WO2017056111A2

WO2017056111A2 - Establishing a geo-spatial grid and location triangulation of a user/mobile device within large buildings

Info

Publication number: WO2017056111A2
Application number: PCT/IN2016/050328
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ram SELLARATNAM; Sunil Menon; Subash Vasudevan
Original assignee: Ibus Networks And Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd
Priority date: 2015-09-29
Filing date: 2016-09-29
Publication date: 2017-04-06
Also published as: WO2017056111A4; WO2017056111A3

Abstract

The present invention provides a system for triangulation of the user/mobile to acquire the location coordinates (latitude, longitude and altitude) inside a building. The system includes plurality of static devices for communicating with the mobile user/device, iBus platform and data processing system. The plurality of static devices are mapped to the iBus platform. The static device and mobile device are operable to transmit and receive data packets in an ultrasonic range, wherein the static device is adapted to transmit data packets in an ultrasonic range and adapted to determine data packets from the mobile device in response to the data packets from static device. The mobile device of the user is tracked by the progressive connect of static device.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION:

The present invention generally relates to a triangulation tracking system and more particularly to a system and method for tracking triangulation location of user's mobile device by a grid of static ultrasonic devices.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:

Large buildings like shopping mall, commercial tower, campus or airport use indoor tracking system to locate mobile/user device and nullify threats. Positioning in indoor environment is challenging because of several reasons including inability of mobile signals to penetrate inside the building that leading to total loss of mobile connectivity and/or call drops, attenuation of telecom RF signals/GPS due to resistance from concrete walls and other building materials. At locations wherein Wifi is available, ability to get location details within useful levels of accuracy is constrained by number of Wifi access points that can be economically provided.

Nowadays, Telco triangulation, GPS, Wifi-AP and BLE Beacon is used for indoor tracking system. In Telco triangulation, the user is required to switch on data, level of accuracy ranges more than 500m radius and primary data is acquired by telco that is highly regulated for second /third party use. In GPS, user needs to activate GPS, accuracy level of location range is 1 Km and .GPS mapping inside buildings is poor access and acquiring location data is difficult. In Wifi-AP, Wifi subscription is mandatory and provide location range in +/- 500 m. In BLE Beacon Blue tooth functionality needs to be enabled and drain's energy from the mobile device. Further, these existing tracking systems are more expensive.

Therefore, there arises a salient need for a system that overcomes the above limitations and initially, few systems have been proposed.

PCT publication number WO2011014292 to Cyriac Roeding et.al entitled "Method and system for presence detection" relates to presence detection in retail stores using a presence indicator having an ultrasonic transducer. The ultrasonic transducer transmits ultrasonic signals to an entering mobile device and receives the response from the mobile device in an ultrasonic range. An identifier transmits the data relating to the ultrasonic signals to the server.

Indian patent application number 6724/DELNP/2009 to Booij et.al entitled "Mobile object position determination" relates to a mobile object position determination system including base unit and mobile unit(s) that are able to transmit and receive ultrasonic signals. When the base unit receives the response from the mobile unit, it converts the ultrasonic signal into binary data and fed into the microcontroller.

Chinese patent document 101730852 to Edwin Booij Wilfred et.al entitled "Mobile object position determination" relates to a system for determining the position of mobile unit having base unit and mobile unit operable to transmit and receive ultrasonic waves and determining location of one or more mobile units in the interior of a building. Base unit receiving the response from the mobile unit and converts the ultrasonic signal into binary data and fed into the microcontroller

United States patent number 7417544 to Moutchkaev Artem et.al entitled "Location tracking system and method" relates to a location tracking system including a plurality of tags which receive a read signal and which output tag signals, a reader which transmits the read signal to the tags, receives the tag signals, and identifies tag IDs from the tag signals, and a data processing system which stores location information of the tags and determines the location of the reader by using the tag IDs received from the reader based on the location information.

United States patent number 8930134 to Xiaoyuan Gu et al entitled "Systems and methods for high-precision indoor positioning, navigation and shopping behavior profiling" relates to positioning system for determining the location of a portable device includes a radio network. The radio network includes radio network nodes for communicating with the portable device and measuring signal strength from the portable device. The radio network also includes a Near Field Communication node for communicating with the portable device and at least initially providing the portable device with configuration information to enable the portable device to pair with the radio network nodes. The system also includes a positioning server for receiving signal strength information from the radio network, determining a location of the portable device, providing the portable device with a graphical representation of its location within a floorplan, receiving an indication of a desired product from the portable device, determining a location of the product, calculating and providing the portable device with a route from the location of the portable device to the product. United States patent application number 20150117153 to Calvarese et.al entitled "Adaptive transmitter cluster area for ultrasonic locationing system" relates to an ultrasonic locationing of mobile communication device in an environment having plurality of fixed ultrasonic transmitters to transmit ultrasonic bursts to the mobile communication devices. Here, a location analytics engine determines location of the mobile devices.

