Wireless networks are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, with many businesses, schools, and public areas now offering wireless connectivity to authorized users and to guests. With the increasing popularity of wireless networks, the number of different types of wireless nodes is also rapidly increasing. For example, personal devices now include cellular phones, tablets, wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, head-mounted displays, etc.), and the like, of various makes, models, and configurations. In addition, tracking tags are also becoming much more common, allowing the wireless network to track the objects to which the tags are attached.
In general, an infrastructure-based indoor positioning system (IPS) processes the radio frequency (RF) signals received at the access points (APs) in the wireless network, to estimate the locations of the various wireless nodes in the network. While an IPS may compute the location of a node, every time the node is heard by the APs and IPS receives the data, many wireless nodes often exhibit distinctive behavioral patterns. For example, the employees in a workplace may arrive and depart at certain times during the week, mostly stay in their designated seats, and occasionally go to meeting rooms, the bathroom, or break rooms. Similarly, in a medical facility, two different tracking tags attached to different assets may exhibit very different patterns, such as one being attached to an ECG machine in a fixed location and the other being attached to an intravenous (IV) pump on a mobile stretcher.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds