Architecture and system for location awareness

US7536695B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Microsoft Corporation · US

Inventors

• Mohammad Shabbir Alam · Redmond, US
• Warren V. Barkley · Mill Creek, US
• Timothy M. Moore · Bellevue, US
• Geoffrey Pease · Kirkland, US
• Steven Shafer · Seattle, US
• Florin Teodorescu · Redmond, US
• Yinghua Yao · Bellevue, US
• Madhurima Pawar · Bellevue, US
• John C. Krumm · Redmond, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 28, 2003
• Grant date: May 19, 2009
• Expiry date: Jan 16, 2025

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02B70/10
• WIPO field: Digital communication
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A location service and method provides a location aware computing device that is extensible by allowing different types of location awareness providers operate with the service. The method includes receiving a request for a location context, acquiring data associated with a current location from one or more location detection devices, reconciling the acquired data for any inconsistencies concerning the current location by applying either or both of a hierarchical and a metric process, and generating a location object accessible to applications. The service includes a location management component configured to route location data, a fuser engine configured to receive one or more location reports generated from the location data, reconcile conflicts between the location reports and generate a location object, and one or more location application programming interfaces (APIs) coupled to the location management component to transmit the location object from the fuser engine to an application.