Location aware personal communication device enabled public addressing (pa) system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016142875-A1
Application number	US-201514804116-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 20, 2015
Priority date	Nov 14, 2014
Publication date	May 19, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods and systems are described for locating a user of a personal communication device (PCD) at a venue. A method may include: receiving a request to determine a location of the PCD from the PCD; receiving information corresponding to a signal measurement regarding a signal received by at least one access point at the venue from the PCD; and determining the location of the PCD based at least in part on the received information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for locating a user of a personal communication device (PCD) configured to access a public addressing (PA) server at a venue, the method comprising:
receiving a request to determine a location of the PCD from the PCD; receiving information corresponding to a signal measurement regarding a signal received by at least one access point at the venue from the PCD; and determining the location of the PCD based at least in part on the received information.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving venue information pertaining to the venue; and determining the location of the PCD further based at least in part on the venue information.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
periodically receiving map server identification information; sending a request to a map server identified by the map server identification information; and in response to sending the request to the map server, receiving the venue information from the map server.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the venue information comprises information regarding a plurality of access points at the venue including the at least one access point, and/or a map of the venue.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the signal measurement comprises a relative signal strength indication (RSSI) and/or a round trip time (RTT) measurement.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the signal received by the at least one access point is an infrared data association signal, a wireless universal serial bus (USB) signal, a Bluetooth signal, a Z-Wave signal, a ZigBee signal, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) signal, a near field communication (NFC) signal, a Wi-Fi signal, and/or a Wi-Fi direct signal.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, after the determining, sending a location result and a map of the venue to the PA server, the PA server being configured to indicate the location of the PCD in the venue to attendees at the venue.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising adjusting audio output of an audio speaker connected to the PA server based on the determined location of the PCD.

9 . A system for locating a user of a personal communication device (PCD) configured to connect to a public addressing (PA) server at a venue, the system comprising:
a location server configured to:
receive a request to determine a location of the PCD from the PCD;
receive information corresponding to a signal measurement regarding a signal received by at least one access point at the venue from the PCD; and
determine the location of the PCD based at least in part on the received information.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the location server is further configured to:
receive venue information pertaining to the venue; and determine the location of the PCD further based at least in part on the venue information.

11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the location server is further configured to:
periodically receive map server identification information; send a request to a map server identified by the map server identification information; and in response to sending the request to the map server, receive the venue information from the map server.

12 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the venue information comprises information regarding a plurality of access points at the venue including the at least one access point, and/or a map of the venue.

13 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the signal measurement comprises a relative signal strength indication (RSSI) and/or a round trip time (RTT) measurement.

14 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the location server is further configured to, after the determining, send a location result and a map of the venue to the PA server, the PA server being configured to indicate the location of the PCD in the venue to attendees at the venue.

15 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the location server is further configured to adjust audio output of an audio speaker connected to the PA server based on the determined location of the PCD.

16 . A method for locating a user of a first personal communication device (PCD) at a venue attended by a plurality of users with a corresponding plurality of PCDs, the method comprising:
associating the first PCD with one or more locating units; receiving location information from each of the one or more locating units positioned in the venue, the location information corresponding to a location of each of the one or more locating units; determining a location of the first PCD based at least in part on the received location information; and sending data corresponding to the location of the first PCD to a server for dissemination to the plurality of users.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein each of the one or more locating units is a wireless personal area network (WPAN) device configured to locally and wirelessly communicate with the first PCD.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein each of the one or more locating units is configured with infrared data association, wireless universal serial bus (USB), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, ZigBee, radio-frequency identification (RFID), near field communication (NFC), and/or Wi-Fi direct technologies.

19 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the one or more locating units are positioned in either a pattern at the venue or with respect to a plurality of seats at the venue.

20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein each of the one or more locating units is positioned at a corresponding one of the seats at the venue.

21 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the plurality of seats are arranged in a plurality of rows, and wherein each of the one or more locating units are positioned at a corresponding one of the rows.

22 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising connecting to a public addressing (PA) server at the venue, and transmitting speech from the user of the first PCD to the PA server.

23 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the location information of each of the locating units comprises seat identification information identifying a seat in the venue.

24 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the determining comprises determining the location information of the one or more locating units that is closest to the PCD as the location of the PCD.

25 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the determining comprises estimating the location of the PCD based at least in part on location information from a plurality of locating units proximate the PCD.

26 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the dissemination of the data corresponding to the location of the PCD comprises displaying the location of the PCD at a display device at the venue.

27 . A method for locating a remote user of a personal communication device (PCD) configured to access a public addressing (PA) system at a venue, the method comprising:
receiving a request from the PCD to access the PA system at the venue; determining whether the PCD is remote from the venue; indicating a remote status associated with the PCD to others present at the venue; and granting the PCD access to the PA system.

28 . The method of claim 27 , wherein the determining comprises receiving an indication from the PCD that the user is remote.

29 . The method of claim 27 , wherein the determining comprises utilizing a global positioning system (GPS) to dete

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Awoniyi-Oteri Olufunmilola Omolade
• Sheth Soham Vikrambhai
• Soliman Samir Salib
• Paladugu Karthika
• Mahendran Arungundram Chandrasekaran

Classifications

• H04W4/023 Primary

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

• H04R27/00

  Public address systems (circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; {monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007}; amplifiers H03F) · CPC title

• H04R29/007

  for public address systems (public address systems per se H04R27/00) · CPC title

• H04M2242/30

  Determination of the location of a subscriber · CPC title

• H04M3/56

  Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities (video conference systems H04N7/15) · CPC title