Ordered Beacon Sets for Location Inference

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing location services face accuracy issues in determining the position of computing devices due to variations in signal strengths caused by interference, multipath effects, orientation, and device differences, leading to inconsistent and less accurate location calculations.

Innovation Solution

The solution involves selecting a set of beacons based on quality indicators like signal strength, ordering them to create virtual beacons, and associating these with specific positions, allowing for more accurate location inference by matching observed beacon sets with previously identified ordered sets.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If signal strength is used to determine location, then location services can operate with crowd-sourced data, but location accuracy deteriorates due to large variations in detected signal strengths

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvelocation service capabilityVSAvoidlocation accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent transforms the approach from using absolute signal strength values to using relative signal strength ordering. By changing the parameter from absolute magnitude to relative ranking, the system eliminates the impact of signal strength variations while maintaining location determination capability. The beacon set is ordered by relative signal strength, and this ordered sequence becomes the key identifier for location matching.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

2Quantity of substance

If all observed beacons are used for location determination, then more data is available, but location accuracy deteriorates due to inclusion of weak and unreliable signals

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenumber of beaconsVSAvoidlocation accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts and separates beacons based on their relative signal strength. By taking out the weakest signals from the set and excluding them from location determination, the system maintains only the most reliable beacon observations. This extraction process ensures that only beacons with sufficient signal quality contribute to the location calculation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

Instead of using all observed beacons (excessive action), the patent applies partial action by selecting only the top N beacons with strongest relative signal strengths. This partial selection approach filters out unnecessary weak signals while maintaining enough beacon data for accurate location determination.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

3Ease of manufacture

If signal strength values are used directly for location calculation, then processing is simple, but location accuracy deteriorates due to environmental and device-specific variations

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveprocessing simplicityVSAvoidlocation accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of manufactureVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent inverts the conventional approach by not using signal strength magnitude directly for location calculation. Instead, it inverts the logic to use the ordering sequence of beacons based on relative signal strength. This inversion transforms the problem from dealing with variable absolute values to dealing with consistent relative rankings, which are invariant to environmental and device differences.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #13The other way round (Inversion)

Data Source

PatentUS8665154B2Modeling and location inference based on ordered beacon sets

Publication Date: 2014.03.04 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC

AI summary

Embodiments order observed beacons based on relative signal strength to create a correspondence between beacon sets and positions. A computing device such as a mobile device provides a positioned observation including a plurality of observed beacons and a position of the mobile device during observation. The observed beacons are ordered based on quality indicators such as signal strength relative to each other. A set of the beacons are selected based on the ordering (e.g., the beacons with the strongest signal strength are selected in order). The position of the observing mobile device is associated with the beacon set to enable location inference for other devices providing observations including the same beacon set.