US 12,426,007 B1
Power optimized geolocation
Ernie Aguilar, Austin, TX (US); David Gal, Oakland, CA (US); and Eli Peer, San Carlos, CA (US)
Assigned to Samsara Inc., San Francisco, CA (US)
Filed by Samsara Inc., San Francisco, CA (US)
Filed on Sep. 12, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/931,354.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/366,319, filed on Jun. 13, 2022.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/363,920, filed on Apr. 29, 2022.
Int. Cl. H04W 24/00 (2009.01); G01S 19/07 (2010.01); H04W 64/00 (2009.01); H04W 72/51 (2023.01)
CPC H04W 64/006 (2013.01) [G01S 19/07 (2013.01); H04W 72/51 (2023.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A battery powered object tracking device comprising:
a GPS receiver configured to detect GPS signals from GPS satellites;
a Wi-Fi transceiver configured to wirelessly communicate with Wi-Fi access points;
a short-range communication transceiver configured to wirelessly communicate via a short-range communication protocol;
a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therein; and
one or more processors configured to execute the program instructions to cause the object tracking device to:
perform, by the short-range communication transceiver, a scan for one or more location aware devices configured to determine geographic locations of respective devices;
in response to establishing communication with a first location aware device, initiate transmission to a backend server, by the first location aware device, of a current geographic location of the first location aware device with an indication that the object tracking device is nearby, wherein the object tracking device preserves battery power by not activating the Wi-Fi transceiver or the GPS receiver;
in response to failing to identify a location aware device, perform, using the Wi-Fi transceiver, a Wi-Fi access point scan;
in response to establishing communication with a first Wi-Fi access point, initiate transmission to a backend server, of an identifier of the first Wi-Fi access point, wherein the backend server is configured to lookup the identifier in a database of Wi-Fi access point identifiers and associated geographic locations; and
in response to failing to identify a location aware device, failing to identify a Wi-Fi access point, and determining that a geographic location of the object tracking device has not been provided to the backend server for more than a threshold amount of time, activate the GPS receiver and determine a geolocation based on detected GPS signals by the GPS receiver of the object tracking device and transmit the geolocation to the backend server.