US 10,255,328 B2Granted

Location source ranking for determining device location

AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC

InventorsAmer A. Hassan, Neil A. Deason, Carl S. Olivier, Roy D. Kuntz

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Abstract

Techniques for location source ranking for determining device location are described. A location source generally refers to a source of position information (e.g., GPS coordinates, latitude and longitude, street addresses, and so forth) that can be used to determine a geographical location of a device. According to one or more embodiments, location sources and/or combinations of location sources can be ranked based on various criteria. Thus, when a location is requested for a particular device, a highest ranking available location source or combination of location sources can be selected to determine a location of the device. Location source rankings, for instance, can be maintained on a client device and/or via a remote location-related service. According to various embodiments, a location of a device can be determined to enable emergency assistance to be provided at the location.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system comprising:

at least one processor;
and
one or more computer-readable storage media including instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by the at least one processor, cause the system perform operations including:
receiving a request for a location of a device;
identifying available location sources that are available to provide position information for the device;
selecting a combination of the available location sources based on rankings of the respective available location sources;
defining a target geographic zone for the device by utilizing an overlapping geographic zone and excluding a non-overlapping geographic zone from the combination of the selected available location sources, including:
determining a first location of the device utilizing a first location source of the selected available location sources;
determining a second location of the device utilizing a second, different location source of the selected available location sources;
and
defining the target geographic zone using the overlapping geographic zone and excluding the non-overlapping geographic zone from the first location and the second location;
and
determining the location of the device using the target geographic zone.

10 more elements

A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a request for a location of a device;
ascertaining at a remote location-related service independent from the client device and based on one or more location policies whether to determine the location of the device via the device or via a remote service, wherein the one or more location policies are pre-configured to specify whether to determine the location via the device or via the remote service;
and
determining the location of the device at one of the device or the remote service and utilizing a combination of location sources selected from a ranked set of location sources, said determining including:
defining a target geographic zone for the location of the device by utilizing an overlapping geographic zone and excluding a non-overlapping geographic zone from the combination of location sources by:
determining a first location of the device utilizing a first location source of the combination of location sources;
determining a second location of the device utilizing a second, different location source of the combination of location sources;
and
defining the target geographic zone using the overlapping geographic zone and excluding the non-overlapping geographic zone from the first location and the second location;
and
determining the location of the device using the target geographic zone.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/050,187Filed 9 Oct 2013
Published: US 2015/0100589 A19 Apr 2015
Granted: 9 Apr 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

G06F 16/24578
With adaptation to user needs: using ranking
H04W 4/02
Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor: services making use of location information
H04W 4/029
Services making use of location information: location-based management or tracking services
H04W 4/90
Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor: services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations,…