Patent Application
20080161011
The present invention relates to a method and system for locating mobile telecommunication devices. The present invention further relates to locating mobile telecommunication devices using the access points of a wireless local area network.
The Federal Communications Committee (FCC) has issued rules to enhance 911 emergency coverage and improve the reliability of wireless 911 service, by requiring accurate location data to be provided by the mobile devices to 911 dispatchers. This enhanced 911 has been divided into two phases. Phase one merely requires that carriers provide the antenna, or wireless base station, from which an emergency call has been received. Phase two involves a much greater degree of accuracy, requiring carriers to provide a mobile device's location to within 50 to 300 meters.
Wireless carriers, such as cellular telephone service providers, are currently able to determine within a general degree of accuracy the general location of a wireless device. For example, a cellular telephone user can be tracked by determining the signal strength that is being received by nearby transceiver cells and triangulating the user's position. The problem with using this method is the level of accuracy available is not up to the level required by the new FCC rules. Further, if a person is inside a building this can affect cellular coverage, leading to distortions in the positioning of a user. What is needed is a method of tracking wireless devices to a greater degree of accuracy.
A method, apparatus, and electronic device for determining a location of a mobile device are disclosed. A receiver may asynchronously receive an access signal from at least three access points of a wireless local area network with the mobile device. A processor may measure access signal strength for the access signal for each access point. A transmitter may transmit the access signal strengths to a location server to determine the location of the mobile device.
In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features of the invention can be obtained, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The features and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth herein.
Various embodiments of the invention are discussed in detail below. While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize that other components and configurations may be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the invention.
The present invention comprises a variety of embodiments, such as a method, an apparatus, and an electronic device, and other embodiments that relate to the basic concepts of the invention. The electronic device may be any manner of computer, mobile device, or wireless communication device.
A method, apparatus, and electronic device for determining a location of a mobile device are disclosed. A receiver may asynchronously receive an access signal from at least three access points of a wireless local area network with the mobile device. A processor may measure access signal strength for the access signal for each access point. A transmitter may transmit the access signal strengths to a location server to determine the location of the mobile device.
The present invention is ideal for use in buildings hosting a WLAN.
Once a reference point has been established, the LS 130 may update the position of the MD 110 continuously. The LS 130 may receive scan reports from the MD 110 of the signal strength of the beacons of the APs 120 in the area (Block 516). The LS 130 preprocesses these scan reports, account for noise and other distortions (Block 518). The LS 130 determines the position of the MD 110 by using these transmissions from the APs 120 to the MD 110 (Block 520). The triangulation process similar to one used by the LS 130 to generate the reference point may be used to determine the MD 110 location. The difference is that the transmissions from the APs 120 to the MD 110 are used instead of the transmissions from the MD 110 to the APs 120. The LS 130 checks the position against the last reference point and determines if the new location is statistically likely (Block 522). If the new location is statistically likely but different from the last reference point, the LS 130 sets the new location as the reference location (Block 524). The LS 130 sends the new location data to the MD 110 (Block 514).
The controller/processor 710 may be any programmed processor known to one of skill in the art. However, the decision support method can also be implemented on a general-purpose or a special purpose computer, a programmed microprocessor or microcontroller, peripheral integrated circuit elements, an application-specific integrated circuit or other integrated circuits, hardware/electronic logic circuits, such as a discrete element circuit, a programmable logic device, such as a programmable logic array, field programmable gate-array, or the like. In general, any device or devices capable of implementing the decision support method as described herein can be used to implement the decision support system functions of this invention.
The memory 720 may include volatile and nonvolatile data storage, including one or more electrical, magnetic or optical memories such as a RAM, cache, hard drive, CD-ROM drive, tape drive or removable storage disk. The memory may have a cache to speed access to specific data.
The Input/Output interface 740 may be connected to one or more input devices that may include a keyboard, mouse, pen-operated touch screen or monitor, voice-recognition device, or any other device that accepts input. The Input/Output interface 740 may also be connected to one or more output devices, such as a monitor, printer, disk drive, speakers, or any other device provided to output data.
The receiver 750 may be any type of receiver that may receive broadcast data signals. Similarly, the transmitter 760 may be any type of receiver that may transmit any data signals to another device. The receiver 750 and the transmitter 760 may be separate devices or a single dual-purpose device.
Although not required, the invention is described, at least in part, in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by the electronic device, such as a general purpose computer. Generally, program modules include routine programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that other embodiments of the invention may be practiced in network computing environments with many types of computer system configurations, including personal computers, hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like.
Embodiments may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by local and remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwired links, wireless links, or by a combination thereof through a communications network.
Embodiments within the scope of the present invention may also include computer-readable media for carrying or having computer-executable instructions or data structures stored thereon. Such computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures. When information is transferred or provided over a network or another communications connection (either hardwired, wireless, or combination thereof to a computer, the computer properly views the connection as a computer-readable medium. Thus, any such connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of the computer-readable media.
Computer-executable instructions include, for example, instructions and data which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Computer-executable instructions also include program modules that are executed by computers in stand-alone or network environments. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, and data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer-executable instructions, associated data structures, and program modules represent examples of the program code means for executing steps of the methods disclosed herein. The particular sequence of such executable instructions or associated data structures represents examples of corresponding acts for implementing the functions described in such steps.
Although the above description may contain specific details, they should not be construed as limiting the claims in any way. Other configurations of the described embodiments of the invention are part of the scope of this invention. For example, the principles of the invention may be applied to each individual user where each user may individually deploy such a system. This enables each user to utilize the benefits of the invention even if any one of the large number of possible applications do not need the functionality described herein. It does not necessarily need to be one system used by all end users. Accordingly, the appended claims and their legal equivalents should only define the invention, rather than any specific examples given.
