Patent ID: 9557420
Date: 2017-01-31
CPC Classifications: G01C,G01S

Claim:
1. A method performed in connection with a handheld communication device for monitoring a context in a battery efficient manner and for detecting a vehicular context, the handheld communication device comprising a GPS hardware component, a network-based position estimation component and a data processor, the method comprising: acquiring a sequence of location data readings using the network-based position estimation component; identifying a non-vehicular context based on changes in the acquired sequence of the location data readings; when the non-vehicular context is not identified, powering on the GPS hardware component and acquiring speed data using the GPS hardware component, determining whether the acquired speed is within predetermined vehicular speed ranges and identifying either a vehicular context or the non-vehicular context; and when the vehicular context is not identified, powering off the GPS hardware component to save battery power.