Apple Inc.
USER SELECTABLE LOCATION GRANULARITY

Abstract:

A location control subsystem is provided that allows a user of an electronic device to define the granularity used to provide location coarseness. A user can define a coarse location granularity for an application. When a coarse device location is reported to an application, the location can be provided with at least a minimum degree of variable specificity based on the selected location coarseness. When an application is granted a coarse location, the application is to interpret the provided location indicating that the user may be anywhere within a geographic region of variable specificity, as opposed to being close to a center point with a horizontal accuracy based on the precision of the location fix, as when a fine granularity location is provided. In addition to reducing the spatial resolution of the location that is reported to the application, the temporal resolution may also be reduced.