Method and apparatus for to determine the location of a wearable device

• US 9,949,068 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2016
• Issued: 04/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Jain, Amit, Subramani, Dinesh, Venkat Narayan, Govind Ram
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho, Huy C
• Application Number:
  US15/269,297
• Publication Number:
  US 20180084374A1
• Time in Patent Office: 575 Days
• Field of Search: 4554042
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/09 providing processing capability normally carried out by the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/17 Emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/42 Determining position
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0036 of measured values, i.e. measurement on mobile and position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• 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]

Abstract

A mobile station that is wirelessly linked to a wearable device, receives a request to initiate a location session from the wearable device, e.g., which may be in the form of an emergency call. The mobile station determines whether the location of the mobile station may be used as a location of the wearable device, e.g., by determining if the wearable device is proximate to the mobile station. For example, the mobile station may check to see if the mobile station is wirelessly linked to a wearable device through a wireless personal area network (WPAN). The mobile station initiates the location session for the wearable device with a location server. If the location of the mobile station may not be used as a location of the wearable device, the location session for the wearable device does not use position information obtained from the mobile station.

Claims

1. A method of location determination for a wearable device, the method comprising:

receiving by a mobile station a request to initiate a location session from the wearable device, the mobile station being wirelessly linked with the wearable device;

determining by the mobile station that a location fix for the mobile station may not be used as a location fix for the wearable device; and

initiating by the mobile station the location session for the wearable device with a location server, wherein the location session for the wearable device does not use position information from the mobile station.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving by the mobile station position information from the wearable device; and

transmitting to the location server by the mobile station the position information from the wearable device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the position information from the wearable device comprises Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) data, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) data, Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) data, satellite positioning system (SIPS) data, sensor data, position fix or a combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the position information comprises at least one of received signal strength indicator (RSSI) or round trip time (RTT) measurements from one or more of an access points, a router, a bridge, a femtocell, a Bluetooth Transmitter:

pica cell, small cell, radio-frequency identification (RFID), visual light communication (VLC), base station, or a combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising dropping the mobile station from the location session leaving the wearable device to wirelessly communicate directly with the location server during the location session.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining by the mobile station that the location fix for the mobile station may not be used as the location fix for the wearable device comprises determining that the wearable device is not wirelessly linked directly to the mobile station through a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN).

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining by the mobile station that the location fix for the mobile station may not be used as the location fix for the wearable device comprises determining that the wearable device is not wirelessly linked to the mobile station through a same access point in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining by the mobile station that the location fix for the mobile station may not be used as the location fix for the wearable device comprises using sensors in the mobile station to determine that the mobile station is not with a user of the wearable device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein using the sensors in the mobile station to determine that the mobile station is not with the user of the wearable device comprises using motion sensors to determine that the mobile station is not being held by the user or using camera sensors to determine that the mobile station is not in a same environment as the wearable device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to initiate the location session from the wearable device comprises an emergency call from the wearable device.

11. A mobile station for location determination of a wearable device, the mobile station comprising:

a wireless transceiver capable of wireless communication with a location server; and

at least one processor coupled to the wireless transceiver, the at least one processor configured to receive a request to initiate a location session from the wearable device that is wirelessly linked with the mobile station, determine that that a location fix for the mobile station may not be used as a location fix for the wearable device, and initiate the location session for the wearable device with the location server through the wireless transceiver, wherein the location session for the wearable device does not use position information from the mobile station.

12. The mobile station of claim 11, further comprising:

a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver, wherein the wearable device is wirelessly linked with the mobile station through the WLAN transceiver;

wherein the at least one processor is further coupled to the AVIAN transceiver and is further configured to receive position information from the wearable device through the WLAN transceiver, and to cause the wireless transceiver to transmit to the location server the position information from the wearable device.

13. The mobile station of claim 12, wherein the position information from the wearable device comprises Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) data, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) data, Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) data, satellite positioning system (SPS) data, sensor data, position fix or a combination thereof.

