Refining Location Estimates Using User Profile Heat Maps
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing location-based services face limitations in accuracy, particularly in indoor environments and with technologies like cell tower triangulation and IP geocoding, which can provide coarse or unreliable location estimates.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that analyze user-specific electronic databases to extract geographical information, construct spatial indices with time-based heat maps, and refine location estimates by comparing user data with heat maps to improve location accuracy, using geopoint extraction and ranking to present more accurate physical locations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If GPS is used for location estimation, then location accuracy is improved to 10-20 feet or better, but the technology becomes unusable in indoor environments such as shopping plazas, office buildings, subways and the like
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the location estimation problem into two distinct environments: outdoor (GPS-based) and indoor (WiFi-based). The system automatically selects the appropriate technology based on the detected environment, allowing GPS to provide high accuracy outdoors while WiFi positioning provides functional coverage indoors where GPS signals are unavailable.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism (environment detection and technology selection system) that determines whether to use GPS or WiFi positioning based on the current environment. This intermediary layer allows the system to adaptively switch between technologies, maintaining both high accuracy when possible and indoor functionality when necessary.
2Adaptability or versatility
If cell tower triangulation is used for location estimation, then the technology can provide location estimates in areas without GPS coverage, but the accuracy deteriorates to errors on the order of hundreds of feet or even miles
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the fundamental parameter of positioning technology from cell tower triangulation (low accuracy, wide coverage) to WiFi positioning (high accuracy, targeted coverage). By using WiFi access points as positioning beacons and leveraging the device's WiFi card to detect and triangulate based on multiple access points, the system achieves both wide coverage and high accuracy simultaneously.
3Use of energy by moving object
If IP geocoding is used for location estimation, then the technology can provide location information with minimal resources, but the reliability deteriorates with errors of hundreds of miles possible
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple positioning technologies (GPS, WiFi positioning, and IP geocoding) into a unified system. The system first attempts to use the most accurate method available (GPS or WiFi positioning), and only falls back to IP geocoding when all other methods fail. This hierarchical approach ensures high reliability while maintaining reasonable resource consumption by using the low-resource IP method only as a last resort.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention pertains to enhancement or refinement of estimated locations based upon user-specific information. Upon user authorization, geographical information is extracted from a number of user-related sources, including the web browser history, search history, maps history, address book, e-mail archives and calendar entries. Such information is used to build a spatial index of specific physical locations for a geocoded result set. From this, heat maps identifying particular locations from the user-related sources are created for different periods of time. The heat maps may be used to refine an initial location estimate of the user. This may be done by determining whether one or more positions in a given heat map provide a more accurate position of the user than the initial estimate. If so, a best position is selected. This can be used to provide enhanced driving directions to the user.