Location aware services infrastructure
View Patent ↗Entity identity information and location identity information are sensed and made available to subscriber applications through a secure location-aware services infrastructure, thereby allowing for the creation of location-based services. Information detected by a sensor is passed to an interface aggregator for conversion to a standardized format and then forwarded to location registers for the domain of the sensors. Subscriber applications query the registers to determine which entities are in a particular location and to determine the location of entities. By unifying diverse sensing technologies, location information can be simultaneously obtained on varying degrees of granularity. In addition, the system is scalable to large scenarios by using a plurality of sensors, interface aggregators, and registers.
1. A system for automatically advising a subscriber application of changes with respect to the identity of at least one or more entities or a location in which an entity is located, each entity having a unique tag identifier, said system comprising
a plurality of beacon transmitters, each transmitting an identifier of the region of the beacon transmitter, said entity tags monitoring for beacon identifiers broadcast by the beacon transmitters,
a base station for receiving from an entity both its identity and the identity of the broadcast beacon identifier,
an entity identity register which specifies the locations of entities, and
a location identity register which specifies the entities within a particular location,
each of said registers containing criteria predetermined by a subscriber application as to the change of conditions with respect to an entity or a location which is to be brought to the attention of the subscriber application, said registers notifying the subscriber application when changes of an entity or location meet said criteria.
2. The system in accordance with claim 1 further comprising a network interconnecting said registers and said subscriber application and an interface aggregator connected to said network, said interface aggregator translating said identifiers of the region of a beacon transmitter and of an entity tag in that region to standardized entity tag and location identifiers for transmission to a register.
3. The system in accordance with claim 2 further comprising a server connected to said network with which said aggregator can communicate to determine the network address of the subscriber application whose predetermined criteria has been met by the change in condition with respect to an entity or a location.
4. The method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising the step of translating said identifiers of a beacon and of an entity from the base station into standard format for transmission to a register.
5. A method for automatically advising a subscriber application of changes with respect to the identity of an entity or a location in which an entity is located, each entity having a unique tag identifier, said method comprising the steps of:
periodically transmitting from a beacon an identifier of the region of the beacon,
receiving at a base station from an entity in response to a periodic transmission both the identity of the entity and the identification of the transmitting beacon;
receiving from the base station at an entity identity register and a location identity register the identity of the entity and the identification of the transmitting beacon, said registers containing criteria predetermined by the subscriber application as to the changes of conditions with respect to an entity or a location which are to be brought to the attention of the subscriber application, and
providing to the subscriber application information as to a change in condition of either an entity or a location if such change of the entity or location meets said criteria.