| US 7,548,731 B1 | ||
| Method to reduce power consumption of static wireless beacons and cost of infrastructure | ||
| Ahamed S. Anver, Colombo (Sri Lanka); Timothy J. Fletcher, Leicestershire (United Kingdom); Edward G. Jellard, Southampton (United Kingdom); William R. Smart, Limpsfield (United Kingdom); Anton Stefanek, London (United Kingdom); and Gavin P. Willingham, North Baddesley (United Kingdom) | ||
| Assigned to International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y. (US) | ||
| Filed on Jul. 30, 2008, as Appl. No. 12/182,664. | ||
| Int. Cl. H04B 1/00 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 455—69 [455/522; 455/70; 455/517; 455/524; 370/318; 370/328; 342/125; 342/126; 342/450] | 1 Claim |
| 1. A method for reducing power consumption of a positioning system having wireless beacons, comprising:
providing a static beacon, said static beacon being a wireless transmitter having a known position, signal strength, and range,
wherein a mobile device is positioned within the range of the static beacon and a position of the mobile device is determined
based on a signal therefrom;
detecting and identifying a plurality of foreign wireless transmitter devices, including obtaining a location for each of
the plurality of foreign devices;
evaluating the immobility of each of the plurality of foreign devices, including:
periodically determining a position of each of the plurality of foreign devices and calculating a duration for which each
foreign device remains stationary based thereon
determining a device type for each of the plurality of devices;
selecting and amalgamating into the positioning system a subset of the plurality of foreign devices that are immobile, said
subset selected based on the device type and the duration for which each foreign device remains stationary; and
reducing the signal strength of said static beacon thereby reducing the range of the static beacon such that the mobile device
is no longer positioned therein, wherein the mobile device is positioned within a range of said subset of the plurality of
foreign devices that are immobile.
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