Timed Fingerprint Location Sharing for Mobile Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional mobile device location determination technologies like GPS are energy-intensive, prone to signal interference, and not available on all devices, while triangulation and multilateration are computationally intensive and energy-consuming, limiting their effectiveness for transportation analytics.
Innovation Solution
The use of timed fingerprint location (TFL) technology, which shares location information derived from timing signals, allowing devices without GPS to determine their location and enabling location-centric features by piggybacking on existing wireless telecommunications timing signals, reducing computational and energy loads.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If GPS technology is used for location determination, then location accuracy is improved, but energy consumption increases and signal reliability deteriorates in interference-prone areas
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces wireless timing signals as an intermediary mechanism between satellites and the mobile device. Instead of directly processing GPS satellite signals which are prone to interference and high energy consumption, the system uses timing signals from wireless communication infrastructure as a mediator to determine location, thereby reducing energy usage while maintaining accuracy in urban environments
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the GPS mechanical/electromagnetic signal processing system with a timing-based measurement system. By substituting the complex GPS signal triangulation with simpler timing difference measurements of wireless signals, the system achieves comparable location accuracy with significantly reduced energy consumption and improved reliability in signal-interference-prone areas
2Measurement precision
If GPS technology is used for location determination, then location capability is improved, but device compatibility deteriorates due to hardware requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the timing signal measurement system universal by utilizing existing wireless communication infrastructure that is already present in most mobile devices. The same wireless communication hardware used for normal communication is also employed to receive timing signals for location determination, eliminating the need for dedicated GPS hardware and enabling location capability across a broader range of devices including cost-sensitive models
3Measurement precision
If triangulation or multilateration technologies are used for location determination, then location accuracy is improved, but computational load and energy consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential timing information from wireless signals needed for location determination, discarding the complex signal processing requirements of traditional triangulation and multilateration methods. By taking out just the timing data and using simple time difference of arrival calculations, the system achieves comparable location accuracy with dramatically reduced computational load and processing requirements
Data Source
AI summary
Sharing timed fingerprint location information is disclosed. In an aspect, timed fingerprint location information can be associated with a location of a user equipment. This timed fingerprint location information can be shared with other devices. As such, with proper analysis, these other devices can employ the shared timed fingerprint location information to determine their location. In an aspect, the other devices can determine that they are located at the same location as the user equipment. However, a level of error can be inherent in the location determined from shared timed fingerprint location information. In some embodiments, this error can be compensated for.