Obtaining pseudorange information using a cellular device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9429640-B2
Application number	US-201313842447-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2013
Priority date	Dec 28, 2012
Publication date	Aug 30, 2016
Grant date	Aug 30, 2016

Abstract

The cellular device accesses a GPS/GNSS chipset embedded within the cellular device. The GPS/GNSS chipset calculates pseudorange information for use by the GPS/GNSS chipset. The cellular device extracts the pseudorange information from the GPS/GNSS chipset for use elsewhere in the cellular device outside of the GPS/GNSS chipset.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of obtaining pseudorange information using a cellular device, the method comprising;
sending, performed by the cellular device, a message to a Global Positioning System/Global Navigation Satellite System (GPS/GNSS) chipset embedded within the cellular device to initiate an E911 activity, wherein the GPS/GNSS chipset calculates pseudorange information for use by the GPS/GNSS chipset;
receiving, performed by the cellular device, the pseudorange information from the GPS/GNSS chipset for use elsewhere in the cellular device outside of the GPS/GNSS chipset, the pseudorange information provided by the E911 activity; and
sending, performed by the cellular device, a message to the GPS/GNSS chipset to cancel the E911 activity before transmission of the pseudorange information external to the cellular device.

2. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein
the E911 activity is initiated using an improved accuracy SUPL client of the cellular device.

3. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein
the pseudorange information is provided from the GPS/GNSS chipset to a location manager portion of an operating system of the cellular device, wherein the location manager is external to the GPS/GNSS chipset.

4. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the cellular device is selected from a group consisting of a cell phone and a non-voice enabled cellular device.

5. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
determining a location of the cellular device based on the pseudorange information.

6. The method as recited by claim 5 , wherein the method further comprises:
displaying the location of the cellular device on a display of the cellular device.

7. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
performing at a GPS/GNSS receiver associated with the GPS/GNSS chipset, GPS measurements to derive raw measurement data for a position of the cellular device.

8. The method as recited by claim 7 , wherein the raw measurement data provides an instant location of the cellular device.

9. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
determining carrier phase and pseudorange signals from one or more satellites that are in view of a GPS/GNSS embedded receiver associated with the GPS/GNSS chipset.

10. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the E911 activity is initiated using a command via a high precision Secure User Platform Location (SUPL).

11. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
storing the pseudorange information continuously.

12. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
notifying a pseudorange corrector that the pseudorange information is being stored.

13. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
notifying a pseudorange correction fetch to test to see if pseudorange corrections are in memory already.

14. The method as recited by claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises:
receiving the pseudorange corrections directly from an improvement source that is located outside of the cellular device.

15. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
notifying a pseudorange correction fetch that pseudorange corrections need to be fetched from an improvement source.

16. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
processing the pseudorange information in a portion of the cellular device that is outside of a GPS/GNSS receiver that is part of the GPS/GNSS chipset to determine a position fix of the cellular device.

17. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
processing the pseudorange information using one or more Application Programming Interface (API) function applications that reside in memory of the cellular device and are executed by a processor of the cellular device.

18. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the pseudorange information is observed pseudorange information and wherein method further comprises:
matching calculated pseudorange correction information from reference stations with the observed pseudorange information based on time tags.

19. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
obtaining additional information from one or more of a compass, gyroscope, accelerometer, and a source accessed via a WiFi or via a short range wireless communication protocol operating in the range of frequencies between 2402-2480 MHZ;
creating corrected data based on the obtained additional information; and
generating a location of the cellular device based on the corrected data.

20. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
communicating a location of the cellular device to another electronic device that is remotely located with respect to the cellular device.

21. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the pseudorange information is selected from a group consisting of uncorrected pseudorange information, differential GNSS corrections, high precision GNSS satellite orbital data, GNSS satellite broadcast ephemeris data, and ionospheric projections.

22. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein initiating the E911 activity comprises:
using an operation that is a session started with a message selected from a group consisting of a improved accuracy Secure User Platform Location (SUPL) start message and a high precision SUPL INIT message.

23. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
determining a quality of position (QOP) metric from data obtained from a GPS/GNSS receiver associated with the GPS/GNSS chipset;
determining if the QOP position metric is less than a pre-determined QOP metric; and
in response to the QOP position metric being less than the pre-determined QOP metric, requesting pseudorange corrections from an improvement source.

24. The method as recited by claim 23 , wherein the requested pseudorange corrections are selected from a group consisting of satellite orbital data, high precision ephemeris data, and DGPS/DGNSS corrections.

25. The method as recited by claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
storing the pseudorange information in a memory of the cellular device.

26. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions, which when executed causes a processor of a cellular device, which is not a part of an embedded Global Positioning System/Global Navigation Satellite System (GPS/GNSS) receiver of the cellular device, to perform a method for obtaining pseudorange information using a cellular device, the method comprising:
sending, performed by the cellular device, a message to a Global Positioning System/Global Navigation Satellite System (GPS/GNSS) chipset embedded within the cellular device to initiate an E911 activity, wherein the GPS/GNSS chipset calculates pseudorange information for use by the GPS/GNSS chipset;
receiving, performed by the cellular device, the pseudorange information from the GPS/GNSS chipset for use elsewhere in the cellular device outside of the GPS/GNSS chipset, the pseudorange information provided by the E911 activity; and
sending, performed by the cellular device, a message to the GPS/GNSS chipset to cancel the E911 activity before transmission of the pseudorange information external to the cellular device.

Assignees

• Trimble Navigation Ltd

Inventors

• Rudow Richard
• Kasirajan Venkateswaran
• Wold Robert
• Janky James M

Classifications

• G01S19/071

  DGPS corrections · CPC title

• H04W4/90

  Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS] · CPC title

• G01S19/25

  involving aiding data received from a cooperating element, e.g. assisted GPS · CPC title

• G01S19/43

  using carrier phase measurements, e.g. kinematic positioning; using long or short baseline interferometry · CPC title

• H04W64/00

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