Pattern recognition for wireless location

Abstract

A wireless location system is disclosed. Locations of mobile stations (MS) may be determined using one or more MS locating technologies based on, e.g.: computed offsets from terrestrial base stations; satellite transmissions; indoor antennas; low range base stations; and in particular, signal pattern recognition for associating wireless signal characteristics with distinct geographic locations. The system can: adapt and/or calibrate its performance with environmental and geographical changes; capture location signal data for enhancement of a self-maintaining database of predictive location signal data; evaluate MS locations using heuristics and constraints related to terrain, MS velocity and path extrapolation; and adjust MS locations adaptively and/or statistically for providing more reliable and accurate locations. The system can be configured for environments ranging from dense urban, urban, suburban, rural, mountain to low traffic or isolated roadways. The system is useful for 911 emergencies, tracking, routing (e.g., to desired products/services), people and animal location including applications for confinement to and exclusion from certain areas.

1 - 2 . (canceled) 
     
     
         3 . A method for estimating, for a mobile unit M of a plurality of mobile units that wirelessly communicate with a network providing wireless communication with the mobile units, a geographical location, L, of the mobile unit M using an instance, I, of wireless location related data, the wireless location related data obtained from measurements of wireless signals communicated between the mobile unit M and at least some of a plurality of communication devices, wherein each of said communication devices has one or more of a transmitter and a receiver for wireless communication with the mobile unit M, comprising performing the following by computational machinery:
 obtaining location data for the mobile unit M, wherein the location data includes one or more location estimates of the geographical location L of the mobile unit M, and wherein for determining at least one of the location estimates, (A1)-(A3) following are accessed:
 (A1) a non-transient machine data storage having data for a plurality of data sets, wherein, for each geographical location, G, of a plurality geographical locations, there is one of the data sets having (i) and (ii) following:
 (i) a representation of the geographical location G, and 
 (ii) wireless signal transmission related information indicative of a wireless signal transmitted from one of a first location and a second location, and received at the other of the first and second locations;
 wherein the wireless signal transmission related information includes data indicative of one or more wireless signal effects of one or more objects along a wireless transmission path of the wireless signal, wherein the objects affect the wireless signal prior to being received at the other location, and wherein the geographical location G designates one of the first and second locations; 
 
 
 (A2) a similarity determining computational machine that determines location related information for locating the mobile unit M, the location related information dependent upon and determined using a similarity or extent of similarity, between: (i) instances of the wireless signal transmission related information, and (ii) data for an instance of the wireless location related data for a location of the mobile unit M; 
 wherein the similarity or extent of similarity, is provided by the similarity determining computational machine; 
 wherein the location related information is also dependent upon the similarity determining computational machine using the representations of the geographical locations G of the data sets having the instances of the wireless signal transmission related information, the instances used in determining the similarity or extent of similarity; 
 wherein first location related data for the location L is obtained, the first location related data dependent on and determined using an instance, K, of the location related information, wherein the instance K is obtained from the similarity determining computational machine when data, D, indicative of the instance I of the wireless location related data, is input to the similarity determining computational machine, the data D for instantiating at least part of the data of (A2)(ii) above; 
 wherein the first location related data includes a value determined using a machine computed discrepancy or consistency between: (1) the instance I of the wireless location related data, and (2) at least one of (2-1) and (2-2) following: (2-1) instances, J, of the instances of the wireless signal transmission related information used in determining the instance K of the location related information, and (2-2) location indicative data derived from the instances J; 
 (A3) second location related data including data for at least one of (a) and (b) following:
 (a) a change between: a spatial position, of the mobile unit M, and a previous spatial position of the mobile unit M;
 wherein the change is determined independently of wireless signal measurements, WSM, that are both: (a-1) communicated between the mobile unit M and any one or more of the communication devices, and (a-2) used for computing an estimate of the location L of the mobile unit M; and 
 
 (b) one or more corresponding location estimates of the mobile unit M, wherein one of the corresponding location estimates is determined using signal related data obtained from a wireless signal transmission, ST, received by the mobile unit M, the transmission ST from one of the communication devices which is not supported on the Earth's surface, the signal related data providing signal timing information; 
 
 wherein the obtaining further includes determining the at least one location estimate using and dependent upon at least one of the first location related data and the second location related data; and 
   outputting resulting information related to the geographical location L of the mobile unit M, wherein said resulting information is obtained using said location data.   
     
     
         4 . A method for estimating, for a mobile unit M of a plurality of mobile units that wirelessly communicate with a network providing wireless communication with the mobile units, a geographical location, L, of the mobile unit M using an instance, I, of wireless location related data, the wireless location related data obtained using measurements of wireless signals communicated between the mobile unit M and at least some of a plurality of communication devices, wherein each of said communication devices has one or more of a transmitter and a receiver for wireless communication with the mobile unit M, comprising performing the following by computational machinery:
 accessing a non-transient machine data storage having a plurality of data sets, wherein, for each geographical location, G, for a plurality geographical locations, there is one of the data sets having (i) and (ii) following:
 (i) a representation of the geographical location G, and 
 (ii) wireless signal transmission related information indicative of a wireless signal transmitted from one of a first location and a second location and received at the other of the first and second locations,
 wherein the wireless signal transmission related information includes data indicative of one or more wireless signal effects of one or more objects along a wireless transmission path of the wireless signal, and wherein the geographical location G designates one of the first and second locations; 
 
