Methods and systems for estimating a user position in a WLAN positioning system based on user assigned access point locations

A system for estimating a geographic location of a WLAN-enabled user-device in a WLAN-based positioning system having a plurality of WLAN-enabled access points, the system comprising:

• a WLAN-enabled device for receiving signals transmitted by WLAN-enabled access points in range of the WLAN-enabled user-device so that observed WLAN-enabled access points identify themselves;
• a first logic for accessing a master database that associates WLAN-enabled access points with corresponding geographic locations for the WLAN-enabled access points as determined by an audit of a relatively large geographic area and obtaining geographic location information for any identified WLAN-enabled access point in range of the WLAN-enabled user-device;
• a second logic for accessing a supplemental database to obtain inferred geographic location information corresponding to any identified WLAN-enabled access point in range of the WLAN-enabled user-device, the supplemental database having a relatively small set of WLAN-enabled access points and corresponding inferred geographic locations, the inferred geographic locations being inferred based on input by a user of the WLAN-based positioning system;
• and
• a third logic for estimating a geographic location of the WLAN-enabled user-device based on the geographic location information obtained from the master database and the inferred geographic location information obtained from the supplemental database.