System framework for mobile device location

Abstract

A method for estimating the location of a beacon from an ensemble of measurements associated with said beacon, where, contained in each measurement, are GPS data from which surfaces of location may be extracted, together with the ID's of beacons detectable at the point of measurement, is disclosed. The method comprises extracting the canonical set of surfaces of location implicit in each of the associated measurements, and determining the estimate of the location of the beacon as the point for which a weighted sum of the squares of the distances to each of the surfaces so extracted is minimized. A system for the compilation of a database of beacon locations from measurements containing a time-stamped recording of the composite GPS signal (which recording is referred to as a datagram), together with the ID's and associated signal strengths of beacons detectable at the point of measurement, is also disclosed. The system comprises GPS signal processing means for extracting, from each time-stamped datagram, the canonic set of surfaces of location, and beacon location estimation means for estimating the location of a beacon from an ensemble of surfaces of location associated with said beacon.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 from pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 587,096 and Ser. No. 12 / 587,099, entitled “Signal Processing Techniques for Improving the Receive Sensitivity of GPS Receivers” filed on Oct. 2, 2009, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein in its entirety. This application further claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 from pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 387,888 and Ser. No. 12 / 387,889, entitled “Signal Processing Techniques for Improving the Receive Sensitivity of GPS Receivers” filed on May 9, 2009, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein in its entirety. This application further claims priority from pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 220,612, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Determining Location” filed on Jul. 25, 2008, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein in its entirety.STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DE...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013]In general, the object of the present invention is to provide an MDLS framework to enable the rapid and inexpensive compilation and maintenance of a comprehensive Beacon Location Database, with the accuracy required by current and contemplated location-based applications. As the repository for field measurements; applied ultimately to estimate the locations of subscribers' mobile devices, the Beacon Location Database influences virtually every metric of importance to the operators as well as the subscribers of location services. Measurements must be easily and efficiently obtained, using accurate but inexpensive instruments.

[0018]Last but not least, this thesis, and the resulting framework, favor a thin-client implementation, which, in turn, enables the application of sophisticated signal processing techniques to reduce significantly the minimum signal strength required to acquire GPS satellites

[0020]The MDLS of FIG. 2 illustrates the thin-client approach to the extraction of GPS satellite signals from the composite GPS signal. First, instead of compiling a database of beacon locations from three-satellite fixes, the proposed framework envisions a database of beacon locations compiled incrementally from “spheres and hyperplanes”. To the extent that “spheres and hyperplanes” (requiring one and two satellites, respectively) are more readily acquired than 2D fixes (requiring three satellites) when indoors, where GPS signals are generally scarce, this framework enables the faster, cheaper compilation of market-ready beacon location databases. Furthermore, the enlistment of subscribers in the compilation of the database ensures that once up and running, the database will be maintainable at modest cost.

[0021]Second, instead of performing the compute-intensive (and therefore battery depleting) signal processing task at the point of measurement, it is performed offline, where powerful servers are available to implement sophisticated (and generally more compute-intensive) signal processing techniques to maximize the processing gain, reducing the minimum signal strength required to acquire a GPS satellite.

[0026]In another embodiment, the GPS signal processing means uses a perfect reference, to enable efficient processing of large datagrams.

Problems solved by technology

While cell-tower-based systems have proven their viability in the marketplace, access-point-based systems have yet to demonstrate their viability.

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