Limited anchor beacon set for local location determination on portable communication devices

1 . A method enabled using a set of one or more processors, the method comprising:

obtaining location information for a sparse set of anchor beacons that are physically deployed within an environment and provide only partial wireless signal coverage of the environment, each anchor beacon associated with a fixed known location within the environment;

obtaining point data from a plurality of portable communication devices (PCDs) during operation of the PCDs, the point data indicative of a current position within the environment for each of the plurality of PCDs, wherein the point data for each PCD comprises wireless signal strength data obtained from one or more wireless access points and one or more anchor beacons;

creating an environment dataset comprising by combining the point data obtained from the plurality of PCDs with the location information for the sparse set of anchor beacons, wherein the environment dataset maps physical positions within the environment to respective wireless signal strength data at each position, and anchors the mapped physical positions to real-world coordinates derived from the fixed known locations of the sparse set of anchor beacons;

determining using the environment dataset, a spatial relationship among the one or more wireless access points relative to the fixed known locations of the sparse set of anchor beacons within the environment; and

configuring a first PCD to perform a local, on-device location determination without requiring connectivity to an external server, the local location determination comprising obtaining current wireless signal strength data from one or more wireless access points in the environment and comparing the current wireless signal strength data against the environment dataset stored on the first PCD to determine the position of the first PCD within the environment.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the sparse set of anchor beacons comprise Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the sparse set of anchor beacons associates respective ones of the point data to a known location in a map of the environment.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the map of the environment comprises fixed features that have respective relationships to one another.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a gap in the partial wireless signal coverage is filled via the point data.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein position and number of the sparse set of anchor beacons are based on a shape of the environment.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the environment is an indoor environment.

8 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:

receiving at a communication platform server the current wireless signal strength data from one or more wireless access points in the environment; and

updating the environment dataset based at least in part on the current wireless signal data.

9 . A system, comprising:

a set of one or more processors; and

a non-transitory storage device comprising code executable by the set of one or more processors, the code configurable for:

obtaining location information for a sparse set of anchor beacons that are physically deployed within the environment and provide only partial wireless signal coverage of the environment, each anchor beacon associated with a fixed known location within an environment;

obtaining point data from a plurality of portable communication devices (PCDs) during operation of the PCDs, the point data indicative of a current position within the environment for each of the plurality of PCDs, wherein the point data for each PCD comprises wireless signal strength data obtained from one or more wireless access points and one or more anchor beacons;

creating an environment dataset comprising by combining the point data obtained from the plurality of PCDs with the location information for the sparse set of anchor beacons, wherein the environment dataset maps physical positions within the environment to respective wireless signal strength data at each position, and anchors the mapped physical positions to real-world coordinates derived from the fixed known locations of the sparse set of anchor beacons;

determining using the environment dataset, a spatial relationship among the one or more wireless access points relative to the fixed known locations of the sparse set of anchor beacons within the environment; and

configuring a first PCD to perform a local, on-device location determination without requiring connectivity to an external server, the local location determination comprising obtaining current wireless signal strength data from one or more wireless access points in the environment and comparing the current wireless signal strength data against the environment dataset stored on the first PCD to determine the position of the first PCD within the environment.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the sparse set of anchor beacons comprises Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons.

11 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the sparse set of anchor beacons associates respective ones of the point data to a known location in a map of the environment.

12 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the map of the environment comprises fixed features that have respective relationships to one another.

13 . The system of claim 9 , wherein a gap in the partial wireless signal coverage is filled via the point data.

14 . The system of claim 9 , wherein position and number of the sparse set of anchor beacons are based on a shape of the environment.

15 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the environment is an indoor environment.

16 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the code executable by the set of one or more processors is configurable for:

receiving at a communication platform server the current wireless signal strength data from one or more wireless access points in the environment; and

updating the environment dataset based at least in part on the current wireless signal data.

17 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the configuring comprises providing the environment dataset to the first PCD.

18 . A computer program product, comprising:

a non-transitory storage device comprising code executable by a set of one or more processors, the code configurable for:

obtaining location information for a sparse set of anchor beacons that are physically deployed within the environment and provide only partial wireless signal coverage of the environment, each anchor beacon associated with a fixed known location within an environment;

obtaining point data from a plurality of portable communication devices (PCDs) during operation of the PCDs, the point data indicative of a current position within the environment for each of the plurality of PCDs, wherein the point data for each PCD comprises wireless signal strength data obtained from one or more wireless access points and one or more anchor beacons;

creating an environment dataset comprising by combining the point data obtained from the plurality of PCDs with the location information for the sparse set of anchor beacons, wherein the environment dataset maps physical positions within the environment to respective wireless signal strength data at each position, and anchors the mapped physical positions to real-world coordinates derived from the fixed known locations of the sparse set of anchor beacons;

determining using the environment dataset, a spatial relationship among the one or more wireless access points relative to the fixed known locations of the sparse set of anchor beacons within the environment; and

configuring a first PCD to perform a local, on-device location determination without requiring connectivity to an external server, the local location determination comprising obtaining current wireless signal strength data from one or more wireless access points in the environment and comparing the current wireless signal strength data against the environment dataset stored on the first PCD to determine the position of the first PCD within the environment.