United States patent number 8909251 and 9013960 relates to a method of detecting a location of mobile device including triangulation techniques and fixed receivers that receive ultrasonic signals from the mobile device. Chinese Patent number 204166124 entitled "Indoor Positioning System" relates to an indoor positioning system which includes three ultrasonic transmitters arranged on three corners of a room and having a mobile terminal equipped with ultrasonic receiver for calculating the distance between the transmitters. Korean patent number 101160085 to Shin Chul Min et.al entitled "System and method for tracking a position of mobile terminal" relates to a location tracing system for portable terminal including fixed nodes that receives ultrasonic signal emitted by a portable terminal.

Most system available in the prior art for securing location coordinates of a mobile device carried by an user is dependent on having access to anyone of data, wi-fi, blue tooth based beacon and GPS connectivity inside the buildings.

Overcoming the shortcomings of existing prior art, the present invention provides a system and method for locating and acquiring details of a mobile device without depending on RF telecom signals, GPS connection or Wi-fi access. The present system provides accuracy range within cms, provide availability inside in dense buildings, no overt user action is needed and furthermore is not expensive. Also, the present invention helps in addressing multi-dimensional problems associated with 'blind spots' within large buildings such as security, theft, access and connectivity.

100

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:

An object of the present invention is to avoid the need of RF telecom signals, GPS connection and Wi-Fi access to acquire the location of mobile devices in an indoor environment such as large buildings like retails, malls, hospitals etc by installing geo-spatial 105 grid of static device and thereby establishing location triangulation of mobile device.

According to the present invention, the system includes a grid of static devices, a mobile device, iBus platform/data bus, a data processing system and a cloud storage. The grid of static ultrasonic devices is geospadally installed and mapped to iBus platform client

110 buildings. The static device emits data packets in ultrasonic frequency. The mobile device entering in the range of static device, responds to the data packets in the form of audio in an ultrasonic range and is received by the static device. The onboard software in the static device parses the audio signals into binaries and forwards the data to onsite application server. The mobile device is tracked through the progressive connect with static devices. The static

115 device acts as a pseudo satellite and points of reference. The aggregated data delivered to the server is used to map the user device/mobile device movement.

These and other features will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and claims.

120

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:

The objective of the present invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

125

FIG. 1 conceptually illustrates the working of a system;

FIG. 2 illustrates the main components of the static device; and 130 FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a location tracking method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION:

Aspects of the present invention described herein, disclose a system and method for triangulation of a mobile device to acquire the location coordinates (latitude, longitude and 135 altitude) inside a building by using a grid of static devices.

The system includes a grid of static ultrasonic devices, a mobile device, an iBus/data bus platform, a data processing system and a private cloud. The grid of static ultrasonic devices are geo-spatially installed and mapped to iBus platform client buildings. The static device 140 acts as a pseudo-satellite and point of references. The static device has an on-board "catch and forward" component, which possesses the ability to send and receive data packets in the form of ultrasonic stream. The data processing system is an on-site server.

According to the present invention, referring to Fig.l and Fig.2 when the mobile device 145 enters the static device range, the static device establishes a secure socket connection with mobile/user device. The static device emits data packets and is received by user's mobile device speakers. The application component in the mobile device sends data string through ultrasonic tone in response to the received data packets from the static device. The on-board processor in the static device forwards the received data packets from the mobile/user device 150 to the data processing system through a secured Wi-fi network provisioned by iBus grid. The data processing system processes the data packets received from the static device by a set of trilateration validation location algorithms that validate and refine location data. The validated data is delivered in real time to systems private cloud.

155 The system service includes subscription services, QoS reporting, integration with application and service integration with both SSP and DSP platforms. The subscription services provides a capability to establish a subscription and authentication service, ability to implement dynamic pricing, metering and ability to implement service guarantees. The integration with application features provides ability to integrate application partners on iBus private cloud,

160 provide site level/inventory logical partitions to curate localized campaign and provide feedback & backhauling of campaign cycles. Service integration with both SSP & DSP platforms provide the ability to aggregate dynamic inventory and feed to supply side platform and the ability to deliver and supply first party 165 inventory to demand side platform.

