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.1, 455/404.2, 455418-420, 455/422.1, 455/432.1, 455/432.5, 455/456.1, 455/550.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 17/02 Magnetic compasses
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 5/06 by using barometric means
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0072 Transmission between mobile stations, e.g. anti-collision systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0236 Assistance data, e.g. base station almanac
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0263 by combining or switching between positions derived from two or more separate positioning systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0284 Relative positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0289 of multiple transceivers, e.g. in ad hoc networks
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0294 Trajectory determination or predictive filtering, e.g. target tracking or Kalman filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/026 using orientation information, e.g. compass
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Method, systems and devices for determining for performing enhanced location based trilateration include receiving location information (e.g., waypoints) from one or more external devices, determining the validity of the received location information, performing normalization operations to normalize the received location information, assigning an overall ranking and a device-specific ranking to the location information, and storing the validated and normalized location information in memory. The enhanced location based trilateration may also include selecting four locations (e.g., waypoints) from the memory based on a combination of the overall ranking and the device-specific ranking, and generating a final location value or waypoint based on a result of applying the four selected waypoints to a kalman filter. The output of the kalman filter may also be reported and/or used as the device'"'"'s current location.

Claims

1. A method of determining a location of a mobile device via enhanced location based trilateration, the method comprising:

receiving, via a processor of the mobile device, location information from one or more external devices, the received location information including a waypoint from each of the one or more external devices, each waypoint including a coordinate value, an altitude value and a range value, the range value identifying a distance from a external device to the mobile device;

determining the validity of each of the received waypoints;

performing normalization operations to normalize the received valid waypoints, assigning an overall ranking to each of the normalized waypoints, assigning an device-specific ranking to each of the normalized waypoints, and storing the normalized waypoints in memory;

selecting four waypoints from memory based on a combination of the overall ranking and the device-specific ranking associated with each waypoint;

applying the four selected waypoints to a kalman filter to generate a final location waypoint; and

using the generated final location waypoint to provide a location based service.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving location information from one or more external devices comprises receiving location information from one or more of a mobile device, a device having a Cell ID, a WiFi device, a Bluetooth device, an RFID device, a GPS device, a location beacon transmitting device, and external trilateration location information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the validity of each of the received waypoints comprises:

determining an updated range value for each waypoint included in the received location information; and

determining the validity of each of the received waypoints based on its updated range value.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining the validity of each of the received waypoints further comprises:

determining a confidence value for each waypoint included in the received location information; and

determining the validity of each of the received waypoints based on its corresponding confidence value.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving location information from one or more external devices comprises:

establishing communication links to each of a plurality of external devices in a communication group; and

receiving location information from only the external devices in the communication group.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting four waypoints from memory based on a combination of the overall ranking and the device-specific ranking associated with each waypoint comprises:

selecting one of the waypoints included in the received location information and three previously generated waypoints from the memory.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting four waypoints from memory based on a combination of the overall ranking and the device-specific ranking associated with each waypoint comprises:

selecting two of the waypoints included in the received location information and two previously generated waypoints from the memory.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting four waypoints from memory based on a combination of the overall ranking and the device-specific ranking associated with each waypoint comprises:

selecting three of the waypoints included in the received location information and one previously generated waypoints from the memory.

9. A mobile device, comprising:

a processor configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations comprising;

receiving location information from one or more external devices, the received location information including a waypoint from each of the one or more external devices, each waypoint including a coordinate value, an altitude value and a range value, the range value identifying a distance from a external device to the mobile device;

determining the validity of each of the received waypoints;

performing normalization operations to normalize the received valid waypoints, assigning an overall ranking to each of the normalized waypoints, assigning an device-specific ranking to each of the normalized waypoints, and storing the normalized waypoints in memory;

selecting four waypoints from memory based on a combination of the overall ranking and the device-specific ranking associated with each waypoint;

applying the four selected waypoints to a kalman filter to generate a final location waypoint; and

using the generated final location waypoint to provide a location based service.

10. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that receiving location information from one or more external devices comprises receiving location information from one or more of a mobile device, a device having a Cell ID, a WiFi device, a Bluetooth device, an RFID device, a GPS device, a location beacon transmitting device, and external trilateration location information.

11. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that determining the validity of each of the received waypoints comprises:

determining an updated range value for each waypoint included in the received location information; and

determining the validity of each of the received waypoints based on its updated range value.

12. The mobile device of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that determining the validity of each of the received waypoints further comprises:

determining a confidence value for each waypoint included in the received location information; and

determining the validity of each of the received waypoints based on its corresponding confidence value.

13. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that receiving location information from one or more external devices comprises:

establishing communication links to each of a plurality of external devices in a communication group; and

receiving location information from only the external devices in the communication group.

14. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that selecting four waypoints from memory based on a combination of the overall ranking and the device-specific ranking associated with each waypoint comprises:

selecting one of the waypoints included in the received location information and three previously generated waypoints from the memory.

15. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that selecting four waypoints from memory based on a combination of the overall ranking and the device-specific ranking associated with each waypoint comprises:

selecting two of the waypoints included in the received location information and two previously generated waypoints from the memory.

16. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that selecting four waypoints from memory based on a combination of the overall ranking and the device-specific ranking associated with each waypoint comprises:

selecting three of the waypoints included in the received location information and one previously generated waypoints from the memory.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon processor-executable software instructions configured to cause a processor in a mobile device to perform operations for determining a location of the mobile device via enhanced location based trilateration, the operations comprising:

receiving location information from one or more external devices, the received location information including a waypoint from each of the one or more external devices, each waypoint including a coordinate value, an altitude value and a range value, the range value identifying a distance from a external device to the mobile device;

determining the validity of each of the received waypoints;

performing normalization operations to normalize the received valid waypoints, assigning an overall ranking to each of the normalized waypoints, assigning an device-specific ranking to each of the normalized waypoints, and storing the normalized waypoints in memory;

selecting four waypoints from memory based on a combination of the overall ranking and the device-specific ranking associated with each waypoint;

applying the four selected waypoints to a kalman filter to generate a final location waypoint; and

using the generated final location waypoint to provide a location based service.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the stored processor-executable software instructions are configured to cause a processor to perform operations such that determining the validity of each of the received waypoints comprises:

determining an updated range value for each waypoint included in the received location information;

determining a confidence value for each waypoint included in the received location information; and

determining the validity of each of the received waypoints based on its corresponding updated range value and its corresponding confidence value.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the stored processor-executable software instructions are configured to cause a processor to perform operations such that selecting four waypoints from memory based on a combination of the overall ranking and the device-specific ranking associated with each waypoint comprises:

selecting one of the waypoints included in the received location information and three previously generated waypoints from the memory.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the stored processor-executable software instructions are configured to cause a processor to perform operations such that selecting four waypoints from memory based on a combination of the overall ranking and the device-specific ranking associated with each waypoint comprises:

selecting two of the waypoints included in the received location information and two previously generated waypoints from the memory.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the stored processor-executable software instructions are configured to cause a processor to perform operations such that selecting four waypoints from memory based on a combination of the overall ranking and the device-specific ranking associated with each waypoint comprises:

selecting three of the waypoints included in the received location information and one previously generated waypoints from the memory.