Polaris Wireless, Inc. Patent applications |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20140088965 | ASSOCIATING AND LOCATING MOBILE STATIONS BASED ON SPEECH SIGNATURES - Methods and systems populate a speech signature database with unique speech signatures that are associated with one or more speaker identities and are further associated with one or more mobile stations and/or telephone numbers. Real-time voice signals are compared to the speech signatures in the speech signature database. When a match is found, the mobile station from which the voice signal originated is located in real-time. Further, the associations in the speech signature database are leveraged to find other relevant mobile stations or users and to generate additional associations and to also locate associated users and mobile stations. | 03-27-2014 |
20140080505 | Estimating the Location of a Wireless Terminal Based on the Lighting and Acoustics in the Vicinity of the Wireless Terminal - A technique is disclosed for estimating the location of a wireless terminal at an unknown location in a geographic region. The technique is based on a two-part recognition, the first part being that there are certain optical and acoustic characteristics that are present in some environments while not being present in others, such as lighting flicker and sound reverberation. The second part of the recognition is that a correlation exists between the presence of flicker and reverberation in the vicinity of a wireless terminal and whether the wireless terminal is indoors or not. Under certain environmental conditions, flicker and reverberation are often present indoors but not outdoors. By accounting for flicker and reverberation being detected or not being detected in the vicinity of the wireless terminal, the disclosed technique is able to estimate whether the wireless terminal is indoors, which the technique also uses to improve the location estimate. | 03-20-2014 |
20140080504 | Estimating the Location of a Wireless Terminal Based on the Lighting and Acoustics in the Vicinity of the Wireless Terminal - A technique is disclosed for estimating the location of a wireless terminal at an unknown location in a geographic region. The technique is based on a two-part recognition, the first part being that there are certain lighting and acoustic characteristics that are present in some environments while not being present in others, such as lighting flicker and sound reverberation. The second part of the recognition is that a correlation exists between the presence of flicker and reverberation in the vicinity of a wireless terminal and whether the wireless terminal is indoors or not. Under certain environmental conditions, flicker and reverberation are often present indoors but not outdoors. By accounting for flicker and reverberation being detected or not being detected in the vicinity of the wireless terminal, the disclosed technique is able to estimate whether the wireless terminal is indoors, which the technique also uses to improve the location estimate. | 03-20-2014 |
20140066088 | Estimating The Location of a Wireless Terminal in Wireless Telecommunications Systems That Comprise Distributed And/Or Repeater Antennas - A technique for estimating the location of a wireless terminal at an unknown location in a geographic region is disclosed. The technique is based on the recognition that there are location-dependent traits of electromagnetic signals. In environments where multiple antennas are radiating the same signal, as in the case of distributed antennas or host-repeater configurations, one or more possible locations of the wireless terminal can be designated as improbable based on i) a measure of the propagation delay of a signal traveling between a) a base station and b) the wireless terminal or an infrastructure antenna, or ii) the maximum distance at which a signal is detectable by the wireless terminal. Additionally, the applicable set of values for the location-dependent traits is selected based on similar criteria. | 03-06-2014 |
20140045530 | Inferring Relationships Based On Geo-Temporal Data Other Than Telecommunications - An illustrative geo-temporal analysis system analyzes telecommunications-event records and other records associated with wireless terminals to infer a collaborative relationship between users who do not telecommunicate with each other, based on how precisely a first geo-temporal pattern matches a second geo-temporal pattern. When a collaborative relationship is inferred, the system transmits an indication thereof and a request for an estimated location of the respective wireless terminals. | 02-13-2014 |
20140038553 | RECOGNIZING UNKNOWN ACTORS BASED ON WIRELESS BEHAVIOR - An illustrative behavior analysis system and a corresponding method are designed to analyze telecommunications-event records and other relevant records associated with wireless terminals to infer whether a wireless user's pattern of behavior is substantially similar or even identical to the pattern of behavior of another user, possibly a known actor, A pattern of behavior typically comprises call-related and location attributes over a period of time. Accordingly, the illustrative embodiment infers an identity or a substantial similarity as between two seemingly distinct users of wireless terminals, based on: (i) how precisely a candidate's pattern of behavior matches a pre-defined pattern of behavior, and/or (ii) how precisely a candidate's pattern of behavior matches another candidate's pattern of behavior. | 02-06-2014 |
20130346420 | Method And System For Identifying Aberrant Wireless Behavior - A behavior analysis system analyzes large volumes of records that report on telecommunications events associated with wireless terminals. The behavior analysis system filters the large volume of available records based on investigation-specific rules, resulting in a set of candidate wireless terminals. The illustrative embodiment determines a pattern of behavior for each candidate. Each candidate is measured for how precisely it satisfies the investigation-specific rules. Each candidate is further analyzed for aberrations, if any, relative to the established pattern of behavior. An aberration tends to prove or disprove whether a candidate is more likely to be a true suspect in the given investigation. The illustrative embodiment ranks the set of candidates based on (i) a measure of how precisely each candidate wireless terminal satisfies the investigation-specific rule(s), and (ii) a measure of the aberration in behavior of each candidate wireless terminal relative to the respective pattern of behavior thereof. | 12-26-2013 |
