Nazih AlmalkiFollow

Abstract

This document describes techniques that enable a computing device (e.g., a smart watch, ring, glasses, etc.) to preserve battery life by utilizing proximity beacons (e.g., location tracking stickers, AirTags, BLUETOOTH beacon, wireless locators, etc.) to locate the device. Many existing devices utilize power-intensive global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) (e.g., GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS, IRNSS, etc.) to track the device’s location. Using GNSS may be very resource expensive due to the high power cost associated with acquiring, tracking, and receiving weak satellite signals, particularly for devices with very small batteries such as watches, rings, glasses, and other wearable computing devices. By embedding proximity beacons into a watch band or other component of the device, the device could save battery life by integrating with existing device location networks (e.g., Apple Find My, Find My Android, etc.) rather than relying on GNSS-based location. Proximity beacons emit a BLUETOOTH signal which is detected by other nearby devices. The device location network may triangulate the beacon’s location when other nearby devices utilize GNSS, oftentimes very quickly due to the ubiquity of mobile devices in populated areas. In examples where the user wishes to switch the component of the wearable device that includes the proximity beacon (e.g., watch band, glasses arm, etc.), the device may identify which proximity beacons maintain proximity to the device while the device is moving and associate the identified proximity beacons with tracking the device’s location. If no beacons are available or the device is in a remote area, the device defaults to using GNSS-based location tracking. This approach may enable wearable devices to balance location awareness with battery life, making them more practical for everyday use.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Download

Share

COinS