Low power always-on determination of indoor versus outdoor state

A mobile device comprising:

• one or more processors for determining indoor/outdoor state of the mobile device;
• and
• memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the mobile device to:
• maintain an indoor/outdoor state of the mobile device, wherein the indoor/outdoor state is selected from a plurality of possible states including an indoor state and an outdoor state;
• wherein the mobile device includes at least one first sensor and at least one second sensor, wherein the at least one first sensor includes a camera;
• obtain a first sensor reading from the second sensor;
• and
• determine if the first sensor reading is sufficient to determine an indoor/outdoor state of the device;
• responsive to determining that the first sensor reading is not sufficient to determine an indoor/outdoor state of the device:
• determine a local time associated with the mobile device;
• response to determining that the local time corresponds to a daylight time, determining if the mobile device is not concealed;
• responsive to determining that the mobile device is not concealed, capturing a camera image from the camera, wherein the camera image includes a red, green and blue (RGB) value for pixels in the camera image;
• and
• update the indoor/outdoor state of the mobile device based, at least in part, on a RGB value of one or more pixels of the pixels in the camera image.

One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more computing device included in a mobile device to:

• maintain an indoor/outdoor state of the mobile device, wherein the indoor/outdoor state is selected from a plurality of possible states including an indoor state and an outdoor state;
• wherein the mobile device includes at least one first sensor and a at least one second sensor, wherein the at least one first sensor includes a camera;
• obtain a first sensor reading from the second sensor;
• determine if the first sensor reading is sufficient to determine an indoor/outdoor state of the device;
• and
• responsive to determining that the first sensor reading is not sufficient to determine an indoor/outdoor state of the device:
• determine a local time associated with the mobile device;
• responsive to determining that the local time corresponds to a daylight time, determining if the mobile device is not concealed;
• responsive to determining that the mobile device is not concealed, capturing a camera image from the camera, wherein the camera image includes a red, green and blue (RGB) value for pixels in the camera image;
• and
• update the indoor/outdoor state of the mobile device based, at least in part, on a RGB value of one or more pixels of the pixels in the camera image.

An apparatus for determining indoor/outdoor state of a mobile device comprising:

• means for maintaining an indoor/outdoor state of the mobile device, wherein the indoor/outdoor state is selected from a plurality of possible states including an indoor state and an outdoor state;
• wherein the mobile device includes at least one first sensor and at least one second sensor, wherein the at least one first sensor includes a camera;
• means for obtaining a first sensor reading from the second sensor;
• and
• means determining if the first sensor reading is sufficient to determine an indoor/outdoor state of the device;
• responsive to determining that the first sensor reading is not sufficient to determine an indoor/outdoor state of the device:
• means for determining a local time associated with the mobile device;
• responsive to determining that the local time corresponds to a daylight time, means for determining if the mobile device is not concealed;
• responsive to determining that the mobile device is not concealed, means for capturing a camera image from the camera, wherein the camera image includes a red, green and blue (RGB) value for pixels in the camera image;
• and
• means for updating the indoor/outdoor state of the mobile device based, at least in part, on a RGB value of one or more pixels of the pixels in the camera image.