A technique for estimating the location of a wireless terminal at an unknown location in a geographic region. The technique is based on a two-part recognition, the first part being that a transient in atmospheric pressure attributed to a particular source, such as an entry door of a building opening and closing, is detectable in some environments while not being present in others. The second part of the recognition is that a correlation exists between i) the presence of a transient in the characterization of a pressure wave in the vicinity of a wireless terminal and ii) whether the wireless terminal is indoors or not. Transients in pressure waves are often present indoors but not outdoors. By accounting for the transients being detected or not being detected in the vicinity of the wireless terminal, the disclosed technique is able to estimate whether the wireless terminal is indoors.

Estimating a position of a mobile device. Particular systems and methods for estimating a position of a mobile device using information from two positioning technologies determine different position estimates for the mobile device using different positioning technologies, and determine a final position estimate for the mobile device using a weighted combination of the different position estimates. In some implementations, the weighted combination is a weighted average or a weighted median of the different position estimates. Weights may be determined using respective uncertainty metrics corresponding to the respective position estimates.

An environment estimation device 1 includes: an information storage unit 11 configured to store base station information in which a serving timing at which a mobile terminal 2 is served in a radio communication range of a base station 3 and environment information indicating an environment of the base station 3 are correlated; an information acquiring unit 10 configured to acquire position information including position data of the mobile terminal 2 acquired by positioning and a positioning timing; and an estimation unit 13 configured to estimate, based on the positioning timing included in the position information of the mobile terminal 2 acquired by the information acquiring unit 10 and the base station information stored in the information storage unit 11, an environment of the mobile terminal 2 at a position indicated by the position data included in the position information.

Calibrating a pressure sensor of a mobile device includes determining a first plurality of calibration values for a first plurality of visits to a first revisit zone to which a mobile device repeatedly returns; determining a first relative calibration adjustment value based on the first plurality of calibration values; determining an adjusted absolute calibration value based on i) an absolute calibration value used to calibrate pressure measurements made by a pressure sensor of the mobile device, and ii) the first relative calibration adjustment value; and calibrating pressure measurements made by the pressure sensor of the mobile device using the adjusted absolute calibration value.

A position determination system includes a microcomputer configured to: control operations of multiple outdoor units and an indoor unit; determine whether a portable device is present inside a vehicle interior or in an outdoor operation area; acquire a reception strength of a signal from the portable device in each indoor and outdoor units, acquire a time of flight (ToF) correlation value as a parameter different from the reception strength, change a type of the parameter used for position determination corresponding to an area for which the position determination is to be performed; determine whether the portable device is present inside the vehicle interior based on the reception strength observed in each outdoor unit and indoor unit, determine whether the portable device is present in the outdoor operation area based on the ToF correlation value.

A method of operating a communications device to maintain a position fix of the communications device includes obtaining a position fix using a position determination capability of the device, such as a global positioning system capability. The method further includes emitting a first acoustic signal, and recording a baseline acoustic signature in response to the emission of the first acoustic signal. The method further includes emitting an additional acoustic signal and recording an additional acoustic signature resulting from the emission of the additional acoustic signal, comparing the baseline acoustic signature with the additional acoustic signature, and estimating, based at least in part on the comparison of the baseline and additional acoustic signatures, whether the communications device has moved between the recordings of the baseline and additional acoustic signatures.

A mobile computer may determine it is located in a vehicle or a conveyance based on a measured distance, satellite related positioning information, and a touch input.

Biometric monitoring devices, including various technologies that may be implemented in such devices, are discussed herein. Additionally, techniques, systems, and apparatuses are discussed herein for providing power-conserving techniques and systems for efficiently utilizing a GPS receiver are described. The positional fix frequency of the GPS receiver may, according to some implementations, be modified or adjusted between various levels according to data from one or more non-GPS sensors. Such non-GPS sensors may include, for example, ambient light intensity or spectrum sensors, accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, heart rate sensors, galvanic skin response sensors, infrared sensors, etc.

Techniques described herein may be used to locate a user device within a wireless network. A first user device may send, to a location server, a request to locate a second user device. The location server may determine a general location of the second user device based on a wireless network service, a Global Positioning System (GPS) service, etc. The location server may collect sensor information (e.g., Radio Frequency (RF) signal strength, temperature, pressure, etc.) from the first user device and/or the second user device. The location server may analyze, compare, and otherwise process the sensor information to generate and send, to the first user device, instructions for locating the second user device.

In an embodiment, a user equipment (UE) tracks its location using a first positioning scheme (PS) (e.g., an indoor PS or outdoor PS) while operating inside or outside of an enclosed environment, whereby the UE maintains transition region information related to the enclosed environment that characterizes one or more outdoor-to-indoor (OI) and/or indoor-to-outdoor (IO) transition regions of the enclosed environment. If the UE determines it has entered a transition region of the enclosed environment based on its location tracking using the first PS, the UE begins to track its location using a second PS. When the quality of the second PS rises above a threshold (e.g., such as the UE moves further inside or outside of the enclosed environment), the UE can switch to the second PS and turn off the first PS.