Method and apparatus for wireless location tracking

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9560487-B2
Application number	US-201113976939-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 23, 2011
Priority date	Dec 23, 2011
Publication date	Jan 31, 2017
Grant date	Jan 31, 2017

Abstract

A method and apparatus for wireless location tracking by a wireless device. In one embodiment of the invention, the wireless device has logic to determine the information of a plurality of specific location points and to determine the location of the wireless device based on the information of the plurality of specific location points. The specific location points are selected from a target area where the wireless device is located. By selecting the specific location points in the target area, it allows hidden Access Points (APs) or Base Stations (BSs) to be detected and measured and it increases the accuracy of the tracking of the wireless device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
determining information of a plurality of specific location points; and
determining a location of a wireless device based on the information of the plurality of specific location points by:
determining a plurality of relative degree values for each of the plurality of specific location points with respect to the location of the wireless device; and
determining a subset of specific location points from the plurality of specific location points, wherein each specific location point in the subset of specific location points has a relative degree value higher or equal to the other specific location points that are not in the subset of specific location points;

wherein determining the location of the wireless device based on the information of the plurality of specific location points further comprises:
determining a plurality of weight circles for each specific location point of the subset of specific location points;
for each of the weight circles, accumulating the relative degree values of each of the subset of specific location points within the weight circle; and determining the location of the wireless device based at least on the accumulated relative degree values of the each of the subset of specific location point for each weight circle.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: storing the information of the plurality of the specific location points into a database.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the database comprises an Extensible Markup Language (XML) database.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information of the plurality of the specific location points comprises one or more of, a latitude, a longitude, an altitude, and wireless information, of each of the plurality of the specific location points.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the wireless information of each of the plurality of the specific location points comprises one or more of, a Media Access Control (MAC) address, a vendor identification, a service set identifier (SSID), a channel number, a received signal strength indicator (RSSI), a first time of first detection, a second time of last detection, of each of the plurality of the specific location points.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless device is operable at least in part with one of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard, a IEEE 802.16m standard, a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution standard, a Bluetooth standard, and an ultra wideband standard.

7. A computer-readable medium having non-transitory instructions stored thereon executable on a processor, the computer-readable medium comprising:
logic to:
obtain information of a plurality of specific location points; and
determine a location of an apparatus based on the information of the plurality of specific location points by further executing steps to:
determine a plurality of relative degree values for each of the plurality of specific location points with respect to the location of the apparatus; and
determine a subset of specific location points from the plurality of specific location points, wherein each specific location point in the subset of specific location points has a relative degree value higher or equal to the other specific location points that are not in the subset of specific location points;
wherein the logic to determine the plurality of relative degree values for each of the plurality of specific location points with respect to the location of the apparatus is to determine a key control parameter for each of the plurality of specific location points based on a Received Signal Strength (RSS) of each Access Point (AP) associated with each of the plurality of specific location points; and
wherein the logic to determine the plurality of relative degree values for each of the plurality of specific location points with respect to the location of the apparatus is to determine the plurality of relative degree values for each of the plurality of specific location points with respect to the location of the apparatus based on a normalization factor and the key control parameter for each of the plurality of specific location points.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the information of the plurality of the specific location points comprises one or more of, a latitude, a longitude, an altitude, and wireless information, of each of the plurality of the specific location points.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the wireless information of each of the plurality of the specific location points comprises one or more of, a Media Access Control (MAC) address, a vendor identification, a service set identifier (SSID), a channel number, a received signal strength indicator (RSSI), a first time of first detection, a second time of last detection, of each of the plurality of the specific location points.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the information of the plurality of the specific location points are stored in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) database.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the apparatus is operable at least in part with one of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard, a IEEE 802.16m standard, a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution standard, a Bluetooth standard, and an ultra wideband standard.

12. A computer-readable medium having non-transitory instructions stored thereon executable on a processor, the computer-readable medium comprising logic to:
obtain information of a plurality of specific location points; and
determine a location of an apparatus based on the information of the plurality of specific location points by further executing steps to
determine a plurality of relative degree values for each of the plurality of specific location points with respect to the location of the apparatus; and
determine a subset of specific location points from the plurality of specific location points, wherein each specific location point in the subset of specific location points has a relative degree value higher or equal to the other specific location points that are not in the subset of specific location points;

wherein the logic to determine the location of the apparatus based on the information of the plurality of specific location points is further to:
determine a plurality of weight circles for each specific location point of the subset of specific location points;
for each weight circle, accumulate the relative degree values of each specific location point within the weight circle; and
determine the location of the wireless device based at least on the accumulated relative degree values of each specific location point for each weight circle.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the logic to determine the plurality of weight circles for each specific location point of the subset of specific location points is to:
determine the plurality of weight circles for each specific location point of the subset of specific location points based on a rule that if two specific location points of the subset of specific location points are less than a minimum distance, only one weight circle is determined for one of the two specific location points that has a higher relative degree value.

14. A system comprising:
a computer-readable medium having non-transitory instructions stored thereon executable on a processor, the computer-readable medium having a memory module;
logic coupled with the memory module to:
obtain information of a plurality of specific location poin

Assignees

• Fu Jin
• Yang Rongzhen
• Yin Hujun
• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Fu Jin
• Yang Rongzhen
• Yin Hujun

Classifications

• G01S5/02524

  Creating or updating the radio-map · CPC title

• H04W4/043

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W64/00

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

• H04W4/028

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W4/025 Primary

  using location based information parameters · CPC title