Cloud-Offloaded GPS Signal Chunk Processing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current GPS systems in mobile devices require continuous and power-intensive sampling of GPS signals to determine location, which drains battery life and is inefficient, especially since they often remain active to avoid the time-consuming acquisition phase.
Innovation Solution
A mobile device with a GPS receiver communicates with a server to process GPS signal chunks of several milliseconds, allowing the server to identify visible satellites and determine the device's location, thereby reducing the need for continuous GPS receiver activity and conserving power.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If GPS receiver continuously samples GPS signals to determine location, then location determination accuracy is improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The server performs preliminary processing of GPS signal chunks before the mobile device needs to determine its location. By pre-processing the signals to identify visible satellites and calculate location information, the system avoids the need for the mobile device to continuously activate its GPS receiver for full signal acquisition, thereby reducing power consumption while maintaining location accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
A server acts as an intermediary between the GPS satellite signals and the mobile device. The server receives GPS signal chunks from the mobile device, processes these chunks to determine location information, and returns the results to the mobile device. This intermediary processing allows the mobile device to remain in a low-power state while still obtaining accurate location data
2Speed
If GPS receiver remains active to avoid acquisition phase, then location determination speed is improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The server performs preliminary processing of GPS signal chunks to identify visible satellites and calculate location information before the mobile device needs to determine its location. By pre-processing the signals and maintaining satellite visibility information on the server, the system avoids the time-consuming acquisition phase on the mobile device while still achieving fast location determination
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of continuous GPS receiver activation, the system uses periodic sampling where the mobile device collects GPS signal chunks at intervals and transmits them to the server for processing. The server maintains continuous awareness of satellite visibility and processes signals periodically, achieving both speed and power efficiency
3Use of energy by moving object
If GPS receiver samples signals in short chunks, then power consumption is reduced, but signal processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex signal processing functions from the mobile device and relocates them to a server. The mobile device only performs simple operations of sampling GPS signals in short chunks and transmitting the raw data to the server. The server handles the complex processing of identifying satellites, decoding signals, and calculating location information, thereby reducing mobile device complexity while maintaining power efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
A server acts as an intermediary that handles the complex signal processing tasks. The server receives short GPS signal chunks from the mobile device, performs sophisticated processing including satellite identification and location calculation, and returns results to the mobile device. This intermediary approach allows the mobile device to use simple sampling while the server manages the processing complexity
Data Source
AI summary
Some implementations provide low power reduced sampling of global positioning system (GPS) locations. A server may be configured to assist a mobile device in determining a location from a plurality of small GPS signal chunks and corresponding time stamps. For instance, the server may identify a set of satellites from each of the GPS signal chunks and by comparing the set of satellites for each of the GPS signal chunks to each other to determine a second set of satellites. The server may then estimate a location of the mobile based on the second set of satellites.