Location-based healthcare collaboration, data management and access control
The locations of electronic devices in an institutional facility are determined based on interaction with the wireless mobile devices of users who roam though the facility and interact with (or are detected by) the devices.
1. A method of establishing a location of a device in an institutional space having a physical layout including walkable paths and obstructions, the method comprising the steps of:
at a first node having an unknown location, registering a proximity event of a user having an unknown location;
subsequently registering a proximity event of the user at a second node physically displaced from the first node; and
computationally inferring a location of the first node based on an elapsed time between the proximity events of the user at the first and second nodes, and at least one of (i) the physical layout or (ii) time-separated detections of users at the first and second nodes and other nodes.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the location is inferred based on a plurality of first elapsed times each between proximity events of at least one user at the first node and at the second node, a plurality of second elapsed times each between proximity detections of at least one user at the first node and at a third node, and a plurality of third elapsed times each between proximity detections of at least one user at the second node and at a fourth node.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein, for each of the pluralities of elapsed times, a distance between the corresponding nodes is estimated based on a minimum of the elapsed times.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein, for each of the pluralities of elapsed times, a distance between the corresponding nodes is estimated based on a plurality of substantially equal elapsed times.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the proximity events comprise wireless communication between a node and a fitness device worn by the user.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein computationally inferring a location of the first node comprises downloading data from the fitness device, the data including a recent average walking speed of the user.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein computationally inferring a location of the first node further comprises determining, from the downloaded data, when the user began walking from the first node to the second node, when the user arrived at the second node, and whether the user followed an uninterrupted path therebetween.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the proximity event at the first node is the user's departure therefrom and the proximity event at the second node is the user's arrival thereat.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the time when the user departs from the first node is established by a last recorded user interaction with the first node.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the time when the user arrives at the second node is established by detection of the user's proximity to the second node.
11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the time when the user arrives at the second node is established by detection of the user's initial interaction with the second node.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the proximity events comprise detecting a received signal strength of a wireless device of the user.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the received signal strength is used to determine a departure of the user from the first node and an arrival of the user at the second node.
14. The method of claim 1 , wherein absolute spatial locations of the nodes are inferred.
15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second node has a known location.
16. The method of claim 2 , wherein none of the nodes has a known location.
17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the inferring step comprises optimizing a fit among estimated distances between pairs of nodes and constraining the locations based on the physical layout.
18. A system for inferring locations of devices in an institutional space having a physical layout including walkable paths and obstructions, the system comprising:
a plurality of nodes, wherein at least some of the nodes have unknown locations;
a plurality of wireless user devices; and
a location server including a location database, wherein:
(a) each of the nodes comprises a wireless interface for interaction with a wireless mobile device of a user, a processor, and a computer memory storing agent instructions for execution by the processor, the agent instructions, when executed, causing the node to register proximity events of users and report the events to the location server, and
(b) the location server is configured to receive proximity events of the nodes and, based thereon and on and at least one of (i) the physical layout or (ii) time-separated detections of users at a plurality of the nodes, to computationally infer locations of at least some of the nodes.
19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the location is inferred based on a plurality of first elapsed times each between proximity events of at least one user at a first node and at a second node, a plurality of second elapsed times each between proximity detections of at least one user at the first node and at a third node, and a plurality of third elapsed times each between proximity detections of at least one user at the second node and at a fourth node.
20. The system of claim 18 , wherein, for each of the pluralities of elapsed times, the location server is configured to estimate a distance between the corresponding nodes based on a minimum of the elapsed times.
21. The system of claim 18 , wherein, for each of the pluralities of elapsed times, the location server is configured to estimate a distance between the corresponding nodes based on a plurality of substantially equal elapsed times.
22. The system of claim 18 , wherein the proximity events comprise wireless communication between a node and a fitness device worn by the user.
23. The system of claim 22 , wherein the nodes are configured to download data from the fitness device, the data including a recent average walking speed of the user.
24. The system of claim 23 , wherein the location server is configured to determine, from the downloaded data, when a user began walking from a first node to a second node, when the user arrived at the second node, and whether the user followed an uninterrupted path therebetween.
25. The system of claim 18 , wherein proximity events are user departures from a node and arrivals at another node.
26. The system of claim 25 , wherein the time when the user departs from a first node is established by a last recorded user interaction with the first node.
27. The system of claim 26 , wherein the time when the user arrives at a second node is established by detection of the user's proximity to the second node.
28. The system of claim 26 , wherein the time when the user arrives at the second node is established by detection of the user's initial interaction with the second node.
29. The system of claim 18 , wherein the proximity events comprise detection, by the wireless interfaces of the nodes, of a received signal strength of a wireless device of a user.
30. The system of claim 29 , wherein the location server is configured to use the received signal strength to determine a departure of the user from a first node and an arrival of the user at a second node.
31. The system of claim 18 , wherein the location server is configured to infer absolute spatial locations of the nodes.
32. The system of claim 18 , wherein the location server is configured to optimize a fit among estimated distances between pairs of nodes and constrain the locations based on the physical layout.