Operating Geographic Location Systems

Abstract

Among other things, we describe a method that includes receiving, on a mobile device, an indication that an application executing on the mobile device has entered a background state, receiving, from the application, a value indicating a condition for providing location data to the application, disabling a resource associated with the application, while the resource associated with the application is disabled, storing location data received from a location system of the mobile device, and when the condition indicated by the value is met, enabling the resource associated with the application, and providing the stored location data to the application.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 at a baseband processor of a mobile device:   receive and store location data from a location system of the mobile device when an application processor of the mobile device is in a first power state; and   provide the stored location data to the application processor when the application processor is in a second power state,   wherein the application processor draws a greater amount of power in the second power state than in the first power state.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first power state comprises a low-power state, and the second power state comprises a full-power state. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  comprising, at the application processor of the mobile device, entering the second power state after a period of time of operation in the first power state, the period of time defined by a condition value. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the condition value specifies the period of time. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the condition value specifies a distance traveled at which to enter the second power state. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 3  comprising, at the application processor of the mobile device, providing the condition value to the baseband processor of the mobile device. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  comprising, at the baseband processor of the mobile device, providing an indication to the application processor of the mobile device to exit the first power state and enter the second power state. 
     
     
         8 . A computer readable storage device storing a computer program product configured to cause a mobile device to perform operations comprising:
 causing a baseband processor of the mobile device to:   receive and store location data from a location system of the mobile device when an application processor of the mobile device is in a first power state; and   provide the stored location data to the application processor when the application processor is in a second power state,   wherein the application processor draws a greater amount of power in the second power state than in the first power state.   
     
     
         9 . The computer readable storage device of  claim 8 , wherein the first power state comprises a low-power state, and the second power state comprises a full-power state. 
     
     
         10 . The computer readable storage device of  claim 8 , the operations comprising causing the application processor of the mobile device to enter the second power state after a period of time of operation in the first power state, the period of time defined by a condition value. 
     
     
         11 . The computer readable storage device of  claim 10 , wherein the condition value specifies the period of time. 
     
     
         12 . The computer readable storage device of  claim 10 , wherein the condition value specifies a distance traveled at which to enter the second power state. 
     
     
         13 . The computer readable storage device of  claim 10 , the operations comprising causing the application processor of the mobile device to provide the condition value to the baseband processor of the mobile device. 
     
     
         14 . The computer readable storage device of  claim 8 , the operations comprising causing the baseband processor of the mobile device to provide an indication to the application processor of the mobile device to exit the first power state and enter the second power state. 
     
     
         15 . A method comprising:
 receiving, from an application executing on a mobile device and entering a background state, a value indicating a condition for providing location data to the application; and   when the condition indicated by the value is met, enabling a resource associated with the application, and providing location data to the application, the location data having been received from a location system of the mobile device and stored while the resource associated with the application was disabled.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , comprising receiving, on the mobile device, an indication that an application executing on the mobile device has entered the background state. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , comprising disabling the resource associated with the application. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein disabling the resource associated with the application comprises placing the application into a pause state. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17 , comprising, while the resource associated with the application is disabled, storing the location data received from a location system of the mobile device. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the condition indicated by the value comprises a time at which to enable the resource. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the condition indicated by the value comprises a distance traveled at which to enable the resource. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the resource associated with the application is a component of the mobile device. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the component of the mobile device is an application processor of the mobile device. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the location data received from the location system of the mobile device is stored by a baseband processor of the mobile device. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24 , comprising providing, to the baseband processor, the value indicating the condition for providing location data to the application. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 24 , comprising
 receiving, at the baseband processor of the mobile device, from the application executing on the mobile device, an indication to provide the stored location data to the application; and   providing the stored location data to the application.   
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 15 , comprising
 receiving, on the mobile device, an indication that the application executing on the mobile device has entered a foreground state; and   providing the stored location data to the application.