Offline method to determine location of a vehicle using mobile phones

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for determining real-time location of a vehicle using a mobile device without GPS for the user travelling inside the vehicle. According to the embodiment of the present invention, the location of the vehicle is determined using the locations of the cell-towers to which a mobile phone of a user is connected, and projects these cell tower locations onto the selected route of the user journey to obtain a closest point and thereby determining the user location. The invention also provides the real-time location of the vehicle over internet to users outside the vehicle by crowd-sourcing the cell-tower data of the passengers inside the vehicle.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method for determining a real-time location of a vehicle usingin which a user associated with a mobile device without using GPS or Internet for the user travelling inside the vehicle, whereinis travelling the method comprising the step of:
 allowing the user to select manually or automatically finding the vehicle in which the user is travelling from a predetermined set of vehicles using the mobile device;   characterized in that   the method further includes storing, in the mobile device, the set of predetermined vehicles along with the route information for each the vehiclein the mobile device, the route information including route;   collecting and storing location , in the mobile device, respective locations of a plurality of relevant cell towers in the mobile device , the plurality of cell towers including a first cell tower;   receiving, by the mobile device, information of the connected from the first cell tower, the information including in the form of a cell tower-id tower identifier associated with the first cell tower;   determining, by the mobile device, the location of the connected first cell tower by mapping the received cell tower-id tower identifier with the location of the first cell tower stored locations of the relevant cell towers in the mobile device, without using a global positioning system (GPS) or being connected to Internet;   projecting, by the mobile device, the location of the connected first cell tower onto the selected route associated with the route information and visually displaying on the mobile device;and   determining, by the mobile device, the real-time location of the vehicle based on the projection of the location of the connected first cell tower onto the route, without using the GPS or being connected to the Internet; and   displaying, by the mobile device, the real-time location of the vehicle.   
     
     
         2 . The method as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the determination of real-time location of the vehicle includes:
 projecting, by the mobile device, the location of the connected first cell tower onto the selectedroute to obtain comprises obtaining a closest point on the route to the first cell tower; and   determining, by the mobile device, the real-time location of the vehicle location by comprises using the obtained closest point.   
     
     
         3 . The method as claimed in  claim 2 , wherein determining, by the mobile device, the real-time vehicle location further includes:
 finding a distance of the closest point in on the route of the selected vehicle from the connected first cell tower;   comparing the distance with a pre-determined threshold value;   concluding the connected cell tower is near the closest point in the route of the selected vehicle when the distance is within the pre-determined threshold value andwhen the distance is less than the threshold value, using the closest point to estimate the real-time location of the vehicle; and   concluding the connected cell tower is far from the closest point in the selected route when the distance exceeds the pre-determined threshold and thereby connecting the mobile device to another cell towerwhen the distance is greater than the threshold value, not using the closest point to estimate the real-time location of the vehicle.   
     
     
         4 . The method as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the route information of the vehicle consists ofincludes a geographical path travelled to be  by the vehicle along with and arrival and/or departure times of the vehicle in with respect to a finite set of points along the route. 
     
     
         5 . The method as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the relevant cell towers includesstoring, in the mobile device, the respective locations of the plurality of cell towers, comprises limiting storing of the plurality of cell towers to cell towers available along the route of the user's home location and frequently travelledwhich are near a home of the user and which are near areas and wherein the location of the relevant cell towers are collected and stored in the mobile devicefrequently travelled to by the user. 
     
     
         6 . The method as claimed in  claim 1 , the determined location of the user is used for estimating delay of the vehicle andfurther comprising:  estimating the arrival and/or departure times of the vehicle at specific points along the route based on the real-time location of the vehicle; and   estimating a delay of the vehicle with respect to one or more of the points along the route based on the estimated arrival and/or departure times of the vehicle at the one or more points along the route.   
     
     
         7 . A method for providing the real-time location of thea vehicle for peopleto a person located outside the vehicle using the information of the users travelling inside the vehicle, wherein the method comprising the step of:
 automatically uploadingreceiving, by a central server, a list of connected cell tower information automatically uploaded from a set plurality of candidate users to a central server, potentially travelling inside the vehicle;  
 characterized in that the method further includes, 
 converting, by the central server, the connected cell tower information from a candidate user from the list of cell tower information which is associated with a first candidate user from the plurality of candidate users to a first positional time series data. data;  
 representing, by the central server, the real-time location of the vehicle as another a second positional time series data, data;  
 comparing, by the central server, the first positional time series data of the user with the second positional time series data of the vehicle to determine if the first candidate user is travelling inside the vehicle, vehicle;  
 when the first candidate user is determined to be travelling inside the vehicle, using, by the central server, the first positional time series data of the user classified inside the vehicle to extend the second positional time series data of the vehicle, and thereby to update the real real-time location of the vehicle. vehicles; and  
 providing, by the central server via Internet, the real updated real-time location of the vehicle to the a mobile device of people associated with the person located outside the vehicle via internet. 
 
