Altitude determination according to crowd sourced barometric pressure measurements

A device comprising:

• a processing system including a processor;
• and
• a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:
• determining that a plurality of mobile devices is at ground level;
• obtaining a plurality of positions, speeds, and barometric pressures associated with the plurality of mobile devices;
• for each of the plurality of mobile devices:
• inferring a mode of transportation according to the position and the speed;
• calculating a determined ground height comprising a sum of a ground elevation above a common reference height corresponding to the position and an offset elevation based at least in part on the mode of transportation;
• and
• determining a reference barometric pressure at the common reference height according to the barometric pressure and the determined ground height;
• combining a plurality of reference barometric pressures for the plurality of mobile devices at the common reference height to obtain a combined reference pressure;
• and
• determining a height of a target device above a local ground position of the target device, in accordance with a reported barometric pressure at the target device and the combined reference pressure.

A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:

• obtaining a plurality of positions, speeds, and barometric pressures associated with a plurality of mobile devices;
• for each of the plurality of mobile devices:
• inferring a mode of transportation according to the position and the speed;
• calculating a determined ground height comprising a sum of a ground elevation above a common reference height corresponding to the position and an offset elevation based at least in part on the mode of transportation;
• and
• determining a reference barometric pressure at the common reference height according to the barometric pressure and the determined ground height;
• combining a plurality of reference barometric pressures for the plurality of mobile devices at the common reference height to obtain a combined reference pressure;
• and
• determining a height of a target device above a local ground position of the target device, in accordance with a reported barometric pressure at the target device and the combined reference pressure.