Chip-Level Fused Location Technologies

C.T. Weng, D. Chou, C-L. Lee , C-Y. Chong, Pei-Hung Jau

Abstract:	The increasing usage of mobile and wearable devices had evolved the technologies of navigation. Nowadays people wouldn’t satisfied by using solely Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) as the positioning source. They are looking for a ubiquitous positioning technique which can provide them 100% of positioning coverage whether indoor or outdoor. Thus, WIFI finger printing/RTT, Bluetooth beacon, inertial sensor dead reckoning, and modem cell ID finger printing had became as important as GNSS or even more, able to bridge the gap of limited usage of GNSS at indoor environment due to the GNSS signal properties. Due to the increasing capabilities of System-On-Chip (SOC), such as computing speed and power, many fancy technologies can be implemented and realized in it including the positioning techniques mentioned above. Unfortunately, each of the positioning technique has its own limitation in usage, and must be designed wisely in order to have optimum performance, and low power consumption. In order to do so, MediaTek had proposed a fused location architecture which can suit this purpose. MediaTek Inc. SOC is implanted with the “always fused location” technology. With the ready-to-use positioning data, the developer of mobile apps can develop more user friendly applications, such as Geofence or smart context-aware to provide seamless positioning and a better experience for the mobile device user. In this paper, we will focus on each of the location technologies below: 1. WIFI Fingerprinting/RTT and power saving: MediaTek’s WIFI solution not only provide the state of art leading technology but also provide a On-Chip power saving technology to further reduce the power consumption. 2. Bluetooth: The BT AOD/AOA technology is provided by searching a matched entry in a database of signal patterns. This will be a big issue for the On-Chip implementation for computation time and storage space of the database. MediaTek is providing an alternative solution to this situation. 3. Inertial sensors: By using an always-on self calibration mechanism and proven dead reckoning algorithm, MediaTek’s solution can extend the accuracy and coverage of location into deep urban and underground parking garages where radio signals are weak or absence. The sensor technology can also quickly respond user’s activity status to radio system for further optimization. 4. GNSS: MediaTek GNSS solution can support up to 6 satellite constellations, including GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BEIDOU, QZSS, and SBAS. MediaTek GNSS solution also implanted with AlwaysLocate™ technology which superior in tracking sensitivity and ultra low power consumption. In addition, the advanced assisted GNSS technology including EASY™, HotStill™, and EPO™ are also available. 5. Cell ID: Cellular network can provide location without extra cost but with limited accuracy. By mapping the desired location or areas into Cell IDs, the platform can achieve nearly zero power consumption while providing continuous location services. 6. Location Fusion Platform: By layering the above technologies from the dimensions of power consumption and accuracy. The smart fusion system can decide which location source to turn-on according to current user scenario. And amazingly integrate these capabilities into chip level. In conclusion, the advanced fused location architecture is introduced in this paper. Using the high performance connectivity SOC by MediaTek Inc., the proposed fused location technique can achieve high coverage and accuracy in positioning result but with low power consumption. According to our experimental data, the total power consumption can be decreased by 95%.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 28th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2015) September 14 - 18, 2015 Tampa Convention Center Tampa, Florida
Pages:	258 - 275
Cite this article:	Weng, C.T., Chou, D., Lee, C-L., Chong, C-Y., Jau, Pei-Hung, "Chip-Level Fused Location Technologies," Proceedings of the 28th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2015), Tampa, Florida, September 2015, pp. 258-275.
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