14. The mobile station of claim 13, wherein the position information comprises at least one of received signal strength indicator (RSSI) or round trip time (RTT) measurements from one or more of an access points, a router, a bridge, a femtocell, a Bluetooth Transmitter, pica cell, small cell, radio-frequency identification (RFID), and visual light communication (VIC), base station, or a combination thereof.

15. The mobile station of claim 11, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the wireless transceiver to drop the mobile station from the location session leaving the wearable device to wirelessly communicate directly with the location server during the location session.

16. The mobile station of claim 11, further comprising:

a wireless personal area network (WPAN) transceiver capable of wirelessly linking the mobile station with the wearable device directly;

wherein the at least one processor is further coupled to the WPAN transceiver and is further configured to determine that the location fix for the mobile station may not be used as the location fix for the wearable device by being configured to determine that the mobile station is not wirelessly linked to the wearable device through the WPAN transceiver.

17. The mobile station of claim 11, further comprising:

a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver capable of wirelessly linking to a WLAN network;

wherein the at least one processor is further coupled to the WLAN transceiver and is further configured to determine that the location fix for the mobile station may not be used as the location fix for the wearable device by being configured to determine that the mobile station is not wirelessly linked to the wearable device through a same access point in the WLAN network.

18. The mobile station of claim 11, further comprising:

at least one of motion sensors and a camera sensor;

wherein the at least one processor is further coupled to receive data from the at least one of the motion sensors and the camera sensor and is further configured to determine that the location fix for the mobile station may not be used as the location fix for the wearable device by being configured to determine that the mobile station is not being held by a user based on the data from the motion sensors or that the mobile station is not in a same environment as the wearable device based on the data from the camera sensor.

19. The mobile station of claim 11, wherein the request to initiate the location session from the wearable device comprises an emergency call from the wearable device.

20. A mobile station for location determination of a wearable device, the mobile station comprising:

means for receiving by the mobile station a request to initiate a location session from the wearable device, the mobile station being wirelessly linked with the wearable device;

means for determining by the mobile station that a location fix for the mobile station may not be used as a location fix for the wearable device; and

means for initiating by the mobile station the location session for the wearable device with a location server, wherein the location session for the wearable device does not use position information from the mobile station.

21. The mobile station of claim 20, further comprising:

means for receiving by the mobile station position information from the wearable device; and

means for transmitting to the location server by the mobile station the position information from the wearable device.

22. The mobile station of claim 20, further comprising means for dropping the mobile station from the location session leaving the wearable device to wirelessly communicate directly with the location server during the location session.

23. The mobile station of claim 20, wherein the means for determining that the location fix for the mobile station may not be used as the location fix for the wearable device comprises means for determining that the wearable device is not wirelessly linked directly to the mobile station through a wireless personal area network (WPAN).

24. The mobile station of claim 20, wherein the means for determining that the location fix for the mobile station may not be used as the location fix for the wearable device comprises means for determining that the wearable device is not wirelessly linked to the mobile station through a same access point in a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) network.

25. A non-transitory computer-readable medium for location determination of a wearable device, the non-transitory computer-readable medium including program code stored thereon, comprising:

program code to receive by a mobile station a request to initiate a location session from the wearable device, the mobile station being wirelessly linked with the wearable device;

program code to determine by the mobile station that a location fix for the mobile station may not be used as a location fix for the wearable device; and

program code to initiate by the mobile station the location session for the wearable device with a location server, wherein the location session for the wearable device does not use position information from the mobile station.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25, further comprising:

program code to receive by the mobile station position information from the wearable device; and

program code to transmit to the location server by the mobile station the position information from the wearable device.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25, further comprising program code to drop the mobile station from the location session leaving the wearable device to wirelessly communicate directly with the location server during the location session.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the program code to determine by the mobile station that the location fix for the mobile station may not be used as the location fix for the wearable device comprises program code to determine that the wearable device is not wirelessly linked directly to the mobile station through a wireless personal area network (WPAN).

29. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the program code to determine by the mobile station that the location fix for the mobile station may not be used as the location fix for the wearable device comprises pro Pram code to determine that the wearable device is not wirelessly linked to the mobile station through a same access point in a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) network.