Patent application number | Description | Published |
20140274150 | PROXIMITY FENCE - A proximity fence can be a location-agnostic fence defined by signal sources having no geographic location information. The proximity fence can correspond to a group of signal sources instead of a point location fixed to latitude and longitude coordinates. A signal source can be a radio frequency (RF) transmitter broadcasting a beacon signal. The beacon signal can include a payload that includes an identifier indicating a category to which the signal source belongs, and one or more labels indicating one or more subcategories to which the signal source belongs. The proximity fence defined by the group of signal sources can trigger different functions of application programs associated with the proximity fence on a mobile device, when the mobile device moves within the proximity fence and enters and exits different parts of the proximity fence corresponding to the different subcategories. | 09-18-2014 |
20140357196 | Methods for Calibrating Receive Signal Strength Data in Wireless Electronic Devices - A wireless electronic device may include wireless communications circuitry and processing circuitry. The wireless communications circuitry may receive radio-frequency signals from external communications circuitry in a number of frequency channels of a communications band. The processing circuitry may gather received signal quality data such as receive signal strength indicator (RSSI) values from the radio-frequency signals received in each of the frequency channels. The processing circuitry may accumulate respective probability distributions of gathered RSSI values for each frequency channel and may compare each of the probability distributions to generate RSSI offset values for each frequency channel. The processing circuitry may gather additional RSSI values in one or more frequency channels and may adjust the additional RSSI values based on the associated RSSI offset values. The processing circuitry may use the adjusted RSSI values to determine an accurate location of the wireless electronic device. | 12-04-2014 |
20140358835 | RANGE CLASS ESTIMATION FOR RADIO FREQUENCY DEVICES - Implementations are disclosed for obtaining a range state of a device operating in an indoor environment with radio frequency (RF) signal sources. In some implementations, windowed signal measurements obtained from RF signals transmitted by an RF signal source are classified into range classes that are defined by threshold values obtained from a RF signal propagation model. A range class observation is obtained by selecting a range class among a plurality of range classes based on a percentage of a total number of windowed signal measurements that are associated with the range class. The range class observation is provided as input to a state estimator that estimates a range class that accounts for process and/or measurement noise. The output of the state estimator is provided as input to a state machine. | 12-04-2014 |
20140364103 | NON-INTRUSIVE REGION NOTIFICATION - Techniques of non-intrusive region notification are described. A mobile device can be programmed to trigger an application program when the mobile device enters or exits a region. The region can be defined by various virtual fencing technologies. If, at the time of entry or exit of a region, the mobile device is in a power-saving operating mode, the mobile device can transition to an active operating mode temporarily, register a fence-crossing event (entry or exit of the region) with the application program, and then transition back to the power-saving operating mode. The mobile device can launch the registered application program in response to the mobile device receiving a user input to enter the active operating mode. The application program can provide a user interface associated with the region on a display surface of the mobile device in place of a home screen or other user interface. | 12-11-2014 |
20150181384 | Programmable Beacon Payloads - In some implementations, a beaconing protocol can be used to broadcast beacon information to mobile devices. The beaconing protocol can be used by a Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) (e.g., Bluetooth 4.0) beacon to transmit a package of information that identifies the beacon and indicates the calibrated transmission power (e.g., measured power) of the beacon. The package of information can be configured by beacon providers and/or beacon installers at the locations where the beacons are installed. When a mobile device receives the beacon package, the mobile device can use the beacon identification information and/or the measured power of the beacon to determine a location (e.g., precise location, geofence location) of the mobile device. In some implementations, the mobile device can transmit the beacon information to a server and the server can determine the location of the mobile device and send location and/or content information back to the mobile device. | 06-25-2015 |
20150201306 | Range-Free Proximity Determination - Techniques of range free proximity determination are described. A mobile device can determine an entry into or exit from a proximity fence upon determining that the mobile device is sufficiently close to a signal source. The proximity fence can be a virtual fence defined by the signal source and associated with a service. The mobile device can detect signals from multiple signal sources. The mobile device can determine that, among the signal sources, one or more signal sources are located closest to the mobile device based on a ranking of the signal sources using signal strength. The mobile device can determine a probability indicating a confident level of the ranking. The mobile device can determine that the mobile device entered or exited a proximity fence associated with a highest ranked signal source satisfying a confidence threshold. | 07-16-2015 |
20150347351 | Determining Location System Signal Quality - Among other things, we describe a method that includes, on an electronic device, determining that a current quality metric of signals received by a location system of the electronic device does not meet a threshold quality metric, and based on the determination, selecting a recommendation for changing a position of the device in a manner that would alter the current quality metric. This aspect can also include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer program products stored on a storage device. | 12-03-2015 |
20150350833 | Evaluating Location Based On Multiple Data Sources - Among other things, we describe a method that includes, on an electronic device, receiving, from a first location system of the electronic device, first data indicative of a first location of the device at a first time, comparing the first data to second data indicative of a second location of the device at a second time, the second data having been received from a second location system of the electronic device, and based on the comparison, determining whether the first data meets a threshold of location data integrity. | 12-03-2015 |