Patents Assigned to Polaris Wireless, Inc.
  • Publication number: 20120289249
    Abstract: A technique for estimating the location of a wireless terminal at an unknown location in a geographic region is disclosed. The technique is based on the recognition that there are traits of electromagnetic signals that are dependent on topography, the receiver, the location of the transmitter, and other factors. For example, if a particular radio station is known to be received strongly at a first location and weakly at a second location, and a given wireless terminal at an unknown location is receiving the radio station weakly, it is more likely that the wireless terminal is at the second location than at the first location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 18, 2012
    Publication date: November 15, 2012
    Applicant: POLARIS WIRELESS, INC.
    Inventors: Tarun Kumar Bhattacharya, Martin Feuerstein, Scot Douglas Gordon, David Stevenson Spain, JR.
  • Publication number: 20120282947
    Abstract: A technique for estimating the location of a wireless terminal at an unknown location in a geographic region is disclosed. The technique is based on the recognition that there are traits of electromagnetic signals that are dependent on topography, the receiver, the location of the transmitter, and other factors. For example, if a particular radio station is known to be received strongly at a first location and weakly at a second location, and a given wireless terminal at an unknown location is receiving the radio station weakly, it is more likely that the wireless terminal is at the second location than at the first location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 18, 2012
    Publication date: November 8, 2012
    Applicant: Polaris Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Tarun Kumar Bhattacharya, Martin Feuerstein, Scot Douglas Gordon, David Stevenson Spain, JR.
  • Publication number: 20120249787
    Abstract: Data from a wireless network location system is used in conjunction with the known geographic location of a video surveillance area such that the system according to the present invention infers that a person who appears in an image in the video is the user of a mobile phone estimated to be at the person's location. When facial recognition is applied and the person's identity is thus recognized, an association is generated as between the identity according to the facial recognition and the identity of the co-located mobile phone. This association can be critical when there is no personal identification available for a mobile phone such as a pre-paid mobile.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 3, 2012
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: POLARIS WIRELESS, INC.
    Inventors: Manlio Allegra, Martin Feuerstein, Mahesh B. Patel
  • Patent number: 8155394
    Abstract: An integrated wireless location and facial/speaker-recognition system that provides distinct advantages over facial-recognition systems and speaker-recognition systems of the prior art is disclosed. The integrated system is capable of using information from a wireless location system to improve the performance of the facial recognition and speaker recognition. The system is capable of processing photographs and/or audio samples captured by a camera/microphone at a fixed location (e.g., a digital pan-zoom-tilt (PZT) surveillance camera, etc.) as well as those captured by a mobile camera/microphone (e.g., a digital camera and microphone in a smartphone, etc.). The system also features a feedback mechanism by which the location-informed results can be used to improve the system's recognition abilities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Polaris Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Manlio Allegra, Martin Feuerstein, Mahesh B. Patel, David Stevenson Spain, Jr.
  • Patent number: 8106818
    Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to perform positioning at the proper positioning time and positioning precision in response to a requirement with respect to positioning.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2012
    Assignees: Polaris Wireless, Inc., NTT DoCoMo, Inc.
    Inventors: Tarun Kumar Bhattacharya, Hassan Mohamed El-Sallabi, Scot Douglas Gordon, Yasuhiro Oda, Jiyun Shen
  • Patent number: 8106817
    Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to obtain a positioning result corresponding to the state of a receiver in less time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2012
    Assignees: Polaris Wireless, Inc., NTT DoCoMo, Inc.
    Inventors: Tarun Kumar Bhattacharya, Hassan Mohamed El-Sallabi, Scot Douglas Gordon, Yasuhiro Oda, Jiyun Shen
  • Publication number: 20120014567
    Abstract: An integrated wireless location and facial/speaker-recognition system that provides distinct advantages over facial-recognition systems and speaker-recognition systems of the prior art is disclosed. The integrated system is capable of using information from a wireless location system to improve the performance of the facial recognition and speaker recognition. The system is capable of processing photographs and/or audio samples captured by a camera/microphone at a fixed location (e.g., a digital pan-zoom-tilt (PZT) surveillance camera, etc.) as well as those captured by a mobile camera/microphone (e.g., a digital camera and microphone in a smartphone, etc.). The system also features a feedback mechanism by which the location-informed results can be used to improve the system's recognition abilities.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 13, 2011
    Publication date: January 19, 2012
    Applicant: POLARIS WIRELESS, INC.
