Systems and methods for determining contexts of mobile devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12130968-B2
Application number	US-202318304215-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 20, 2023
Priority date	Aug 23, 2019
Publication date	Oct 29, 2024
Grant date	Oct 29, 2024

Abstract

Determining contexts of mobile devices. Particular embodiments described herein include machines that determine two estimated positions of a mobile device that respectively correspond to first and second locations at first and second times, acquire sets of terrain or structural information for first and second areas that respectively include the first and second estimated positions, use the acquired sets of information and the estimated positions to determine if the mobile device was near or within a structure at the first and second times, determine one or more values that are indicative of vertical movement by the mobile device during a period of time between the first time and the second time, compare the one or more values to one or more threshold conditions, and determine a context of the mobile device based on the comparison.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
determining a first estimated position of a mobile device at a first time;
acquiring, from one or more data sources, a first set of terrain or structural information for a first area that includes the first estimated position;
determining, using the first set of terrain or structural information and the first estimated position, that the mobile device was near or within a structure at the first time;
determining a second estimated position of the mobile device at a second time;
acquiring, from the one or more data sources, a second set of terrain or structural information for a second area that includes the second estimated position;
determining, using the second set of terrain or structural information and the second estimated position, that the mobile device was near or within the structure at the second time;
determining one or more values indicative of vertical movement by the mobile device during a period of time between the first time and the second time, wherein the one or more values indicative of vertical movement are determined using an amount of movement measured by an inertial sensor of the mobile device;
comparing the one or more values indicative of vertical movement to a set of one or more threshold conditions; and
determining a context of the mobile device based on one or more results of comparing the one or more values indicative of vertical movement to the set of one or more threshold conditions.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
determining if the mobile device was near or within the structure at the first time comprises determining that the mobile device was near or within a building at the first time;
determining if the mobile device was near or within the structure at the second time comprises determining that the mobile device was near or within the building at the second time;
determining one or more values indicative of vertical movement comprises determining an amount of vertical acceleration measured by the inertial sensor of the mobile device during the period of time;
comparing the one or more values indicative of vertical movement to the set of one or more threshold conditions comprises determining if a magnitude of the amount of vertical acceleration is above a first vertical acceleration threshold; and
determining the context comprises determining that the mobile device is on an elevator when the one or more results indicate the magnitude of the amount of vertical acceleration is above the first vertical acceleration threshold.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
determining if the mobile device was near or within the structure at the first time comprises determining that the mobile device was near or within a building at the first time;
determining if the mobile device was near or within the structure at the second time comprises determining that the mobile device was near or within the building or a neighboring building at the second time;
determining one or more values indicative of vertical movement comprises determining an amount of vertical acceleration measured by the inertial sensor of the mobile device during the period of time;
comparing the one or more values indicative of vertical movement to the set of one or more threshold conditions comprises determining if a magnitude of the amount of vertical acceleration is not above a first vertical acceleration threshold but is above a second vertical acceleration threshold; and
determining the context comprises determining that the mobile device is on an escalator when the one or more results indicate the magnitude of the amount of vertical acceleration is not above the first vertical acceleration threshold but is above the second vertical acceleration threshold.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
determining if the mobile device was near or within the structure at the first time comprises determining that the mobile device was near or within a ramp at the first time;
determining if the mobile device was near or within the structure at the second time comprises determining that the mobile device was near or within the ramp at the second time;
determining one or more values indicative of vertical movement comprises determining an amount of vertical acceleration measured by the inertial sensor of the mobile device during the period of time;
comparing the one or more values indicative of vertical movement to the set of one or more threshold conditions comprises determining if a magnitude of the amount of vertical acceleration is above a first vertical acceleration threshold; and
determining the context comprises determining that the mobile device is moving on the ramp via a motorized vehicle on the ramp when the one or more results indicate the magnitude of the amount of vertical acceleration is above the first vertical acceleration threshold.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
determining if the mobile device was near or within the structure at the first time comprises determining that the mobile device was near or within a ramp at the first time;
determining if the mobile device was near or within the structure at the second time comprises determining that the mobile device was near or within the ramp at the second time;
determining one or more values indicative of vertical movement comprises determining an amount of vertical acceleration measured by the inertial sensor of the mobile device during the period of time;
comparing the one or more values indicative of vertical movement to the set of one or more threshold conditions comprises determining if a magnitude of the amount of vertical acceleration is not above a first vertical acceleration threshold but is above a second vertical acceleration threshold; and
determining the context comprises determining that the mobile device is with a user who is walking on the ramp when the one or more results indicate the magnitude of the amount of vertical acceleration is not above the first vertical acceleration threshold but is above the second vertical acceleration threshold.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
determining if the mobile device was near or within the structure at the first time comprises determining that the mobile device was near or within a bridge or an overpass at the first time;
determining if the mobile device was near or within a structure at the second time comprises determining that the mobile device was near or within the bridge or the overpass at the second time;
determining one or more values indicative of vertical movement comprises determining an amount of vertical acceleration measured by the inertial sensor of the mobile device during the period of time;
comparing the one or more values indicative of vertical movement to the set of one or more threshold conditions comprises determining if the amount of vertical acceleration is above a vertical acceleration threshold; and
determining the context comprises determining that the mobile device is on the bridge or the overpass when the one or more results indicate the amount of vertical acceleration is above the vertical acceleration threshold.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
determining if the mobile device was near or within the structure at the first time comprises determining that the mobile device was near or within an underpass at the first time;
determining if the mobile device was near or within the structure at the second time comprises determining that the mobile device was near or within the underpass at the second time;
determining one or more values indicative of vertical movement comprises determining an amount of vertical acceleration measured by the inertial sensor of the mobile device during the period of time;
comparing the one or more values indicative of vert

Assignees

• Nextnav Llc

Inventors

• Dormody Michael
• Raghupathy Arun
• Nagarajan Badrinath
• Han Guiyuan

Classifications

• H04W4/021

  Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences · CPC title

• H04N21/4524

  involving the geographical location of the client (retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00) · CPC title

• G06F3/041

  Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means · CPC title

• G01P15/02

  by making use of inertia forces {using solid seismic masses}(G01P15/14 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04M1/72454

  according to context-related or environment-related conditions · CPC title