US Patent 11589187 Passive sensor tracking using observations of Wi-Fi access points

A method of passive sensor tracking includes using a Wi-Fi access point that transmits a management frame comprising sensor data of a sensor as part of Wi-Fi wireless network discovery, associating unique identifying information of the Wi-Fi access point with a sensor in a sensor tracking database, receiving observation data of the Wi-Fi access point from a Wi-Fi AP Database, the observation data including the unique identifying information of the Wi-Fi access point and the sensor data of the sensor, and storing the sensor data in the sensor tracking database. The Wi-Fi AP Database receives one or more reports comprising observation data from one or more wireless devices that encounter the Wi-Fi access point.