    Inventors: Manlio Allegra, Martin Feuerstein, Mahesh B. Patel, David Stevenson Spain, JR.
  • Publication number: 20110298930
    Abstract: An integrated wireless location and surveillance system that provides distinct advantages over video and audio surveillance systems of the prior art is disclosed. The integrated system comprises (i) a surveillance system comprising a plurality of cameras, each covering a respective zone, and (ii) a wireless location system that is capable of providing to the surveillance system, at various points in time, an estimate of the location of a wireless terminal that belongs to a person of interest. The surveillance system intelligently selects the video feed from the appropriate camera, based on the estimated location of the wireless terminal, and delivers the selected video feed to a display. As a person of interest moves from one zone to another, the surveillance system is capable of dynamically updating which video feed is delivered to the display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 3, 2011
    Publication date: December 8, 2011
    Applicant: POLARIS WIRELESS, INC.
    Inventors: Manlio Allegra, Martin Feuerstein, Kevin Alan Lindsey, Mahesh B. Patel, David Stevenson Spain, JR.
  • Patent number: 8068855
    Abstract: A method for determining the location of a mobile unit (MU) in a wireless communication system and presenting it to a remote party. The location of a remote MU is determined by comparing a snapshot of a predefined portion of the radio-frequency (RF) spectrum taken by the MU to a reference database containing multiple snapshots taken at various locations. The result of the comparison is used to determine if the MU is at a specific location. The comparison may be made in the MU, or at some other location situated remotely from the MU. In the latter case, sufficient information regarding the captured fingerprint is transmitted from the MU to the remote location. The database may be pre-compiled or generated on-line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2011
    Assignee: Polaris Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Morris Dressler, David Stevenson Spain, Jr.
  • Patent number: 8068802
    Abstract: A process and machine for estimating the location of a wireless terminal is disclosed. The illustrative embodiment of the present invention is based on the observation that the signal strength of a signal from a transmitter is different at some locations, and, therefore, the location of a wireless terminal can be estimated by comparing the signal strength it currently observes against a map or database that correlates locations to signal strengths. In accordance with a first example, if a particular radio station is known to be received well at a first location and poorly at a second location, and a given wireless terminal at an unknown location is receiving the radio station poorly, it is more likely that the wireless terminal is at the second location than it is at the first location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2011
    Assignee: Polaris Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Tarun Kumar Bhattacharya, Martin Feuerstein, David Stevenson Spain, Jr.
  • Patent number: 8013785
    Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to perform positioning at favorable positioning precision and in a favorable positioning time, according to whether a receiver is indoors or outdoors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2011
    Assignees: NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Polaris Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Tarun Kumar Bhattacharya, Hassan Mohamed Ei-Sallabi, Scot Douglas Gordon, Yasuhiro Oda, Jiyun Shen
  • Publication number: 20110187525
    Abstract: A method of using a non-GPS-derived technique to estimate the location of an Assisted-GPS-enabled wireless terminal for the purposes of generating location-specific assistance data for the wireless terminal is disclosed. The wireless terminal then uses the assistance data to acquire and process one or more GPS signals and to derive information that is probative of the wireless terminal's location. The GPS-derived location information is then combined with non-GPS-derived location to form an estimate of the location of the wireless terminal that is better than can be derived from either alone. This combination of GPS-derived and non-GPS techniques is particularly useful when the wireless terminal can only acquire one or two GPS signals because it is not possible to determine the location of the wireless terminal with only two GPS signals alone.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 29, 2010
    Publication date: August 4, 2011
    Applicants: POLARIS WIRELESS, INC., NTT DoCoMo, Inc.
    Inventors: Tarun Kumar Bhattacharya, Hassan M. El-Sallabi, Scot Douglas Gordon
  • Publication number: 20110189960
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for estimating whether or not a wireless terminal is indoors are disclosed. The illustrative embodiment employs a pattern classifier that is trained on a plurality of input/output mappings, where each mapping corresponds to a respective location, the output of the mapping is a Boolean value that indicates whether the location is indoors, and the input of the mapping is based on empirical and predicted signal data for the location. In accordance with the illustrative embodiment, a computer-executable program is generated based on the trained pattern classifier. The computer-executable program estimates whether or not a wireless terminal is indoors based on empirical data reported by the terminal, and on a location estimate for the terminal that might be crude or inaccurate (e.g., based on Cell Identifier [Cell-ID], GPS, etc.).