20130344900 | ESTIMATING THE LOCATION OF A WIRELESS TERMINAL DESPITE APPARENTLY REASONABLE BUT MISLEADING OR ERRONEOUS EMPIRICAL DATA - A location engine is disclosed that estimates the location of a wireless terminal using (i) cell ID, (ii) triangulation, (iii) GPS, (iv) RF pattern-matching, or (v) any combination of them. The location engine is adept at discounting the contribution of apparently reasonable but erroneous data. The location engine receives data that are evidence of the location of a wireless terminal at each of a plurality of different times. The location engine then generates an initial hypothesis for the location of the wireless terminal at each time assuming that all of the data is correct and equally probative. Next, the location engine generates one alternative hypothesis for each initial hypothesis and each datum assuming that the datum is erroneous. Finally, the location engine generates the estimate for the location of the wireless terminal at each time by determining which combination of initial hypotheses and alternative hypothesis is the most self-consistent. | 12-26-2013 |
20130343209 | Measurement of Reference Signals with Reduced Interference - A telecommunications system is disclosed comprising a wireless switching center and plurality of base stations that are configured to transmit positioning reference signals. The base stations transmit the positioning reference signals in positioning subframe time intervals. Meanwhile, the base stations also transmit cell-specific reference signals continuously, including during the positioning subframe time intervals. In order to ensure that the wireless terminal measures those cell-specific reference signals during periods of lower interference, the base station imposes a measurement restriction on the wireless terminal, in regard to when it may measure a signal. As a result of utilizing the measurement restriction in this way, in combination with the improved interference characteristics of the positioning reference signals themselves, the ability of the wireless terminal to detect the cell-specific reference signals of more distant cells is improved. The improved signal measurements are then made available to functionalities such as location estimation. | 12-26-2013 |
20130316685 | Wireless Terminal Surveillance System - An illustrative system and method for detecting a wireless terminal in a wireless network by ascertaining information about the wireless terminal's location, thus enabling individualized surveillance and tracking of certain wireless terminals. In some embodiments, the detection is triggered by a signal that is compliant with the Customized Applications for Mobile networks Enhanced Logic (“CAMEL”) protocol. Several kinds of mobile-telecommunications events can trigger detection, including events that do not involve call origination. Advantages include bypassing the home location register when obtaining a location estimate for the wireless terminal and when determining whether a wireless terminal is of interest. | 11-28-2013 |
20130072230 | Tracking Large Numbers of Wireless Terminals - An apparatus and method are disclosed for tracking a large number of wireless terminals and for estimating the location of the terminals at each instant. Some embodiments of the present invention use a wide variety of factors to determine the order and frequency with which each wireless terminal is located. These factors include, but are not limited to, the history of the location of the wireless terminal, the time of day, and the weather. | 03-21-2013 |
20120289249 | Estimating the Location of a Wireless Terminal Based on Signal Path Impairment - A technique for estimating the location of a wireless terminal at an unknown location in a geographic region is disclosed. The technique is based on the recognition that there are traits of electromagnetic signals that are dependent on topography, the receiver, the location of the transmitter, and other factors. For example, if a particular radio station is known to be received strongly at a first location and weakly at a second location, and a given wireless terminal at an unknown location is receiving the radio station weakly, it is more likely that the wireless terminal is at the second location than at the first location. | 11-15-2012 |
20120282947 | Estimating the Location of a Wireless Terminal Based on Signal Path Impairment - A technique for estimating the location of a wireless terminal at an unknown location in a geographic region is disclosed. The technique is based on the recognition that there are traits of electromagnetic signals that are dependent on topography, the receiver, the location of the transmitter, and other factors. For example, if a particular radio station is known to be received strongly at a first location and weakly at a second location, and a given wireless terminal at an unknown location is receiving the radio station weakly, it is more likely that the wireless terminal is at the second location than at the first location. | 11-08-2012 |
20120249787 | Surveillance System - Data from a wireless network location system is used in conjunction with the known geographic location of a video surveillance area such that the system according to the present invention infers that a person who appears in an image in the video is the user of a mobile phone estimated to be at the person's location. When facial recognition is applied and the person's identity is thus recognized, an association is generated as between the identity according to the facial recognition and the identity of the co-located mobile phone. This association can be critical when there is no personal identification available for a mobile phone such as a pre-paid mobile. | 10-04-2012 |