The hyper location grid provides a highly secure shield that makes all sites accessed by subscribers as https, providing malware protection, offering encryption to passwords, credit card information etc., blocking all snoopers including ISPs and also provides carrier grade 170 and compliant data traffic off-loading

Referring to fig. l the static device includes four logical components (i.e.) application layer, business layer, abstraction layer and physical layer. The application layer serves to map the business layer into the format that each data consumer wants to consume the data. The

175 business layer i.e. IOT/machine to machine data engine serves to describe entities and service lines in a canonical way. The abstraction layer is integrated with data sources that include value added tasks such as name aliasing, value formatting and data type casting. Physical layer modulates the process of converting a signal from one form to another, so that it is physically transmitted over a communication channel. Line coding which allows data to be

180 sent by hardware devices that are optimized for digital communication.

The following are the features and functionalities of business layer/machine to machine data engine. M2M includes device information model that represents the device uniquely and with spatial coordinates; the device map would have the ability to integrate with Building 185 Information Model and follows B AC net standards.

Further M2M includes identification protocol, standard messaging protocol and connection protocol. The consistent and instance-able identification protocol is mapped to DID/URN of OEM. The standard messaging protocol is provided for passing message to and from static 190 device. The static device comprises of microcontroller/microprocessor-based controller and software combination that are designed to understand messages to and from the device.

The connection protocol abstracts through canonicalization layer adopted by static devices on iBus SOT, to establish a traffic channel with a designated base station; transmit machine-to- 195 machine data through the traffic channel, determine that the machine-to-machine device is going to show measurable changes in installed performance and transmit the status of such change through the traffic channel. The protocol is abstracted across devices, distances and multiple configurable states of devices.

200 According to the present invention, a networking method is adopted by the machine-to- machine device to establish an access channel with an active component of iBus grid, for determining that the machine-to-machine device is going to register significant change in installed performance and transmit the machine-to-machine data across the designated network.

205

The M2M includes a hub/controller device comprising a set of active components, a transceiver and a controller. The transceiver or any other active component is configured to establish a traffic channel with a base station, and transmits machine-to-machine data through the traffic channel and configured to transmit change of state information through the traffic 210 channel. The controller is configured to determine that the machine-to-machine device is going to be register significant changes in installed state.

The M2M includes a data store noSQL/RDBMS that dynamically ingests and stores. The stores have required elasticity to scale up to 250% spike of volume above the design capacity. 215 The data store is deployable on a secure cloud. A platform possesses the ability to decorate, index incoming data sets before ingestion dynamically.

Consider following two kinds of scenarios that the system supports

User case 1

220 Large commercial buildings have number of assets and number of visitors. The visitors need accurate location coordinates within the building. The building operators need information of user density within specific sections of the building.

User case 2

225 Retailers within the building need to execute targeted communication to prospects/customers through their mobile devices.

Claims

WE CLAIM: 230

1. A system to acquire triangulation location coordinates inside the building comprising a) a plurality of static devices interconnected by a data bus including a catch and forward component and an on-board processor, wherein said device is operable to emit data packets in the range of ultrasonic stream via said catch and forward component;

b) a mobile device including an application component, wherein said application component in said mobile device operable to send data packets in the form of ultrasonic stream, and

c) a data processing system.

A system according to claim 01, wherein said data processing system being an on-site

245 3. A system according to claim 01, wherein said static device is operable to receive data packets in ultrasonic stream via said catch and forward component.

4. A system according to claim 01, wherein said static device is operable to receive said data packets from said mobile device.

250

5. A system according to claim 01, wherein said on-board processor in said static device is operable to send said data packets from said mobile device to said data processing system.

255 6. A system according to claim 01, wherein said data processing system is operable to refine and validate location data.

7. A system according to claim 05, wherein said validated data is stored in real time in cloud storage. A method for triangulation of mobile device to acquire the location coordinates inside the building comprising:

a) Installing grid of static ultrasonic devices and mapping to iBus platform; b) Establishing a secure socket connection as soon as said mobile device enters in the said static ultrasonic device range;

c) Emitting data packets in an ultrasonic stream from said static device;

d) Receiving said data packets in ultrasonic stream by said mobile device speakers;

e) Sending data packets from said mobile device in response to said received data packets from said static device;

f) Receiving data packets in ultrasonic stream by said static device and forwarding to a data processing system;

g) Receiving data from said ultrasonic device to validate and refine location; and Delivering said validated data to private cloud.