Healing a radio map

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10477609-B2
Application number	US-201715710577-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 20, 2017
Priority date	Jun 2, 2017
Publication date	Nov 12, 2019
Grant date	Nov 12, 2019

Abstract

A method comprising: receiving a harvest trace from a mobile device, the harvest trace including a plurality of location fixes each corresponding to a location at a venue, each location fix associated with data including one or more RSSI measurements of one or more wireless signals received from each of a plurality of wireless access points positioned at the venue, the plurality of location fixes including at least two location fixes that have a positional relationship with each other; comparing the data associated with one of the location fixes with data associated with a reference point identified in a radio map of the venue; and updating the radio map of the venue by updating the data associated with the reference point based on the data associated with the one of the location fixes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving a harvest trace from a mobile device, the harvest trace including a plurality of location fixes each corresponding to a location of a venue, each location fix associated with data including RSSI measurements of wireless signals received from each of a first plurality of wireless access points positioned at the venue, the plurality of location fixes including at least two location fixes that have a positional relationship with each other;
comparing the data associated with one of the location fixes with data associated with a reference point identified in a radio map of the venue, the data associated with the reference point includes RSSI measurements of wireless signals received from each of a second plurality of wireless access points;
based upon the comparing, determining that one or more of the first plurality of wireless access points are absent from the second plurality of wireless access points;
updating the data associated with the reference point to include the RSSI measurements of the wireless signals received from the one or more absent wireless access points;
identifying an additional reference point located above or below the reference point on a different floor of the venue that correspond to the reference point;
updating data associated with the additional reference point to include the RSSI measurements of the wireless signals received from the one or more absent wireless access points; and
updating the radio map of the venue based on the updated data associated with the reference point.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the RSSI measurements for each of the first plurality of wireless access points associated with the one of the location fixes have an RSSI probability distribution that is fit to a Rayleigh probability density function, and the RSSI measurements for each of the second plurality of wireless access points associated with the reference point have an RSSI probability distribution that is fit to a Rayleigh probability density function.

3. The method of claim 2 , comprising:
for each wireless access point included in both the data associated with the one of the location fixes and the data associated with the reference point, comparing the Rayleigh probability density function for the wireless access point associated with the one of the location fixes to the Rayleigh probability density function for the wireless access point associated with the reference point; and
based on the comparison, updating the data associated with the reference point for the wireless access point to include at least some of the RSSI measurements of the wireless signals received from the wireless access point.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
receiving a plurality of harvest traces from a plurality of mobile devices;
filtering the plurality of harvest traces; and
updating the data associated with the reference point based on the filtered plurality of harvest traces.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein, for each harvest trace, the RSSI measurements for each of the first plurality of wireless access points associated with the one of the location fixes have an RSSI probability distribution that is fit to a Rayleigh probability density function, and the RSSI measurements for each of the second plurality of wireless access points associated with the reference point have an RSSI probability distribution that is fit to a Rayleigh probability density function.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein filtering the plurality of harvest traces comprises, for each harvest trace:
for each wireless access point included in both the data associated with the one of the location fixes and the data associated with the reference point, comparing the Rayleigh probability density function for the wireless access point associated with the one of the location fixes to the Rayleigh probability density function for the wireless access point associated with the reference point; and
removing at least a portion of the harvest trace if a degree of similarity between the Rayleigh probability density function for the wireless access point associated with the one of the location fixes and the Rayleigh probability density function for the wireless access point associated with the reference point does not satisfy a threshold.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein filtering the plurality of harvest traces comprises:
determining, for each of the plurality of harvest traces, a speed of the mobile device; and
for each of the plurality of harvest traces, removing at least a portion of the harvest trace if the speed of the mobile device satisfies a threshold.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the threshold is five meters per second.

9. The method of claim 4 , wherein filtering the plurality of harvest traces comprises:
determining, for each of the plurality of harvest traces, a horizontal accuracy of each of the plurality of location fixes of the harvest trace; and
for each of the plurality of harvest traces, removing at least portions of the harvest trace that correspond to location fixes that have a horizontal accuracy that satisfies a threshold.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the threshold is ten meters.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the harvest trace represents a continuous motion path of the mobile device.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the harvest trace comprises a plurality of elements of harvest data, each element of harvest data corresponding to one of the location fixes.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein each element of harvest data includes a plurality of sensor measurements.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the plurality of sensor measurements for each element of harvest data are used to determine a speed and a heading rate of the mobile device for the corresponding element of harvest data.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein each of the location fixes is determined based at least in part on the speed and the heading rate for the corresponding element of harvest data.

16. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
at least one non-transitory device storing computing instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving a harvest trace from a mobile device, the harvest trace including a plurality of location fixes each corresponding to a location of a venue, each location fix associated with data including RSSI measurements of wireless signals received from each of a first plurality of wireless access points positioned at the venue, the plurality of location fixes including at least two location fixes that have a positional relationship with each other;
comparing the data associated with one of the location fixes with data associated with a reference point identified in a radio map of the venue, the data associated with the reference point includes RSSI measurements of wireless signals received from each of a second plurality of wireless access points;
based upon the comparing, determining that one or more of the first plurality of wireless access points are absent from the second plurality of wireless access points;
updating the data associated with the reference point to include the RSSI measurements of the wireless signals received from the one or more absent wireless access points;
identifying an additional reference point located above or below the reference point on a different floor of the venue that correspond to the reference point;
updating data associated with the additional reference point to include the RSSI measurements of the wireless signals received from t

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Yang Chun-Yuan
• Tay Darin
• Kong Wei

Classifications

• H04W76/19 Primary

  Connection re-establishment · CPC title

• H04W4/33 Primary

  for indoor environments, e.g. buildings · CPC title

• H04W4/30

  Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes · CPC title

• H04W64/00

  Locating users or terminals {or network equipment} for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management · CPC title

• G01S5/02

  using radio waves (using satellite radio beacon systems for determining position G01S19/00) · CPC title