Patent ID: 8670381

Claim:
A method for determining location of a wireless computing device in a defined area using at least one WiFi beacon fixed in a known position, the method comprising: detecting at the at least one WiFi beacon, transmissions of wireless packets from a wireless computing device in the defined area and that is movable relative to the at least one WiFi beacon; in response to detection of any transmissions to or from the wireless computing device in the defined area by the at least one beacon, generating information at the at least one beacon about the wireless computing device in the defined area, the information including an indication of detection of the wireless computing device in the defined area; providing the generated information from the at least one beacon to a processor; at the processor, determining a location of the wireless computing device in the defined area relative to a known position of the at least one beacon based on the information generated by the at least one beacon, identification information of the detected wireless computing device derived from the detected transmission, and information about the known position of each of the at least one beacon, whereby the wireless computing device is not configured to send information to the processor so that the determination of the location of the wireless computing device in the defined area is performed at the processor not based on information received from the wireless computing device; associating users of the computing devices to the wireless computing device identification information; analyzing the users associated with identification information about active wireless computing devices in the defined area and location information about active wireless computing devices in the defined area relative to a list of people authorized to be in the defined area to determine whether any of the users of the identified wireless computing devices located in the defined area is not authorized to be in the defined area; and generating an alarm when any of the users of the identified wireless computing devices located in the defined area is not authorized to be in the defined area.