Apple Inc.

Glenn Donald MacGougan

Robert William Mayor

Ronald Keryuan Huang

Kumar Gaurav Chhokra

Lukas Michael Marti

Stephen J Rhee

Yefim Grosman

Jason Dere

Isaac Thomas Miller

Pejman Lotfali Kazemi

Jay N Bruins

Dawei Zhang

Tarik Tabet

Syed Aon Mujtaba

Farouk Belghoul

William J Bencze

Changlin Ma

Xiao Xiao

Laurent Charignon

Madhusudan Chaudhary

Xiaoyuan Tu

Christopher D Moore

Augustin Prats

Joseph Hakim

Sachin J Sane

Joshua G Nickel

Richard B Warren

William Jean Noellert

Aditya Narain Srivastava

Harsha Shirahatti

Lei Wang

Hyojoon Bae

Bradley Joel Jensen

Ozgur Ekici

Christina Selle

Jay L Prunty

Tusi Chowdhury

Embodiments described herein provide for a system, a non-transitory machine-readable medium, and methods to provide location services. In an embodiment, a method provides receiving at least one indication that an electronic device is in transit to at least one defined location, establishing a first fence boundary for the at least one defined location, receiving an indication that the electronic device has crossed the first fence boundary and is in transit to a defined location, and establishing a second fence for the defined location, where the second fence provides a finer granularity fence for the defined location than the first fence.

Proactive provision of positioning information based on user context

This disclosure is directed to shared antenna tuning. An electronic device may receive a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) tune request to tune a shared antenna to a GNSS signal frequency. The electronic device may then tune the antenna to the GNSS signal frequency and enable a GNSS receiver. The electronic device may also receive a cellular tune request to tune the antenna to a cellular frequency. The electronic device may tune the antenna to a cellular frequency and may deactivate the GNSS receiver or blank the GNSS receiver. In some embodiments, the electronic device may also communicate with a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite. During LEO satellite communication, the electronic device may transmit a signal to blank a GNSS L1 receiver to avoid signal interference with the LEO satellite communication, and activate a GNSS L5 receiver to receive GNSS signals.

Systems and methods for shared antenna tuning

Methods and apparatuses to assist a global positioning system (GPS) module to determine GPS position estimates for a wireless communication device is disclosed. Processing circuitry in the wireless communication device determines a potential or an actual inaccuracy in a GPS position estimate obtained from a GPS module. The processing circuitry obtains a set of map vector data stored in or associated with the wireless communication device. The processing circuitry determines a location estimate of the wireless communication device based on at least a portion of the set of map vector data. The processing circuitry provides the location estimate to the GPS module and obtains an updated GPS position estimate from the GPS module, the updated GPS position estimate based at least in part on the location estimate provided to the GPS module.

Fast GPS recovery using map vector data

Techniques for location source control for paired devices are described. Location source control selects a location source for a mobile device. The mobile device can receive, from an application program, a request for determining a location of the mobile device. The mobile device can determine a first location estimate using a location subsystem of the mobile device. The mobile device can determine whether to provide the first location estimate as input to the application program, or to provide a second location estimate as input to the application program. The second location estimate can be an estimated location of the companion device and determined by the companion device.

Location source control

Among other things, we describe a method that includes, on an electronic device, determining that a current quality metric of signals received by a location system of the electronic device does not meet a threshold quality metric, and based on the determination, selecting a recommendation for changing a position of the device in a manner that would alter the current quality metric. This aspect can also include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer program products stored on a storage device.

Determining location system signal quality

The disclosed embodiments use 3D city models and shadow mapping to improve altitude fixes in urban environments. In an embodiment, a method comprises: generating a set of three-dimensional (3D) candidate positions in a geographic area of interest; predicting global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signal visibility at selected ones of the 3D candidate positions; receiving GNSS signals at a current location of the mobile device; determining observed satellite visibility based on the received GNSS signals; comparing the predicted satellite visibility with the observed satellite visibility; determining a position fix based on a result of the comparing; determining an indoor environment where the mobile device is located based at least on an altitude component of the position fix; obtaining structural data for the identified indoor environment; and determining a floor lower bound for the current location of the mobile device based on the altitude component and the structural data.

Three-dimensional city models and shadow mapping to improve altitude fixes in urban environments

A navigation application that provides a dynamic set of warnings based on a set of collected and calculated data. The navigation application collects a series of data and identifies a set of critical points along the route. The navigation application analyzes the collected data to determine whether to provide a navigation warning to the user. The navigation application uses the collected data to determine whether a navigation instruction for the critical point should be modified to account for different driving conditions. Finally, the navigation application of some embodiments determines a timing for when a navigation instruction should be provided to the user, ensuring that the instruction is presented to the user with sufficient time to safely adjust their behavior.