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 29, 2010
    Publication date: August 4, 2011
    Applicants: POLARIS WIRELESS, INC., NTT DoCoMo, Inc.
    Inventors: Tarun Kumar Bhattacharya, Hassan M. El-Sallabi, Scot Douglas Gordon, Yasuhiro Oda, Jiyun Shen
  • Publication number: 20110156952
    Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to perform positioning at the proper positioning time and positioning precision in response to a requirement with respect to positioning.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 31, 2009
    Publication date: June 30, 2011
    Applicants: POLARIS WIRELESS, INC., NTT DoCoMo, Inc.
    Inventors: Tarun Kumar Bhattacharya, Hassan M. El-Sallabi, Scot Douglas Gordon, Yasuhiro Oda, Jiyun Shen
  • Publication number: 20110156950
    Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to perform positioning at favorable positioning precision and in a favorable positioning time, according to whether a receiver is indoors or outdoors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 31, 2009
    Publication date: June 30, 2011
    Applicants: POLARIS WIRELESS, INC., NTT DoCoMo, Inc.
    Inventors: Tarun Kumar Bhattacharya, Hassan M. El-Sallabi, Scot Douglas Gordon, Yasuhiro Oda, Jiyun Shen
  • Publication number: 20110156951
    Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to obtain a positioning result corresponding to the state of a receiver in less time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 31, 2009
    Publication date: June 30, 2011
    Applicants: POLARIS WIRELESS, INC., NTT DoCoMo, Inc.
    Inventors: Tarun Kumar Bhattacharya, Hassan M. El-Sallabi, Scot Douglas Gordon, Yasuhiro Oda, Jiyun Shen
  • Publication number: 20110102256
    Abstract: It is possible to obtain the highly accurate positioning result even when positioning by a GPS is unsuccessful.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 5, 2010
    Publication date: May 5, 2011
    Applicants: NTT DOCOMO, INC., Polaris Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Jiyun Shen, Yasuhiro Oda
  • Patent number: 7899467
    Abstract: A technique for estimating the location of a wireless terminal at an unknown location in a geographic region is disclosed. The technique is based on the recognition that there are traits of electromagnetic signals that are dependent on topography, the receiver, the location of the transmitter, and other factors. For example, if a particular radio station is known to be received strongly at a first location and weakly at a second location, and a given wireless terminal at an unknown location is receiving the radio station weakly, it is more likely that the wireless terminal is at the second location than at the first location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2011
    Assignee: Polaris Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Martin Feuerstein, Scot Douglas Gordon, David Stevenson Spain, Jr.
  • Publication number: 20100329144
    Abstract: A process and machine for estimating the location of a wireless terminal is disclosed. The illustrative embodiment of the present invention is based on the observation that the signal strength of a signal from a transmitter is different at some locations, and, therefore, the location of a wireless terminal can be estimated by comparing the signal strength it currently observes against a map or database that correlates locations to signal strengths. In accordance with a first example, if a particular radio station is known to be received well at a first location and poorly at a second location, and a given wireless terminal at an unknown location is receiving the radio station poorly, it is more likely that the wireless terminal is at the second location than it is at the first location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2010
    Publication date: December 30, 2010
    Applicant: POLARIS WIRELESS, INC.
    Inventors: Tarun Kumar Bhattacharya, Martin Feuerstein, David Stevenson Spain
  • Patent number: 7848762
    Abstract: A method of using a non-GPS-derived technique to estimate the location of an Assisted-GPS-enabled wireless terminal for the purposes of generating location-specific assistance data for the wireless terminal is disclosed. The wireless terminal then uses the assistance data to acquire and process one or more GPS signals and to derive information that is probative of the wireless terminal's location. The GPS-derived location information is then combined with non-GPS-derived location to form an estimate of the location of the wireless terminal that is better than can be derived from either alone. This combination of GPS-derived and non-GPS techniques is particularly useful when the wireless terminal can only acquire one or two GPS signals because it is not possible to determine the location of the wireless terminal with only two GPS signals alone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2010
    Assignee: Polaris Wireless, Inc.
    Inventors: Scot Douglas Gordon, Robert Lewis Martin, David Stevenson Spain, Jr.