   wherein there is a similarity determining computational machine for determining location related information for locating the mobile unit M, the location related information dependent upon and determined according to a similarity or extent of similarity, between (a) and (b) following:
 (a) data for an instance of the wireless location related data for a location of the mobile unit M, and 
 (b) instances of the wireless signal transmission related information of the non-transient data storage; 
   wherein the similarity or extent of similarity, is provided by the similarity determining computational machine;   wherein the location related information is also dependent upon the similarity determining computational machine using the representations of the geographical locations G of the data sets having the instances of the wireless signal transmission related information, the instances used in determining the similarity or extent of similarity;   determining first location related data for the mobile unit M, wherein the first location related data is dependent on and determined using an instance, K, of the location related information, and wherein the instance K is obtained from the similarity determining computational machine when data, D, indicative of the instance I of the wireless location related data, is input to the similarity determining computational machine, the data D for instantiating at least part of the data of (a) above;   wherein the first location related data includes correspondence data indicating an extent of correspondence, or lack thereof, between: (1) the instance I of the wireless location related data, and (2) at least one of (2-1) and (2-2) following:
 (2-1) instances, J, of the instances of the wireless signal transmission related information used in determining the instance K of the location related information, and 
 (2-2) location indicative data derived from the instances J; 
   obtaining a location estimate, LE, of the mobile unit M, the location estimate LE dependent upon and determined using a machine determined preference or selection of one of: the first location related data, or second location related data;   wherein the second location related data is dependent upon and determined by the computational machinery computing at least one of (c) and (d) following:
 (c) a measurement, T, of a transition between a first spatial position of the mobile unit M and a previous spatial position of the mobile unit M, wherein the measurement T is dependent upon an output from a mobile unit M resident component that measures a characteristic of mobile unit M movement; and 
 (d) one or more corresponding location estimates of the mobile unit M, wherein at least one of the corresponding location estimates is determined using signal related data obtained from a wireless signal transmission, ST, received by M, the transmission ST from one of the communication devices which is not supported on the Earth's surface, the signal related data providing signal timing information. 
   
     
     
         5 . A system for estimating, for each mobile unit M of a plurality of mobile units that wirelessly communicate with a network providing wireless communication with the mobile units, a geographical location, L of the mobile unit M using location related data obtained via measurements of wireless communication between the mobile unit M and a plurality of communication devices, wherein each of said communication devices has one or more of a transmitter and a receiver for wirelessly communicating with the mobile unit M, comprising the following computational machinery: a non-transient data storage, one or more wireless location estimators, and one or more programmed machine components, wherein:
 (A) the non-transient data storage having data for a plurality of data associations, wherein, for each geographical location, G, of a plurality geographical locations, there is one of the data associations having (i) and (ii) following:
 (i) a representation of the geographical location G, and 
 (ii) wireless signal transmission information for one or more wireless signals transmitted from one of a first location and a second location and received at the other of the first and second locations,
 wherein the wireless signal transmission information includes data indicative of one or more wireless signal effects of one or more physical objects along a wireless transmission path of the wireless signals, and wherein the geographical location G designates one of the first and second locations; 
 
   (B) the one or more wireless location estimators for determining (a) and (b) following:
 (a) first location related data for locating the mobile unit M, wherein the first location related data is dependent on an output from a similarity determining computational machine when data, D, indicative of the location related data, is input to the similarity determining computational machine;
 wherein the similarity determining computational machine determines the output according to a similarity or extent of similarity, between (a-1) and (a-2) following: 
 (a-1) the location related data, and 
 (a-2) instances of the wireless signal transmission related information; 
 wherein the output includes a geolocation estimate of the mobile unit M, and the geolocation estimate is determined by the similarity determining computational machine accessing and using the representations of the geographical locations G of the data associations having the instances used in determining the similarity or extent of similarity; 
 wherein the first location related data has a value dependent upon a measurement of a discrepancy or consistency between (a-1) and (a-2) above; 
 
 (b) second location related data for locating the mobile unit M, the second location related data dependent upon and determined by performing machine instructions that access and use at least one of (b-1) and (b-2) following to generate the additional location related data therefrom:
 (b-1) a measurement of a transition between a first spatial positioning of the mobile unit M and a previous spatial positioning of the mobile unit M; and 
 (b-2) one or more corresponding location estimates of the mobile unit M, wherein at least one of the corresponding location estimates is determined using signal related data obtained from a wireless signal transmission received by the mobile unit M, the transmission from one of the communication devices which is not supported on the Earth's surface, the signal related data providing signal timing information; and 
 
   (C) the one or more programmed machine components determine a resulting location estimate of the mobile unit M using at least one of the second location related data and the first location related data.   
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the first location related data includes a first location estimate of the mobile unit M, and wherein the programmed machine components determine data indicative of an adjustment or consistency of the first location estimate with a previously a determined mobile unit M location estimate, the data indicative of the adjustment or consistency used in determining the resulting location estimate of the mobile unit M. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the programmed machine components access: (i) first data indicative of a likelihood of the mobile unit M being at a first location estimate, and (ii) second data indicative of a likelihood of the mobile unit M being at a second location estimate;
 wherein the programmed machine components: (i) give a preference to the first location estimate over the second location estimate when the first data indicates that the mobile unit M is more likely to be at the first location estimate than at the second location estimate, and (ii) give a preference to the second location estimate over the first location estimate when the second data indicates that the mobile unit M is more likely to be at the second location estimate than at the first location estimate.   
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein for a mobile unit M location estimate, LE, of the first location related data, the programmed machine components geographically adjust the location estimate LE by geographic related data representing the measurement of the transition, thereby obtaining an adjusted location estimate, the geographic related data included in the second location related data;
 wherein the adjusted location estimate is used by the programmed machine components in obtaining the resulting location estimate.