Location monitoring feature of a mobile device for activating an application subsystem

• US 9,596,565 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2015
• Issued: 03/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Huang, Ronald K., Grainger, Morgan, Mayor, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Brandt, Christopher M
• Application Number:
  US14/798,305
• Publication Number:
  US 20150319573A1
• Time in Patent Office: 610 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.1, 455/456.6, 455/418, 455/421, 455/422.1, 455/574, 713/323, 713/320, 713/324
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02526 using non-dedicated equipment, e.g. user equipment or crowd-sourcing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0251 using monitoring of local events, e.g. events related to user activity
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Methods, program products, and systems for baseband location monitoring and related functions are disclosed. A mobile device can monitor its own current location using its baseband subsystem and decide whether to selectively activate its application subsystem based on whether particular conditions are satisfied by the current location. The mobile device can also correlate location and cellular signal information using its baseband subsystem and provide the correlated location and cellular signal information to a server. The server can receive the correlated location and cellular signal information from the baseband subsystems of a large number of widely distributed mobile devices and generate respective profiles of cellular network base stations that transmitted the cellular signals to the mobile devices. The profiles of the cellular network base stations can be used by the server in fulfilling subsequent positioning requests from mobile devices that do not currently have the baseband location monitoring enabled.

Claims

1. A method for a location-based operation in a mobile device, the method comprising:

determining, using a baseband subsystem of the mobile device, whether the mobile device crosses a boundary of a geofence based on a current location of the mobile device; and

when the baseband subsystem determines the mobile device crosses the boundary of the geofence;

switching an application subsystem of the mobile device from a dormant mode to an active mode when the application subsystem is in the dormant mode, and

notifying an application program of the application subsystem that the mobile device crossed the boundary of the geofence.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the baseband subsystem determines the mobile device crosses the boundary based on the current location of the mobile device at least by determining whether two sets of consecutively obtained location coordinates indicate a crossing of the boundary of the geofence by the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the baseband subsystem determines whether the two sets of consecutively obtained location coordinates indicate the crossing of the boundary of the geofence by the mobile device at least by receiving global positioning system location fixes.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising the application subsystem executing instructions from the application program when the application program is notified by the application subsystem that the boundary of the geofence is crossed by the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein executing the instructions of the application program comprises:

establishing a connection with a commercial entity; and

retrieving from the commercial entity information associated with the commercial entity.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the baseband subsystem comprises location-based decision logic that stores parameters defining the boundary of the geofence.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the location-based decision logic determines whether the mobile device crosses the boundary of the geofence after a previous location fix was obtained by the baseband subsystem that determined the mobile device did not cross the boundary.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the current location of the mobile device using the baseband subsystem comprises receiving a first location fix and a second location fix in a consecutive order, wherein the second location fix indicates a crossing of the boundary by the mobile device.

9. A mobile device, comprising:

an application subsystem configured to be selectively activated based on a crossing a boundary of a geofence, the application subsystem comprising an application program; and

a baseband subsystem comprising baseband location-based decision logic that i) receives information associated with the boundary, ii) determines whether the boundary of the geofence is crossed, and iii) notifies the application program when the boundary of the geofence is crossed,

wherein the application subsystem switches from a dormant mode to an active mode when the application program is notified the mobile device crosses the boundary of the geofence, and wherein the application program executes an operation according to the crossing of the boundary of the boundary.

10. The mobile device of claim 9, the baseband subsystem further comprising a location monitoring module that determines a current location of the mobile device.

11. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein when the boundary of the geofence is crossed when the mobile device moves from inside a perimeter of the geofence to outside the perimeter of the geofence, and after the boundary of the geofence is crossed the baseband location-based decision logic switches the application subsystem from the dormant mode to the active mode and the application subsystem launches the application program.

12. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein after the application subsystem of the mobile device switches from the dormant mode to the active mode, the baseband location-based decision logic invokes the application program, and wherein the application program utilizes a current location of the mobile device as an input.

13. The mobile device of claim 9, further comprising a location monitoring module that determines a first location of the mobile device and a subsequent second location of the mobile device, wherein the baseband location-based decision logic uses the first location and the subsequent second location to determine whether the boundary of the geofence is satisfied.

14. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the application program sends a condition to the baseband location-based decision logic, and wherein the application subsystem is selectively activated based on the condition being satisfied.