Patent ID: 8280355

Claim:
A method for determining a velocity of a mobile communication device, the method comprising: transmitting beacon signals indicating beacon identifiers from a plurality of beacons; receiving a first one of the beacon signals indicating a first one of the beacon identifiers in the mobile communication device when the mobile communication device is proximate to a first one of the beacons; generating a random code in the mobile communication device; temporarily assigning the random code to the mobile communication device to allow the correlation of messages sent from the mobile communication device without identifying the mobile communication device; transmitting a first message indicating the first beacon identifier and the random code from the mobile communication device; receiving a second one of the beacon signals indicating a second one of the beacon identifiers in the mobile communication device when the mobile communication device is proximate to a second one of the beacons; transmitting a second message indicating the second beacon identifier and the random code from the mobile communication device; receiving the first message and the second message into a computer system; processing the random code, the first beacon identifier, and the second beacon identifier to determine the velocity of the mobile communication device; receiving a third one of the beacon signals indicating a third one of the beacon identifiers in the mobile communication device when the mobile communication device is proximate to a third one of the beacons; generating a new random code in the mobile communication device; temporarily assigning the new random code to the mobile communication device to allow the correlation of messages sent from the mobile communication device without identifying the mobile communication device; transmitting a third message indicating the third beacon identifier and the new random code from the mobile communication device; receiving a fourth one of the beacon signals indicating a fourth one of the beacon identifiers in the mobile communication device when the mobile communication device is proximate to a fourth one of the beacons; transmitting a fourth message indicating the fourth beacon identifier and the new random code from the mobile communication device; receiving the third message and the fourth message into the computer system; and processing the new random code, the third beacon identifier, and the fourth beacon identifier to determine the velocity of the mobile communication device.