Method and apparatus for providing dynamic warnings for navigations

Systems, methods and computer-readable mediums are disclosed for rapid reconfiguration of device location systems. In some implementations, a method comprises: determining, by a server computer, a fault in global location data, the server computer configured to periodically communicate with client devices over a network, the global location data being applicable to multiple client devices and independent of any particular location of any particular client device; determining, by the server computer, a potential impact of the faulty global location data on location systems implemented on the client devices; generating, by the server computer, a reconfiguration file including reconfiguration data for reconfiguring the location systems on the client devices to adapt to the faulty global location data; and automatically sending, by the server computer, the reconfiguration file to the client devices.

Rapid reconfiguration of device location system

The disclosed embodiments are directed to detecting a user activity based on patterns in location data. In an embodiment, a method comprises: obtaining, by a processor of a computing device, location data; detecting, by the processor, a pattern in the location data; determining, by the processor and based on the detected pattern, an activity associated with a mobile device; and adjusting, by the processor, one or more parameters of a location data filter configured to process the location data.

Detecting user activity based on location data

In general, in one aspect, a method includes receiving, on a mobile device, an indication that an application executing on the mobile device has entered a background state, determining, based on data received from a location system of the mobile device, that the mobile device has remained within a geographic area during a time interval, the geographic area being defined by a radius determined according to an application type of the application, and disabling at least a portion of the location system of the mobile device.

Operating geographic location systesm

An electronic device may include a pressure sensor for measuring barometric pressure. Pressure measurements may be calibrated using crowd-sourced pressure data to remove any weather bias or sensor bias associated with the pressure measurements. Altitude of the electronic device may be determined using the calibrated pressure measurement. When it is desired to estimate altitude, the electronic device may transmit a query to a server, which returns a local reference pressure value for the electronic device based on crowd-sourced pressure data from electronic devices in the vicinity of the electronic device making the query. To determine the local reference pressure value, the server may correlate the crowd-sourced pressure data with space, taking into account variations in terrain using digital elevation models to determine location-specific reference pressures. The local reference pressure value for a given electronic device is then determined using crowd-sourced reference pressures at nearby locations.

Altitude estimation using crowd-sourced pressure sensor data

Systems, methods and non-transitory, computer-readable storage mediums are disclosed for a multimode GNSS odometer. In some implementations, a method comprises: obtaining, by a device, position and velocity data from a sensor embedded in, or coupled to the device; statistically combining, by the device, the position and velocity data to generate a first delta distance travelled by the device over a period of time, the statistical combining including weighting a contribution of an integrated speed to the first delta distance, the integrated speed derived from the obtained velocity data and period of time; filtering, by the device, the first delta distance to generate a filtered first delta distance; and generating, by the device, a first estimate of total distance travelled by the device based on the filtered first delta distance.

Multimode pedestrian odometer

Methods, systems and computer program products for radionavigation for swimmers are described. A mobile device configured to estimate a location using radio frequency signals can estimate a position of the swimmer when the mobile device is worn on a limb of the swimmer and periodically submerged. The mobile device can supply auxiliary information to a radionavigation subsystem to correct a navigation solution affected by limb motion of the swimmer and affected by the periodic submersion of the mobile device.

Radionavigation for swimmers

Systems, methods, devices and computer-readable storage mediums are disclosed for assisted GNSS velocity estimation. In an implementation, a method comprises: obtaining, by a mobile device, a step-based speed measurement based on sensor data; obtaining, by the mobile device, a step-based speed uncertainty associated with the step-based speed measurement; determining, by the mobile device, that one or more assistance conditions are met; responsive to the determining, assisting a state estimator using the step-based speed measurement and the associated step-based speed uncertainty; and estimating at least one of the position, velocity or speed of the mobile device using the assisted state estimator.

Assisted GNSS velocity estimation

System and method for submitting a location of a mobile device to a public service for providing emergency assistance are described. A mobile device can determine that a user is making an emergency call from the mobile device. The mobile device can then enable a location determination function of the mobile device and determine a location of the mobile device. The mobile device can determine the location in multiple attempts, including, in a first time window, attempting to determine a location with low uncertainty and, if the attempt fails, determining a location with high uncertainty in a second time window. The mobile device can then submit the location to a dispatcher through a mobile network operator.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Glenn Donald MacGougan