Location sharing and tracking using mobile phones or other wireless devices

Self-expandable, woven intravascular devices for use as stents (both straight and tapered), filters (both temporary and permanent) and occluders for insertion and implantation into a variety of anatomical structures. The devices may be formed from shape memory metals such as nitinol. The devices may also be formed from biodegradable materials. Delivery systems for the devices include two hollow tubes that operate coaxially. A device is secured to the tubes prior to the implantation and delivery of the device by securing one end of the device to the outside of the inner tube and by securing the other end of the device to the outside of the outer tube. The stents may be partially or completely covered by graft materials, but may also be bare. The devices may be formed from a single wire. The devices may be formed by either hand or machine weaving. The devices may be created by bending shape memory wires around tabs projecting from a template, and weaving the ends of the wires to create the body of the device such that the wires cross each other to form a plurality of angles, at least one of the angles being obtuse. The value of the obtuse angle may be increased by axially compressing the body.

Methods for creating woven devices

An E-9-1-1 voice-over-IP (VoIP) solution is provided wherein a 911 call from a mobile VoIP device is routed directly to the correct Public Safety Answer Point (PSAP) via dedicated trunks, together with correct location information and call-back number. VoIP gateways are implemented locally, at least one per LATA, and accept VoIP packetized data inbound, and convert it to standard wireline voice calls. Calls are routed to an IP address at the VoIP gateway, which then egresses the call to a voice port at a selective router. Mid-call updating of location of a moving VoIP terminal is provided to a PSAP. The location of the VoIP is validated using HTTP based protocol by pushing location information to a VoIP location server, and comparing it against a geographic location database to confirm that a contained street address is valid.

SOLUTIONS FOR VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL (VoIP) 911 LOCATION SERVICES

Public safety access points are selected in a wireless network for E911 calls based on ESRD substitution when ESRKs are not being used. The present invention was conceived as an ESRK workaround solution to implement Phase II of the E911 rules from the starting point of a Phase I implementation. ESRKs, ESRDs or ESRVs are initially obtained and managed for each PSAP in a particular carrier's area. Then, Phase I processes are modified to wait to see if Phase II GSM location information will be reported in a timely manner (e.g., within a second or two or so) before committing to a default selection of a particular PSAP based on information available (e.g., based on the location of a serving cell site).

Public safety access point (PSAP) selection for E911 wireless callers in a GSM type system

Dynamic and current information is provided regarding a wireless device's entry into or exit from a geographically defined “watched” area. An area watcher application monitors preconfigured wireless devices entry/exit into preconfigured watched areas. The watched areas may watch for any/all subscribers, or for select, preconfigured subscribers listed in an appropriate table or database. Provision of location information is triggered by a wireless subscriber's entry, exit or changing between designated ‘watched’ areas or locations. Continuous polling may be used, or the mobile device itself or network element may be triggered to push its own location upon notification of its entry into or out of watched areas from an area watcher. A third party may be notified when a wireless user enters an area surrounding their retail store, and be sent a message such as “sale inside”, or “Your rentals are overdue”, on their wireless device.

Area watcher for wireless network

A frequency management scheme for a hybrid cellular/GPS or other device generates a local clock signal for the communications portion of the device, using a crystal oscillator or other part. The oscillator output may be corrected by way of an automatic frequency control (AFC) circuit or software, to drive the frequency of that clock signal to a higher accuracy. Besides being delivered to the cellular or other communications portion of the hybrid device, the compensated clock signal may also be delivered to a comparator to measure the offset between the cellular oscillator and the GPS oscillator. The error in the cellular oscillator may be measured from the AFC operation in the cellular portion of the device. An undershoot or overshoot in the delta between the two oscillators may thus be deduced to be due to bias in the GPS oscillator, whose value may then be determined. That value may then be used to adjust Doppler search, bandwidth or other GPS receiver characteristics to achieve better time to first fix or other performance characteristics.

System and method for frequency management in a communications device having a positioning feature

A transmitter (200) has a compression detector for sensing the level of compression (110) in a signal that is being transmitted. The transmitter also has a radio frequency power amplifier (RFPA) (414) that is supplied by a supply modulator (426). The supply modulator provides a dynamic supply bias to the RFPA to maintain a desired amount of compression in the signal being transmitted. The supply modulator is responsive to a modulation signal (207) created by substantially following the envelope (214) of the signal to be transmitted (212). However, various signal and operational conditions can occur which cause the compression level to deviate (506) from the desired level. To maintain the desired compression level, the compression detector provides an output that is used to adjust the modulation signal from following the envelope of the signal to be transmitted in an unadjusted manner.

Method and apparatus for optimizing supply modulation in a transmitter

The invention provides a method and apparatus for timing and frequency synchronization during and after signal acquisition, respectively, in a digital communication receiver. The apparatus comprises: a receiver (110) receiving a plurality of data slots each containing a sync word (310); a correlator (220) forming multiple correlations of the received signal with a sinusoid of an expected frequency for each of the selected sync symbol intervals; a combiner (240) combining the multiple correlations according to the FSK modulation index ad known sync symbol pattern; a peak detector (230) forming a sync correlation signal of the maximum combiner output amplitude; a threshold detector (250) comparing the sync correlation signal to a threshold; a symbol timing estimator (270) establishing symbol timing based on the peak of the sync correlation signal; a frequency offset estimator (260); and a quality estimator (280) determining a quality of the frequency offset estimate using a SNR calculation.

Method and system for synchronization in a frequency shift keying receiver

A wireless communications device, such as a cellular telephone ( 200 ), is able to accept and process DTMF tones as commands. Appropriate DTMF tones control operating characteristics of the wireless communications device ( 200 ). An example is causing a cellular phone to ring even though it has been configured into a “vibrate only” silent ring mode or a mode which has disabled all incoming call notification. Operation of such a DTMF tone facilitates finding a lost or misplaced cellular phone when that phone is configured to not ring in response to other calls. An external data communications port ( 232 ) of the wireless communications device ( 200 ) can also be controlled or data specified by the DTMF tone can be transmitted out of that data communications port ( 232 ).

Wireless device remote control by DTMF commands

A method (200) of frequency drift prediction for use by a positioning receiver (106) can include the steps of determining (202) a moving average of a frequency error, determining (206) a moving average of a frequency drift rate in a communication device, determining (212) a frequency drift rate uncertainty, and providing (214) the moving average of frequency error and frequency drift rate, and the frequency drift rate uncertainty to the positioning receiver. A point-to-point slope from the running average of the instantaneous frequency error and a running average of the point-to-point slope for a predetermined time period can be determined (208 & 210). The frequency drift uncertainty or window is determined using information determined from the moving average of the frequency drift rate. The positioning receiver can be a global positioning receiver.

Mark A. Goldberg

Papers

System and method for frequency management in a communications device having a positioning feature

Method and apparatus for optimizing supply modulation in a transmitter

Method and system for synchronization in a frequency shift keying receiver

Wireless device remote control by DTMF commands

Method and system for frequency drift prediction