Patent ID: 8694027

Claim:
A method for approximating a location of a mobile device, the method comprising: receiving, by a computer, a plurality of wireless local area network communication signals, each signal being received from one of a plurality of base stations, wherein each of the plurality of base stations has a known location; identifying, by the computer, a signal strength for each of the plurality of wireless local area network communication signals; determining, by the computer, a location of the computer from the signal strength for each of the plurality of wireless local area network communication signals and the known location of each of the plurality of base stations; scanning, by the computer, for one or more mobile devices within a proximity of the computer, wherein the scanning utilizes a personal area network communication protocol; responsive to scanning for one or more mobile devices, detecting, by the computer, one or more mobile devices within the proximity using the personal area network communication protocol; storing, by the computer, an identifier of the one or more mobile devices and the location of the computer in an access list as data representing a location of the one or more mobile devices.