Geolocationing system and method for use of same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12574596-B2
Application number	US-202418439391-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 12, 2024
Priority date	Oct 26, 2018
Publication date	Mar 10, 2026
Grant date	Mar 10, 2026

Abstract

A geolocationing system and method for providing awareness in a multi-space environment, such as a hospitality environment or educational environment, are presented. In one embodiment of the geolocationing system, an array of gateway devices is provided. Each gateway device includes a gateway device identification providing an accurately-known fixed location within the multi-space environment. Each gateway device includes a wireless transceiver that receives a beacon signal from a proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device. The gateway devices, in turn, send gateway signals to a server, which determines estimated location of the wireless-enabled personal locator device with transmitted signal strength modeling.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system for providing awareness in a multi-space environment, the system comprising:
a programming interface configured to communicate with a gateway deice, the gateway device including housing securing a processor, non-transitory memory, and a wireless transceiver in a busing architecture; the non-transitory memory accessible to the processor, the non-transitory memory including a gateway device identification providing an accurately-known fixed location, the non-transitory memory including processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to:
receive a beacon signal via the wireless transceiver from a proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device, the beacon signal including a personal locator device identification and transmitted signal strength identification,
measure received signal strength of the beacon signal,
transmit a gateway signal to a server, the gateway signal including the personal locator device identification, the gateway device identification, the transmitted signal strength identification, and the received signal strength measurement; and
an estimated location of the proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device determined by the gateway signal utilizing trilateration, received signal strength modeling, and transmitted signal strength modeling.

2 . The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the wireless transceiver is configured to communicate with a standard selected from the group consisting of infrared (IR), 802.11, 3G, 4G, Edge, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, near field communications (NFC), Bluetooth and Bluetooth low energy.

3 . The system as recited in claim 1 , further comprises a plurality of wireless transceivers.

4 . The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the trilateration and the received signal strength modeling are at least partially integrated.

5 . The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the trilateration and the transmitted signal strength modeling are at least partially integrated.

6 . The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the received signal strength modeling and the transmitted signal strength modeling are at least partially integrated.

7 . The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the housing further comprises a device selected from the group consisting of set-top boxes, common space gateway devices, and gateway service devices.

8 . The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device further comprises a device selected from the group consisting of single button personal locator devices and proximate wireless-enabled interactive programmable devices.

9 . The system as recited in claim 8 , wherein the proximate wireless-enabled interactive programmable device further comprises a device selected from the group consisting of smart watches, smart phones, and tablet computers.

10 . The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the server further comprises a back-office hotel server.

11 . The system as recited claim 1 , further comprising an operational mode selected from the group consisting of alerts-enabled, service request-enabled, tracking-enabled, and non-tracking-enabled.

12 . The gateway device as recited in claim 11 , wherein in the alerts-enabled mode, the server receives a distress signal from the proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device.

13 . The gateway device as recited in claim 11 , wherein in the service-request-enabled mode, the server receives a service request from the proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device.

14 . The gateway device as recited in claim 11 , wherein in the tracking-enabled mode, the server maintains in non-transitory memory one of a plurality of estimated locations with timestamps associated with the proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device and only last known locations with timestamps associated with the proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device.

15 . A system for providing awareness in a multi-space environment, the system comprising:
a programming interface configured to communicate with a gateway deice, the gateway device including housing securing a processor, non-transitory memory, and a wireless transceiver in a busing architecture; the non-transitory memory accessible to the processor, the non-transitory memory including a gateway device identification providing an accurately-known fixed location, the non-transitory memory including processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to:
receive a beacon signal via the wireless transceiver from a proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device, the beacon signal including a personal locator device identification and transmitted signal strength identification,
measure received signal strength of the beacon signal,
transmit a gateway signal to a server, the gateway signal including the personal locator device identification, the gateway device identification, the transmitted signal strength identification, and received signal strength measurement; and
an estimated location of the proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device determined by a plurality of gateway signals, including the gateway signal, utilizing trilateration, received signal strength modeling, and transmitted signal strength modeling.

16 . The gateway device as recited in claim 15 , wherein the wireless transceiver is configured to communicate with a standard selected from the group consisting of infrared (IR), 802.11, 3G, 4G, Edge, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, near field communications (NFC), Bluetooth and Bluetooth low energy.

17 . The gateway device as recited in claim 15 , wherein the proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device further comprises a device selected from the group consisting of single button personal locator devices and proximate wireless-enabled interactive programmable devices.

18 . The system as recited in claim 17 , wherein the proximate wireless-enabled interactive programmable device further comprises a device selected from the group consisting of smart watches, smart phones, and tablet computers.

19 . The system as recited claim 15 , further comprising an operational mode selected from the group consisting of alerts-enabled, service request-enabled, tracking-enabled, and non-tracking-enabled.

20 . A system for providing awareness in a multi-space environment, the system comprising:
a programming interface configured to communicate with a gateway deice, the gateway device including housing securing a processor, non-transitory memory, and a wireless transceiver in a busing architecture; the non-transitory memory accessible to the processor, the non-transitory memory including a gateway device identification providing an accurately-known fixed location, the non-transitory memory including processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to:
receive a plurality of beacon signals via the wireless transceiver from a proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device, each of the plurality of beacon signals including a personal locator device identification and transmitted signal strength identification,
measure received signal strength of each of the plurality of beacon signals,
transmit a gateway signal to a server, the gateway signal including the personal locator device identification, the gateway device identification, the transmitted signal strength identification, and received signal strength measurement; and
an estimated location of the proximate wireless-enabled pers

Assignees

• Enseo Llc

Inventors

• Miller Thomas R
• Fang William C
• Ogle Vanessa

Classifications

• H04B17/318

  Received signal strength · CPC title

• H04L65/1036

  at the edge · CPC title

• G01S5/0231

  Emergency, distress or locator beacons · CPC title

• H04W4/80

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• H04W4/023

  using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds · CPC title