Provision of navigation service including reporting of elevation information and/or vertical guidance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016123740-A1
Application number	US-201614992655-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 11, 2016
Priority date	Dec 28, 2011
Publication date	May 5, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses and storage medium associated with navigation service are disclosed. In various embodiments, a method may include collecting, by a client mobile device, ambient barometric pressure information at a current location of the client mobile device. The method may further include providing, by the mobile device, contemporaneous navigation assistance to a user of the mobile device or for a user of the mobile device, assisted by a remote navigation assistance service. Assistance by the remote navigation service is associated with determining the current elevation level, based at least in part on ambient barometric pressure information collected by the client mobile device and by one or more crowdsourced mobile devices at the current location. Other embodiments may be disclosed or claimed.

First claim

1 . At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions configured to enable a client mobile device, in response to execution of the instructions by the client mobile device, to:
collect ambient barometric pressure information at a current location of the client mobile device; and provide contemporaneous navigation service to a user of the client mobile device, or for the user of the client mobile device, assisted by a remote navigation assistance service, wherein provision of navigation service to the user includes provision of vertical navigation guidance to the user based at least in part on a determined current elevation level of the client mobile device, wherein provision of navigation service for the user includes reporting of the determined current elevation level, and wherein assistance by the remote navigation service is associated with determination of the current elevation level based at least in part on ambient barometric pressure information collected by the client mobile device and by one or more crowdsourced mobile devices at the current location.

2 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further configured to enable the client mobile device, in response to execution of the instructions by the client mobile device, to send the ambient barometric pressure information collected by the client mobile device to the remote navigation assistance service; and receive from the remote navigation assistance service, the current elevation level of the client mobile device determined based at least in part on ambient barometric pressure information sent by the client mobile device, and by the one or more crowdsourced mobile devices.

3 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further configured to enable the client mobile device, in response to execution of the instructions by the client mobile device, to send to the remote navigation assistance service, a request for a mapping function configured to map barometric pressure to elevation level for the current location; receive from the remote navigation assistance service, the mapping function, determined by the remote navigation assistance service based at least in part on ambient barometric pressure information sent by the one or more crowdsourced mobile devices; and determine the current elevation level of the client mobile device using the mapping function and the ambient barometric pressure information collected by the client mobile device.

4 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein collect further comprises collect inertial information, wherein determination of the current elevation level is further based on collected inertial information.

5 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 , wherein inertial information comprises readings of pedometer sensors, accelerometer sensors or gyroscopes of the plurality of crowdsourced mobile devices.

6 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further configured to enable the client mobile device, in response to execution of the instructions by the client mobile device, to receive from the user or the remote navigation assistance service, instructions to configure the collection of ambient barometric pressure, collection of other information, or other operational aspects of the client mobile device associated with the provision of navigation service.

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13 . An apparatus, comprising:
a processor and memory arrangement; at least one barometric sensor coupled with the processor and memory arrangement; a client side of a crowdsourced data service configured to be operated by the processor and memory arrangement to use the at least one barometric sensor to collect ambient barometric pressure information at a current location of the apparatus; and a navigation service configured to be operated by the processor and memory arrangement to provide contemporaneous navigation service to a user of the apparatus or for the user of the apparatus, assisted by a remote navigation assistance service, wherein provision of navigation service to the user includes provision of vertical navigation guidance to the user based at least in part on a determined current elevation level of the apparatus, wherein provision of navigation service for the user includes reporting of the determined current elevation level, and wherein assistance by the remote navigation service is associated with determination of the current elevation level based at least in part on ambient barometric pressure information collected by the apparatus and by one or more crowdsourced apparatuses at the current location.

14 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the client side of the crowdsourced data service is further configured to send the collected ambient barometric pressure information to the remote navigation assistance service; and receive from the remote navigation assistance service, the current elevation level of the apparatus determined based at least in part on ambient barometric pressure information sent by the apparatus, and by crowdsourced apparatuses at the current location.

15 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the client side of the crowdsourced data service is further configured to send to the remote navigation assistance service server, a request for a mapping function configured to map barometric pressure to elevation for the current location; receive from the remote navigation assistance service , the mapping function determined by the remote navigation assistance service based at least in part on ambient barometric pressure information sent by the one or more crowdsourced apparatuses; and determine the current elevation level of the apparatus using the mapping function and the ambient barometric pressure information collected by the apparatus.

16 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the apparatus further comprises one or more inertial sensors, and the client side of the crowdsourced data service is further configured to collect inertial information, wherein determination of the current elevation level is additionally based on collected inertial information.

17 . The apparatus of claim 16 , the one or more inertial sensors comprise at least one of a pedometer sensor, an accelerometer sensor or a gyroscope, coupled with the processor and memory arrangement, wherein inertial information comprises at least one reading of the at least one of a pedometer sensor, an accelerometer sensor or a gyroscope.

18 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the client side of the crowdsourced data service comprises one or more of an authentication agent configured to authenticate the client mobile device to the server, and vice versa, a policy storage and enforcement agent configured to store, retrieve and enforce operational policies, a logging agent configured to log transactions with the server, and a communication agent configured to communicate with the server.

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28 . At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium hav

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Poornachandran Rajesh
• Krishnamurthy Lakshman
• Sengupta Uttam
• Andiappan Rajsekaran

Classifications

• G01S5/02526

  using non-dedicated equipment, e.g. user equipment or crowd-sourcing · CPC title

• G01C5/06

  by using barometric means · CPC title

• G01C21/20 Primary

  Instruments for performing navigational calculations (G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence) · CPC title

• G01S5/0252

  Radio frequency fingerprinting · CPC title

• G01C21/34

  Route searching; Route guidance · CPC title