20120014567 | Wireless Location and Facial/Speaker Recognition System - An integrated wireless location and facial/speaker-recognition system that provides distinct advantages over facial-recognition systems and speaker-recognition systems of the prior art is disclosed. The integrated system is capable of using information from a wireless location system to improve the performance of the facial recognition and speaker recognition. The system is capable of processing photographs and/or audio samples captured by a camera/microphone at a fixed location (e.g., a digital pan-zoom-tilt (PZT) surveillance camera, etc.) as well as those captured by a mobile camera/microphone (e.g., a digital camera and microphone in a smartphone, etc.). The system also features a feedback mechanism by which the location-informed results can be used to improve the system's recognition abilities. | 01-19-2012 |
20110298930 | Integrated Wireless Location and Surveillance System - An integrated wireless location and surveillance system that provides distinct advantages over video and audio surveillance systems of the prior art is disclosed. The integrated system comprises (i) a surveillance system comprising a plurality of cameras, each covering a respective zone, and (ii) a wireless location system that is capable of providing to the surveillance system, at various points in time, an estimate of the location of a wireless terminal that belongs to a person of interest. The surveillance system intelligently selects the video feed from the appropriate camera, based on the estimated location of the wireless terminal, and delivers the selected video feed to a display. As a person of interest moves from one zone to another, the surveillance system is capable of dynamically updating which video feed is delivered to the display. | 12-08-2011 |
20110189960 | Estimating Whether A Wireless Terminal Is Indoors Using Pattern Classification - A method and apparatus for estimating whether or not a wireless terminal is indoors are disclosed. The illustrative embodiment employs a pattern classifier that is trained on a plurality of input/output mappings, where each mapping corresponds to a respective location, the output of the mapping is a Boolean value that indicates whether the location is indoors, and the input of the mapping is based on empirical and predicted signal data for the location. In accordance with the illustrative embodiment, a computer-executable program is generated based on the trained pattern classifier. The computer-executable program estimates whether or not a wireless terminal is indoors based on empirical data reported by the terminal, and on a location estimate for the terminal that might be crude or inaccurate (e.g., based on Cell Identifier [Cell-ID], GPS, etc.). | 08-04-2011 |
20110187525 | Search Area Reduction For Estimating the Location of a Wireless Terminal Based On Indoor Detection - A method of using a non-GPS-derived technique to estimate the location of an Assisted-GPS-enabled wireless terminal for the purposes of generating location-specific assistance data for the wireless terminal is disclosed. The wireless terminal then uses the assistance data to acquire and process one or more GPS signals and to derive information that is probative of the wireless terminal's location. The GPS-derived location information is then combined with non-GPS-derived location to form an estimate of the location of the wireless terminal that is better than can be derived from either alone. This combination of GPS-derived and non-GPS techniques is particularly useful when the wireless terminal can only acquire one or two GPS signals because it is not possible to determine the location of the wireless terminal with only two GPS signals alone. | 08-04-2011 |
20110156952 | Positioning System and Positioning Method - It is an object of the present invention to perform positioning at the proper positioning time and positioning precision in response to a requirement with respect to positioning. A positioning server | 06-30-2011 |
20110156951 | Positioning System and Positioning Method - It is an object of the present invention to obtain a positioning result corresponding to the state of a receiver in less time. A positioning server | 06-30-2011 |
20110156950 | Positioning System and Positioning Method - It is an object of the present invention to perform positioning at favorable positioning precision and in a favorable positioning time, according to whether a receiver is indoors or outdoors. A positioning server | 06-30-2011 |
20110102256 | Positioning system, positioning method, and positioning program - It is possible to obtain the highly accurate positioning result even when positioning by a GPS is unsuccessful. A positioning server | 05-05-2011 |
20100329144 | Estimating the Location of a Wireless Terminal Based on Calibrated Signal-Strength Measurements - A process and machine for estimating the location of a wireless terminal is disclosed. The illustrative embodiment of the present invention is based on the observation that the signal strength of a signal from a transmitter is different at some locations, and, therefore, the location of a wireless terminal can be estimated by comparing the signal strength it currently observes against a map or database that correlates locations to signal strengths. In accordance with a first example, if a particular radio station is known to be received well at a first location and poorly at a second location, and a given wireless terminal at an unknown location is receiving the radio station poorly, it is more likely that the wireless terminal is at the second location than it is at the first location. | 12-30-2010 |
20100245115 | Estimating the Location of a Wireless Terminal Based on Signal Path Impairment - A technique for estimating the location of a wireless terminal at an unknown location in a geographic region is disclosed. The technique is based on the recognition that there are traits of electromagnetic signals that are dependent on topography, the receiver, the location of the transmitter, and other factors. For example, if a particular radio station is known to be received strongly at a first location and weakly at a second location, and a given wireless terminal at an unknown location is receiving the radio station weakly, it is more likely that the wireless terminal is at the second location than at the first location. | 09-30-2010 |
