Hierarchical Grid Location Tracking Reduces Computational Load
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current location determination systems, such as GPS, provide insufficient information about a mobile device's location in terms of whether it is within specific geographical regions like stores, homes, or commercial districts, and are computationally intensive due to the use of methods like Ray Casting.
Innovation Solution
A computationally efficient method using a hierarchical grid system to determine if a mobile device is within a predetermined geographical boundary by converting its location coordinates into cell identifiers, allowing for efficient searching within a set of cell identifiers associated with regions, thereby reducing the computational load.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If Ray Casting method is used to determine location within regions, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity and computational load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the geographical space into a hierarchical grid system with multiple levels of resolution. Each grid cell is pre-associated with region identifiers, creating segmented spatial zones. This segmentation allows the system to replace complex Ray Casting calculations with simpler grid cell matching operations, resolving the contradiction between measurement precision and computational complexity by using pre-computed spatial segments.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-computing and storing the associations between grid cells and geographical regions in a database before actual location queries. This preliminary spatial indexing eliminates the need for real-time Ray Casting calculations during location determination, significantly reducing computational load while maintaining the ability to accurately determine whether a device is within a specific region.
2Productivity
If hierarchical grid system is used to determine location within regions, then productivity is improved, but measurement precision may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic hierarchical grid system where the resolution level can be adjusted based on the specific query requirements. The system can switch between different grid levels (coarser or finer resolution) depending on whether high precision or fast processing is prioritized. This dynamic adaptability allows the system to optimize the balance between productivity and measurement precision for different operational contexts.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of grid resolution by providing multiple hierarchical levels with different cell sizes. Coarser grid levels enable faster queries with lower computational overhead, while finer grid levels provide higher precision when needed. This parameter variation allows the system to adjust the trade-off between productivity and measurement precision dynamically based on specific application requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods including mobile devices determining their locations using location determination units, such as GPS receivers. A computing device generates a statistical measurement of location pattern changes in relation to a predetermined region for a predetermined period of time. The measurement is generated from a difference between responses of exposed mobile devices and responses of non-exposed mobile devices, which devices are selected based on a cluster analysis to match the distributions of the exposed mobile devices and the non-exposed mobile devices in an attribute space. Each response of a mobile device can be computed based on applying, at a time instance, an anti-symmetric weight function having an exponential distribution to a time series of visitation measurements to generate a response corresponding to the time instance, and summing the responses corresponding to time instances falling within the predetermined period of time as the response of the mobile device.