     
     
         8 . The method as claimed in  claim 7 , whereinfurther comprising determining the candidate set of users for a vehicle is determined plurality of candidate users based on clues such as the user explicitly mentioning that he/she is users providing an input to an interface that they are travelling inside that the vehicle, based on users who or when the user is known to have a booking in the vehicle, or when the user does based on users providing a real-time status of the vehicle. 
     
     
         9 . The method as claimed in  claim 7 , wherein athe cell tower information of a candidate user consists of the cell-tower idfrom the list of cell tower information which is associated with the first candidate user includes a cell tower identifier of a cell-towercell tower and a timestamp denoting thea time at which the first candidate user gotbecame connected to the particular cell-towercell tower. 
     
     
         10 . The method as claimed in  claim 7 , wherein the first positional time series data for a candidate user is generated by resolving cell-tower converting the cell tower information into a series of locations consisting of including latitude and longitude information at different points in time, time.  
     
     
         11 . The method as claimed in  claim 7 , wherein the second positional time series data of a vehicle consists ofincludes a series of locations in thea form of latitude and longitude information at one or more pointpoints in time,time.  
     
     
         12 . The method as claimed in  claim 7 , whereinfurther comprising requesting, by the central server, may request from one or more of the plurality of candidate users to upload the recent cell-tower cell tower information. 
     
     
       13. The method as claimed in  claim 1 , further comprising:
 storing, in the mobile device, route information for a plurality of vehicles, the plurality of vehicles including the vehicle and the route information including the route information for the vehicle; and   identifying, using the mobile device, the vehicle as a vehicle in which the user associated with the mobile device is traveling.    
     
     
       14. The method as claimed in  claim 13 , wherein identifying, using the mobile device, the vehicle as the vehicle in which the user associated with the mobile device is traveling comprises:
 receiving a selection of the vehicle from the plurality of vehicles, via a manual input from the user; or   automatically selecting, by the mobile device, the vehicle from the plurality of vehicles.    
     
     
       15. A mobile device comprising
 a display;   one or more memory devices configured to store instructions; and   one or more processors configured to execute the instructions to perform operations, the operations comprising:   storing, in the one or more memory devices, route information for a vehicle in which a user associated with the computing device is travelling the route information including a route;
 storing, in the one or more memory devices respective locations of a plurality of cell towers, the plurality of cell towers including a first cell tower; 
 receiving information from the first cell tower, the information including a cell tower identifier associated with the first cell tower; 
 determining the location of the first cell tower by mapping the cell tower identifier with the location of the first cell tower stored in the mobile device, without using a global positioning system (GPS) or being connected to Internet; 
 projecting the location of the first cell tower onto the route associated with the route information; 
 determining the real-time location of the vehicle based on the projection of the location of the first cell tower onto the route, without using the GPS or being connected to the Internet; and 
 providing for presentation on the display, a real-time location of the vehicle.  
   
     
     
       16. The mobile device as claimed in  claim 15 , the operations further comprising:
 projecting, by the mobile device, the location of the first cell tower onto the route comprises obtaining a closest point on the route to the first cell tower; and   determining, by the mobile device, the real-time location of the vehicle comprises using the obtained closest point.    
     
     
       17. The mobile device as claimed in  claim 16 , wherein determining, by the mobile device, the real-time vehicle location further includes:
 finding a distance of the closest point on the route of the vehicle from the first cell tower;   comparing the distance with a threshold value;   when the distance is less than the threshold value, using the closest point to estimate the real-time location of the vehicle; and   when the distance is greater than the threshold value, not using the closest point to estimate the real-time location of the vehicle.    
     
     
       18. The mobile device as claimed in  claim 15  wherein the route information of the vehicle includes a geographical path travelled to be bv the vehicle and arrival and/or departure times of the vehicle with respect to a finite set of points along the route. 
     
     
       19. The mobile device as claimed in  claim 15 , wherein storing, in the mobile device, the respective locations of the pluralitv of cell towers, comprises limiting storing of the pluralitv of cell towers to cell towers which are near a home of the user and which are near areas frequentlv travelled to bv the user. 
     
     
       20. The mobile device as claimed in  claim 15 , the operations further comprising:
 estimating arrival and/or departure times of the vehicle at points along the route based the real-time location of the vehicle; and   estimating a delay of the vehicle with respect to one or more of the points along the route based on the estimated arrival and/or departure times of the vehicle at the one or more points along the route.