Assisted Satellite Location Determination Patents Available from ICAP Patent Brokerage

ICAP Patent Brokerage announces for sale a patent portfolio disclosing systems and apparatus for decreasing satellite acquisition time by using a reverse-cone technique, available from TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (TCS) (NASDAQ:TSYS).  This portfolio is offered as part of the Internet of Things IP Auction, with a bidding deadline of April 23rd, 2015.

“The popularity of location-based services in today’s mobile marketplace demands fast, accurate geolocation,” says Dean Becker, CEO of ICAP Patent Brokerage.  “With an early priority date of 2002, and 23 total assets, this is an essential portfolio to wireless telecom and satellite providers.”

  Key Characteristics & Benefits

The need to select a subset of all available position determination satellites is fundamental to location determination. Every satellite in a non-geosynchronous location-determination satellite constellation orbits the Earth approximately six (6) times each day. At any given moment, it is difficult, but crucial, to be able to determine which of the constellation’s satellites are visible to a mobile device before the device begins to try to determine its location. The process of determining a location “fix” without any foreknowledge of which position determination satellites to which to listen can take 5-6 minutes, longer than most calls, and far longer than most users are willing to wait.  Mobile devices need only have a rough approximation of their own location in order to compute which location determinate satellites are best suited to determine a precise location, and that approximate location can shorten the time-to-first-fix to only seconds. By utilizing the location of the cellular base station with which the mobile device is communicating, that approximate location can be quickly provided.

The portfolio from TeleCommunication Systems (TCS) provides for a patented system and apparatus to decrease GPS acquisition time by virtue of elegant mathematics. Because base stations do not often move, it is possible to pre-compute and preserve Earth-center unit vectors representing every cellular base station, making it easier to maintain this pre-computed collection of vectors. Computation of an Earth-center vector to all satellites in a constellation, at any given moment, can also be fast. This approach makes it possible to tell if a satellite is “visible” by selecting a visibility threshold prior to satellite subset determination. Subsequent selection of optimal satellite subsets decreases mobile device time-to-first-fix. The whole of the portfolio includes claims leveraging multiple inverted cones, increasing visibility threshold if the reference base station is further from the equator, and estimating the longest “in-cone” durations for reduced frequency of satellite subset re-selection.

Forward citing companies include Qualcomm, Kyocera, CSR, and Google.

See the technical description of the assisted satellite location determination sales offering. 

To learn more about the intellectual property available for sale in this portfolio: Contact Michelle Tyler of ICAP Patent Brokerage at (650) 741-4117 or via email at michelle@icapip.com.If you have a patent portfolio for sale, visit our website to make a patent portfolio submission for an upcoming sealed bid event.Follow us on Twitter (@ICAP_IP) and join our LinkedIn group. 

About ICAP Patent Brokerage
ICAP Patent Brokerage is the world’s largest intellectual property brokerage and patent auction firm, leveraging the talents of experienced patent brokers to match buyers and sellers for the sale of patents and other intellectual property assets. With multiple transaction platforms and unparalleled industry knowledge, including experience with trademarks, brands, intellectual property licensing, and UCC sales, ICAP Patent Brokerage is the global leader in the transaction of intellectual property.