LOCATION BEACON DATABASE AND SERVER, METHOD OF BUILDING LOCATION BEACON DATABASE, AND LOCATION BASED SERVICE USING SAME

摘要

In one embodiment, to locate a user-device having a Wi-Fi radio, the device is triggered to transmit a request to all Wi-Fi access points within range of the user device. Messages are received from the Wi-Fi access points within range of the user device, each message identifying the Wi-Fi access point sending the message. The signal strength of the messages received by the Wi-Fi access points is calculated. A reference database is accessed to obtain the calculated locations for the identified Wi- Fi access points. Based on the number of Wi-Fi access points identified via received messages, a corresponding location-determination algorithm is chosen from a plurality of location-determination algorithms. The calculated locations for the identified Wi-Fi access points and the signal strengths of the received messages and the chosen location-determination algorithm are used to determine the location of the user-device.