US-12618737-B2 - Triggering the collecting and/or using of calibration data

US12618737B2US 12618737 B2US12618737 B2US 12618737B2US-12618737-B2

Abstract

An alert indicates that a situation conducive to calibrating a barometric pressure sensor of the user device might have occurred. In response, calibration data is collected for calibrating the barometric pressure sensor. The calibration data is used to perform a calibration process and generate a calibration value for the barometric pressure sensor.

Inventors

Michael Dormody
Deepak Joseph
Badrinath NAGARAJAN
Arun Raghupathy
Frank Yenshaw

Assignees

NEXTNAV, LLC

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20230110

Claims (18)

1 . A method comprising: setting, by a client running on a computer processor of a user device, a trigger for an operating system of the user device to send an alert to the client when a trigger event occurs, the trigger event indicating that a situation conducive to calibrating a barometric pressure sensor of the user device might have occurred; receiving, by the client running on the computer processor, the alert indicating that the situation conducive to calibrating the barometric pressure sensor of the user device might have occurred; performing, by the client running on the computer processor, a trigger event check to confirm whether the trigger event has occurred; in response to the trigger event check not passing, waiting, by the client running on the computer processor, for a next alert; in response to the trigger event check passing, collecting, by the client running on the computer processor, calibration data for calibrating the barometric pressure sensor; uploading, by the client running on the computer processor, the calibration data to a calibration server for the calibration server to perform a calibration process and generate a calibration value for the barometric pressure sensor; receiving, by the client running on the computer processor, the calibration value from the calibration server; and calibrating the barometric pressure sensor of the user device using the calibration value.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein: the trigger event is a Wi-Fi connect trigger, which occurs when the user device is detected to have connected to a Wi-Fi access point.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein: the trigger event is a Wi-Fi disconnect trigger, which occurs when the user device is detected to have disconnected from a Wi-Fi access point.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein: the trigger event is a charging trigger event, which occurs when a battery of the user device is detected to be charging.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein: the trigger event is a charging trigger event, which occurs when the user device is detected to have attached to an external power source.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein: the trigger event is a significant motion trigger, which occurs when a detected motion for the user device exceeds a motion threshold value.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein: the trigger event is a Wi-Fi RSSI-change trigger, which occurs when a strength of a Wi-Fi signal received by the user device as indicated by a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) is detected to have changed by more than a Wi-Fi RSSI-change threshold.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein: the trigger event is a geofence trigger, which occurs when the user device is detected to have traversed a boundary of a geofence.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein: the trigger event is a significant location change trigger, which occurs when a distance between two locations at which the user device has been detected to exceed a distance threshold value.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein: the trigger event is an activity trigger, which occurs when the user device is detected to have experienced a predetermined activity.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein: the activity trigger further occurs when a confidence level for the predetermined activity is greater than an activity confidence threshold value.
12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein: the trigger event is an activity transition trigger, which occurs when the user device is detected to have experienced a predetermined activity transition.
13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein: the activity transition trigger further occurs when a confidence level for the predetermined activity transition is greater than an activity transition confidence threshold value.
14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein: the trigger event is a time period trigger, which occurs when a specified time interval is detected to have passed since a previous collection of calibration data.
15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein: the trigger event is a specific time trigger, which occurs at a specified time point during a day.
16 . A method comprising: setting, by a client running on a computer processor of a user device, a trigger for an operating system of the user device to send an alert to the client when a trigger event occurs, the trigger event indicating that a situation conducive to calibrating a barometric pressure sensor of the user device might have occurred; receiving, by the client running on the computer processor, the alert indicating that the situation conducive to calibrating the barometric pressure sensor of the user device might have occurred; in response to the alert, collecting, by the client running on the computer processor, calibration data for calibrating the barometric pressure sensor; uploading, by the client running on the computer processor, the calibration data to a calibration server for the calibration server to perform a calibration process and generate a calibration value for the barometric pressure sensor; receiving, by the client running on the computer processor, the calibration value from the calibration server; and calibrating the barometric pressure sensor of the user device using the calibration value; wherein: the trigger event is an activity transition pair trigger, which occurs when the user device is detected to have experienced a predetermined activity transition pair.
