Estimating the location of a wireless terminal despite apparently reasonable but misleading or erroneous empirical data

摘要

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.

主权项

1. A method of estimating the location of a wireless terminal, the method comprising:
receiving, at a location engine, a first signal value whose value is evidence of the location of the wireless terminal at time t(1); receiving, at the location engine, a second signal value whose value is evidence of the location of the wireless terminal at time t(1); generating, at the location engine, a first hypothesis for the location for the wireless terminal at time t(1) based on the first signal value having first weight and the second signal value having second weight, wherein the first weight is greater than the second weight; generating, at the location engine, a second hypothesis for the location for the wireless terminal at time t(1) based on the nearness of a location on a road in relation to the first hypothesis for the location of the wireless terminal at time t(1); and generating, at the location engine, an estimate for the location of the wireless terminal at time t(2) based on:
(i) the second hypothesis for the location for the wireless terminal at time t(1); and transmitting, from the location engine, the estimate for the location of the wireless terminal at time t(2) for use by a location-based application; wherein the first weight and the second weight are both real non-negative numbers.