In some examples, a plurality of instances of position data and associated accuracy metadata are acquired by a position sensor. A position of a device comprising the position sensor is determined based on combining the plurality of instances of the position data and the associated accuracy metadata.

An apparatus may include an interval timer; a power control; a subscriber identity module (SIM); an SMS packetizer; a geo-locator; an RF communicator; and logic to operate the interval timer cooperatively with the power control to cause a transition of the geo-locator from a sleep state to a wake state after a defined time interval, and to operate the geo-locator to receive signal levels and cell ids from a group of cellular base stations.

The inventive concepts provides indoor positioning capabilities and door monitoring to facilities including but not limiting to day care providers and elderly care facilities in order for them to be able to quickly position someone inside the building as well as to be forewarned when they are going somewhere they shouldn't be i.e. near an exit way. The system also offers two way communications to the staff in the facility when a management server is implemented.

In some implementations, a first mobile device may communicate with a plurality of mobile devices to form a positioning group, where the communicating comprises exchanging positioning capability information with the plurality of mobile devices, and where the positioning group comprises: a leader device configured to determine an initial position estimate, a validator device configured to determine a validated position estimate, and one or more other devices different than the leader device and the validator device. The first mobile device may send an estimated position of the first mobile device to a monitoring device, where the estimated position of the first mobile device is based at least in part on the initial position estimate, the validated position estimate, or both.

A method of determining a location of a measurement device includes determining, at a server: measurement times of first positioning signal measurements, of first positioning signals from first positioning signal sources and/or a subset of positioning signal sources of second positioning signal sources. The method includes sending at least one measurement command from the server to the measurement device to cause the measurement device to obtain the first positioning signal measurements in accordance with the measurement times and/or obtain second positioning signal measurements of second positioning signals sent from the subset of positioning signal sources. The method includes: receiving, at the server from the measurement device, measurement data corresponding to the first positioning signal measurements and/or the second positioning signal measurements; and determining, at the server, the location of the measurement device based on the measurement data.

In some examples, a system receives, over a network, position data acquired by a position sensor of a device, and sensor data acquired by a further sensor of the device while the position sensor of the device is inactive, the sensor data from the further sensor indicating a direction of travel of the device. The system determines, using the sensor data acquired by the further sensor of the device, a heading and movement of the device relative to a position indicated by the position data, and updates a position of the device according to the determined heading and movement.

A method of controlling a device that includes a receiver and a movement sensor includes (a) deactivating the receiver; (b) while the receiver is deactivated, analyzing measurements from the movement sensor to determine a measure of the distance the device has moved from a first location; and (c) in the event that it is determined from the measurements from the movement sensor that the device has moved from the first location by more than a threshold distance, activating the receiver and using the receiver to obtain a second measurement of the location of the device.

Disclosed are systems, methods and devices for obtaining round trip time measurements for use in location based services. In particular implementations, a fine timing measurement request message wirelessly transmitted by a first transceiver device to a second transceiver device may permit additional processing features in computing or applying a signal round trip time measurement. Such a signal round trip time measurement may be used in positioning operations.

A method is described of using the mobile device so as to control the drain of power from the power source of the mobile device, the mobile device having at least two location determination techniques having respective power drain characteristics, the method includes selecting the location determination technique having a lower power drain characteristic the greater the determined distance of the mobile device from a predetermined location or area, and selecting the location determination technique having the greater power drain characteristic the smaller the determined distance of the mobile device from a predetermined location or area. The method thus uses the least accurate technique when furthest away and the most accurate technique when closer to a predetermined location or area.

A mobile device may be configured to build a power mode database for positioning based on the mobile device's location and associate power mode information, including the operating mode that is requested for positioning and the operating mode that is used for positioning at the location. Additional factors may be associated with the location including contextual information, such as user context, environmental context, and temporal context. The power mode database may be a local database on the mobile device or a remote database, such as a crowdsourced database, accessible via a server. The mobile device may access the power mode database based on a current location and requested operating mode, as well as contextual information, to obtain the actual operating mode to be used for positioning at the location.