| US 7,602,338 B2 | ||
| Wireless position location and tracking system | ||
| Derek M. Smith, San Diego, Calif. (US); James D. Adams, San Diego, Calif. (US); Nicolas C Nierenberg, La Jolla, Calif. (US); and Joseph C. Baker, Encinitas, Calif. (US) | ||
| Assigned to Awarepoint Corporation, San Diego, Calif. (US) | ||
| Filed on Oct. 27, 2007, as Appl. No. 11/925,822. | ||
| Application 11/925822 is a division of application No. 10/968814, filed on Oct. 18, 2004, granted, now 7,312,752. | ||
| Claims priority of provisional application 60/513784, filed on Oct. 22, 2003. | ||
| Claims priority of provisional application 60/528052, filed on Dec. 09, 2003. | ||
| Claims priority of provisional application 60/572690, filed on May 19, 2004. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2008/0042901 A1, Feb. 21, 2008 | ||
| Int. Cl. G01S 3/02 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 342—451 [342/463] | 7 Claims |
| 1. An apparatus for locating and tracking at least one mobile object within an indoor facility, the indoor facility including
a plurality of beacon emitters positioned therein, a plurality of removable network monitors, and a tag associated with the
at least one mobile object, each beacon emitter generating a radiofrequency signal, each network monitors attached to a wall
outlet at a known location of the indoor facility and generating a first plurality of measurements comprising data including
signal strength from each of the plurality of beacon emitters received by at least one of the removable network monitors,
the tag generating a second plurality of measurements comprising data including signal strength from each of the plurality
of beacon emitters received by the tag, the apparatus comprising:
a database storing a mapped space of the indoor facility, wherein the mapped space comprises a function and one or more parameters,
the function returning a location estimate in response to one or more measurements and the one or more parameters, the parameters
being adjusted in response to the first plurality of measurements, wherein the function is selected from a Kalman filter,
a Bayesian filter or a neural network;
a memory for storing known location information for each of the plurality of removable network monitors;
a receiver for receiving the first plurality of measurements from one or more network monitors and the second plurality of
measurements from the tag associated with the at least one mobile object; and
a processor for updating the mapped space in response to the received first plurality of measurements, the processor updating
the mapped space by:
computing a location estimate of a removable network monitor in accordance with the respective first plurality of measurements
and the mapped space;
comparing the location estimate with the respective known location information for the removable network monitor to generate
a location error estimate; and adjusting one or more parameters in accordance with the location error estimate,
wherein the processor generates an object position location estimate for the object from the received second plurality of
measurements and the mapped space and wherein the processor generates a removable network monitor position location estimate
for the plurality of removable network monitors in response to the first plurality of measurements and generates one or more
error estimates for the plurality of removable network monitors, each error estimate generated in accordance with a difference
between the known location information and generated network monitor position location for the respective removable network
monitor.
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