17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein: the activity transition trigger further occurs when a confidence level for the activity transition pair is greater than an activity transition pair confidence threshold value.
18 . A method comprising: triggering, by a client running on a computer processor of a mobile device, collection of calibration data for calibrating a barometric pressure sensor of the mobile device in response to detecting an activity transition pair for the mobile device; in response to the triggering, collecting, by the client running on the computer processor, the calibration data for calibrating the barometric pressure sensor; uploading, by the client running on the computer processor, the calibration data to a calibration server for the calibration server to perform a calibration process and generate a calibration value for the barometric pressure sensor; receiving, by the client running on the computer processor, the calibration value from the calibration server; and calibrating the barometric pressure sensor of the mobile device using the calibration value.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/266,710, filed on Jan. 12, 2022, and entitled, “Triggering the Collecting and/or Using of Calibration Data”, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes. BACKGROUND Barometric-based altitude systems rely on a well-calibrated barometric pressure sensor in a consumer or user device, typically a mobile device. Under ideal conditions, the pressure sensor would already be well-calibrated and would remain so. However, most consumer-grade pressure sensors are not well-calibrated. Additionally, the calibration is prone to drift, i.e., change over time in a positive and/or negative direction. Thus, such pressure sensors have to be recalibrated from time to time using a calibration value that is derived using calibration data. The calibration data typically includes, but is not limited to, atmospheric pressure and temperature measurements generated using the pressure sensor to be calibrated in addition to reference pressure and temperature measurements generated by a reference system. The derived calibration value may be an offset in pressure, an offset in altitude, or a polynomial calibration equation that takes various inputs, such as temperature and/or pressure. The calibration data needs to be reliable in order to result in a good, reliable calibration value. However, it can be difficult to determine when the calibration data is most likely to be reliable. SUMMARY In some embodiments, a method includes: receiving, by a client running on a computer processor of a user device, an alert indicating that a situation conducive to calibrating a barometric pressure sensor of the user device might have occurred; in response to the alert, collecting, by the client running on the computer processor, calibration data for calibrating the barometric pressure sensor; uploading, by the client running on the computer processor, the calibration data to a calibration server for the calibration server to perform a calibration process and generate a calibration value for the barometric pressure sensor; and receiving, by the client running on the computer processor, the calibration value from the calibration server. In some embodiments, the method further includes: setting, by the client running on the computer processor, a trigger for an operating system of the user device to send the alert to the client when a trigger event occurs, the trigger event indicating that the situation conducive to calibrating the barometric pressure sensor of the user device might have occurred. In some embodiments, the method further includes: performing, by the client running on the computer processor, a trigger event check to confirm whether the trigger event has occurred; in response to the trigger event check not passing, waiting, by the client running on the computer processor, for a next alert; and in response to the trigger event check passing, performing the collecting of the calibration data. In some embodiments, the trigger event is a Wi-Fi connect trigger, which occurs when the user device is detected to have connected to a Wi-Fi access point. In some embodiments, the trigger event is a Wi-Fi disconnect trigger, which occurs when the user device is detected to have disconnected from a Wi-Fi access point. In some embodiments, the trigger event is a charging trigger event, which occurs when a battery of the user device is detected to be charging. In some embodiments, the trigger event is a charging trigger event, which occurs when the user device is detected to have attached to an external power source. In some embodiments, the trigger event is a significant motion trigger, which occurs when a detected motion for the user device exceeds a motion threshold value. In some embodiments, the trigger event is a Wi-Fi RSSI-change trigger, which occurs when a strength of a Wi-Fi signal received by the user device as indicated by a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) is detected to have changed by more than a Wi-Fi RSSI-change threshold. In some embodiments, the trigger event is a geofence trigger, which occurs when the user device is detected to have traversed a boundary of a geofence. In some embodiments, the trigger event is a significant location change trigger, which occurs when a distance between two locations at which the user device has been detected to exceed a distance threshold value. In some embodiments, the trigger event is an activity trigger, which occurs when the user device is detected to have experienced a predetermined activity. In some embodiments, the activity trigger further occurs when a confidence level for the predetermined activity is greater than an activity confidence threshold value. In some embodiments, the trigger event is an activity transition trigger, which occurs when the user device is detected to have experienced a predetermined activity transition. In some embodiments, the activ