20100227626 | Location Determination Using RF Fingerprinting - A method for determining the location of a mobile unit (MU) in a wireless communication system and presenting it to a remote party. The location of a remote MU is determined by comparing a snapshot of a predefined portion of the radio-frequency (RF) spectrum taken by the MU to a reference database containing multiple snapshots taken at various locations. The result of the comparison is used to determine if the MU is at a specific location. The comparison may be made in the MU, or at some other location situated remotely from the MU. In the latter case, sufficient information regarding the captured fingerprint is transmitted from the MU to the remote location. The database may be pre-compiled or generated on-line. | 09-09-2010 |
20090280829 | Using A Priori Geographical Location Density Information To Improve Location Accuracy - A technique for improving location accuracy based on a priori geographical location density information is disclosed. In accordance with the illustrative embodiment, geographical location density information is derived from historical wireless location data such as the locations of prior E911 emergency calls, Location Based Services (LBS) sessions, conventional voice calls, packet data sessions, vehicle routes, and so forth. The geographical location density information is represented by a probability distribution function, and is incorporated into an existing location technique. Advantageously, the technique of the present invention can be employed in conjunction with any existing location technology; moreover, the historical location data can be obtained via any technology, and from any wireless network, including those that are different than that of the future location estimates. | 11-12-2009 |
20080299995 | Location Estimation of Wireless Terminals Through Pattern Matching of Signal-Strength Differentials - A method of estimating the location of a wireless terminal is disclosed that is ideally suited for use with legacy systems. The illustrative embodiment of the present invention is based on the observation that the signal strength of a signal from a transmitter is different at some locations, and, therefore, the location of a wireless terminal can be estimated by comparing the signal strength it currently observes against a map or database that correlates locations to signal strengths. For example, if a particular radio station is known to be received well at a first location and poorly at a second location, and a given wireless terminal at an unknown location is receiving the radio station poorly, it is more likely that the wireless terminal is at the second location than it is at the first location. | 12-04-2008 |
20080299993 | Computationally-Efficient Estimation of the Location of a Wireless Terminal Based on Pattern Matching - A method of using a non-GPS-derived technique to estimate the location of an Assisted-GPS-enabled wireless terminal for the purposes of generating location-specific assistance data for the wireless terminal is disclosed. The wireless terminal then uses the assistance data to acquire and process one or more GPS signals and to derive information that is probative of the wireless terminal's location. The GPS-derived location information is then combined with non-GPS-derived location to form an estimate of the location of the wireless terminal that is better than can be derived from either alone. This combination of GPS-derived and non-GPS techniques is particularly useful when the wireless terminal can only acquire one or two GPS signals because it is not possible to determine the location of the wireless terminal with only two GPS signals alone. | 12-04-2008 |
20080214208 | Computationally-Efficient Estimation of the Location of a Wireless Terminal Based on Pattern Matching - A method of using a non-GPS-derived technique to estimate the location of an Assisted-GPS-enabled wireless terminal for the purposes of generating location-specific assistance data for the wireless terminal is disclosed. The wireless terminal then uses the assistance data to acquire and process one or more GPS signals and to derive information that is probative of the wireless terminal's location. The GPS-derived location information is then combined with non-GPS-derived location to form an estimate of the location of the wireless terminal that is better than can be derived from either alone. This combination of GPS-derived and non-GPS techniques is particularly useful when the wireless terminal can only acquire one or two GPS signals because it is not possible to determine the location of the wireless terminal with only two GPS signals alone. | 09-04-2008 |
20080207222 | Estimating Whether Or Not A Wireless Terminal Is In A Geographic Zone Using Pattern Classification - A method and apparatus are disclosed for estimating whether or not a wireless terminal is in a geographic zone. The illustrative embodiment employs a pattern classifier that is trained on traits of electromagnetic signals at various locations. A computer-executable program is then generated based on the trained pattern classifier, and the program is installed and executed on a subscribed identity module of the terminal. | 08-28-2008 |
20080207219 | Estimating Whether Or Not A Wireless Terminal Is In A Zone Using Radio Navigation - A method for estimating whether or not a wireless terminal is in a zone is described. The method is based on the following observation: when a wireless terminal is at a particular location, the values of the traits of the ambient electromagnetic signals that vary with location represent a “fingerprint” or “signature” for that location. This enables the location of a wireless terminal to be estimated by comparing the observed values of the traits of the ambient electromagnetic signals with the fingerprint for each potential location for the wireless terminal. | 08-28-2008 |