Granted Patent B2

US 9,641,973 · App. 14/565,377 · Granted May 2, 2017

Inventors: Thandapani Venkataramani (Fremont, CA); Xing Zhao (Santa Clara, CA); Xin Zhang (Shanghai, CN); Zhike Jia (Fremont, CA)

Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.

H04W4/023H04L49/109H04W40/005H04W52/0206

Abstract

Claims (51)

1. A data processing apparatus comprising:

one or more integrated circuit (IC) devices including a location processor configured to acquire and track measurements of location for a mobile wireless communication device; and

a host processor programmed with a host software manager configured to obtain various positioning input signals from different device positioning technologies and assemble a selected set of the various positioning input signals into a unified format;

wherein the data processing apparatus includes a hybrid fusion engine configured to receive data from the host software manager in the unified format and calculate a position of the mobile wireless communication device using the received data in accordance with input type information for the received data;

wherein the host software manager is further configured to manage a location database for wireless positioning and map aiding information used with the position calculation;

wherein the location database comprises a virtual database distributed between a first database local to the mobile wireless communication device and one or more second databases accessible over a network, wherein the host software manager maintains data relevant to the calculated position in the first database; and

wherein the host software manager controls selection and indexing of map data based on global coordinates from a satellite navigation receiver, including caching map data in the first database.

2. The data processing apparatus of claim 1 , comprising the different device positioning technologies, which comprise:

a satellite navigation receiver;

a first range wireless transceiver;

a second range wireless transceiver; and

one or more sensors.

3. The data processing apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the one or more sensors comprise:

a motion sensor;

an environment sensor; and

an optical sensor.

4. The data processing apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the host processor is an application processor programmed to run the hybrid fusion engine.

5. The data processing apparatus of claim 2 , comprising a measurement aggregator between the different device positioning technologies and the host software manager.

6. The data processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the host software manager is further configured to trigger the different device positioning technologies based on location context information.

7. The data processing apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the location context information comes from multi-context detection based on user activity, dynamics and environment, and the host software manager is configured to trigger the different device positioning technologies to reduce power consumption while meeting a desired quality of positioning.

8. A data processing apparatus comprising:

one or more integrated circuit (IC) devices including a location processor configured to acquire and track measurements of location for a mobile wireless communication device; and

a host processor programmed with a host software manager configured to obtain various positioning input signals from different device positioning technologies and assemble a selected set of the various positioning input signals into a unified format;

wherein the data processing apparatus includes a hybrid fusion engine configured to receive data from the host software manager in the unified format and calculate a position of the mobile wireless communication device using the received data in accordance with input type information for the received data;

wherein the host software manager is further configured to manage a location database for wireless positioning and map aiding information used with the position calculation; and

wherein the host software manager comprises:

a middleware interface configured to communicate with a selected host middleware;

an assistance interface configured to trigger AGNSS (Assisted Global Navigation Satellite System), predicted ephemeris, sensors, and wireless assistance procedures;

a data interface through which the location database is managed;

a power management module configured to provide context aware device management; and

core logic configured to operate the middleware interface, the assistance interface, the data interface, and the power management module.

9. The data processing apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the location database comprises a virtual database distributed between a first database local to the mobile wireless communication device and one or more second databases accessible over a network, wherein the host software manager maintains data relevant to the calculated position in the first database.

10. The data processing apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the host software manager controls selection and indexing of map data based on global coordinates from a satellite navigation receiver, including caching map data in the first database.

11. A method comprising:

obtaining various positioning input signals from different device positioning technologies and an IC-based location processor configured to acquire and track measurements of location for a mobile wireless communication device;

triggering the different device positioning technologies based on location context information;

assembling a selected set of the various positioning input signals into a unified format;

sending assembled data in the unified format to a fusion engine configured to calculate a position of the mobile wireless communication device using the assembled data in accordance with input type information for the assembled data;

receiving calculated position information from the fusion engine; and

outputting the calculated position information for use by the mobile wireless communication device;

wherein the location context information comes from multi-context detection based on user activity, dynamics and environment, and the triggering comprises triggering the different device positioning technologies to reduce power consumption while meeting a desired quality of positioning.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the obtaining comprises:

receiving a position input signal from a satellite navigation receiver;

receiving a position input signal from a first range wireless transceiver;

receiving a position input signal from a second range wireless transceiver; and

receiving a position input signal from one or more sensors, including a motion sensor.

13. The method of claim 11 , comprising providing location measurement aiding feedback to the IC-based location processor based on the calculated position information.

14. The method of claim 11 , comprising managing a location database for wireless positioning and map aiding information used with the position calculation.

15. The method claim 14 , wherein the location database comprises a virtual database distributed between a first database local to the mobile wireless communication device and one or more second databases accessible over a network, the method comprising maintaining data relevant to the calculated position in the first database.

16. The method of claim 15 , comprising caching map data in the first database based on global coordinates from a satellite navigation receiver of the mobile wireless communication device.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the triggering comprises sending wakeup and sleep signals to different ones of the different device positioning technologies based on the location context information.

Assignments (9)

Continuity (2)