The invention provides a method and system for tracking a position of one or more Wi-Fi devices of a plurality of Wi-Fi devices. For tracking the position of the one or more Wi-Fi devices, a Triggering Router triggers the one or more Wi-Fi devices to transmit one of a broadcast probe and a directed probe through broadcasting hidden SSID networks and common SSIDs that increase a probing tendency of the one or more Wi-Fi devices. The plurality of Wi-Fi sniffers, then, collect measurement data associated with the one or more Wi-Fi devices in response to detecting the broadcast probe transmission and the directed probe transmission. Thereafter, the position of the one or more Wi-Fi devices is estimated using an adaptive machine learning model based on an indoor model whose parameters are tuned based on radio frequency (RF) measurements from the plurality of Wi-Fi devices and the measurement data.

A method of identifying a position of a user equipment within a wireless communication network includes: a) providing expected radio signal strengths produced by at least one radio communication station on each of plural elementary area elements in which a geographic area is subdivided; b) defining an initial attenuation experienced by the radio signals to the user equipment whose position is to be identified; c) obtaining measured radio signal strength measurements of the radio signals provided to the user equipment whose position is to be identified; d) determining an estimated elementary area element corresponding to the position of the user equipment whose position is to be identified based on the expected radio signal strengths, the initial attenuation and the radio signal strength measurements, and e) computing a final attenuation based on the estimated elementary area element. The operations b)-e) are iterated at least twice.

A wireless receiver receives location pilots embedded in received symbols and uses the location pilots to detect the first path for every base station the network has designated for the receiver to use in time of arrival estimation. The receiver preferably applies matching pursuit strategies to offer a robust and reliable identification of a channel impulse response's first path. The receiver may also receive and use estimation pilots as a supplement to the location pilot information in determining time of arrival. The receiver can use metrics characteristic of the channel to improve the robustness and reliability of the identification of a CIR's first path. With the first path identified, the receiver measures the time of arrival for signals from that path and the receiver determines the observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) to respond to network requests for OTDOA and position determination measurements.

A positioning system uses radio wave strengths of radio waves received from first and second wireless transmission terminals movable through an indoor space to locate positions of the terminals. The positioning system includes plural wireless receivers disposed in the indoor space, and a position estimating component that estimates the positions of the terminals based on positions of the receivers using first and second position estimation data in a limited range of the reception data generatable by the receivers. The receivers detect the radio wave strengths and can generate reception data including information relating to the radio wave strengths. At least one of the position estimating component and the receivers acquires the first and second position estimation data limited to first and second set regions suited to the first and second wireless transmission terminals from the reception data receivable relating to the first and second wireless transmission terminals, respectively.

A networked radio frequency identification system includes a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) tag readers, a computer in signal communication with the RFID tag readers over a network, and a software module for storage on and operable by the computer that localizes RFID tags based on information received from the RFID tag readers using a network model having endpoints and oriented links. In an additional example, at least one of the RFID tag readers includes an adjustable configuration setting selected from RF signal strength, antenna gain, antenna polarization, and antenna orientation. In a further aspect, the system localizes RFID tags based on hierarchical threshold limit calculations. In an additional aspect, the system controls a locking device associated with an access point based on localization of an authorized RFID tag at the access point and reception of additional authorizing information from an input device.

The embodiments relate to an apparatus and a method, where the apparatus includes circuitry configured for listening and receiving a positioning measurement request from a location server at a first point of time; circuitry configured for determining whether a set of positioning metrics need to be measured, wherein the determining is based on an output from a machine learning classifier to which channel metrics between two points of time is given as input; whether the output indicates a new measurement, circuitry configured for performing the measurement of positioning metrics from all transmission points; or if not, circuitry configured for determining which subset of transmission points needs to be measured and circuitry configured for performing the measurement of such subset of transmission points; and circuitry configured for reporting the measured positioning metrics to the location server.

In a method for determining a location of an electronic device, a plurality of beacon signals are received from a plurality of beacon devices at the electronic device, wherein each beacon signal of the plurality of beacon signals includes an identity of a beacon device transmitting a respective beacon signal, and each beacon device of the plurality of beacon devices has a known location. A received signal strength for each beacon signal of the plurality of beacon signals is measured. A distance of the electronic device from each beacon device for which the plurality of beacon signals is received is determined, wherein the distance of the electronic device from a beacon device is based at least in part on the received signal strength of the beacon signal transmitted by the beacon device. A location of the electronic device is determined based at least on part on the distance of the electronic device from each beacon device for which the plurality of beacon signals is received.

Methods and apparatus relating to use of actual and/or virtual beacons are described. Virtual beacons are virtual in that an actual beacon need not be transmitted but a rather a virtual beacon transmitter at a desired location may be considered to transmit virtual beacons. Beacon transmitter information indicates transmission power and location of actual and virtual beacon transmitters as well as information to be communicated by virtual beacons and is dynamically updated based on device movement, a schedule and/or the locations of devices in a group. Virtual personal beacons, virtual group beacons and virtual scheduled beacons are supported. A virtual personal beacon transmitter location is updated as the location of a device corresponding to the person moves. Reception of a virtual beacon is reported in a message sent to a wireless terminal or a component of the wireless terminal which acts upon receiving an indication of beacon reception.

A method for positioning a collection of nodes within a wireless sensor network in which each node measures Respective Strength of Signals (RSSs), from its neighboring nodes, and channels linking regular nodes and its neighboring nodes are classified into different categories and are allocated path loss parameters accordingly. Distances separating each regular node from each of its neighboring nodes, and respective variances thereof, are estimated on the basis of the measured RSSs and the allocated path loss parameters. The positions of the regular nodes are then estimated by Weighted Least Square, optimization where the distances to be matched and the variances used for the weighting are those previously estimated.

A method of locating a radiator is provided. A channel measurement vector is defined that includes a signal value measured at each of a plurality of antennas in response to a signal transmitted from a radiator. (a) A cell covariance matrix of a first cell from a plurality of cells defined for a region in which the radiator is located is selected. (b) A likelihood value that the radiator is located in the first cell is calculated using the selected cell covariance matrix and the defined channel measurement vector. (a) and (b) are repeated with each cell of the plurality of cells as the first cell. A cell location of the radiator is selected based on the calculated likelihood value for each cell of the plurality of cells.