Power preservation through motion-activated location reporting

• US 10,021,516 B2
• Filed: 08/04/2017
• Issued: 07/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TILE, INC. (Life360 Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: TILE, INC. (Life360 Incorporated)
• Inventors: Farley, Michael George, Evans, Nicholas George
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Danh
• Application Number:
  US15/669,667
• Publication Number:
  US 20170332196A1
• Time in Patent Office: 340 Days
• Field of Search: 4554566, 4554563, 4554565, 4555501, 455418
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/245 from a network towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A tracking device can securely communicate with a secondary device by generating a hash value based on the identity of the tracking device. If the secondary device cannot resolve the hash value, the hash value can be provided to a tracking server, such as a cloud server, for resolving the hash value. Upon resolving the hash value, the tracking server can store a location of the tracking device in association with the identity of the tracking device. To preserve power, the secondary device can activate location-detection functionality (such as a GPS receive) only in response to the detection of movement of the tracking device, can obtain location information, and can de-activate the location-detection functionality upon providing the location information to the tracking server. The tracking server can associate one or both of a previous location and the current location information based on movement of the tracking device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing, by a tracking device to a mobile device, a request for a location of the tracking device, the request signal identifying the tracking device, the mobile device configured to activate a location-detection component of the mobile device in response to receiving the request, to determine the location of the mobile device, to provide the determined location of the mobile device in association with the identity of the tracking device to a central tracking system, and to de-activate the location-detection component of the mobile device after the determined location of the mobile device is provided to the central tracking system;

in response to detecting, by a motion-detection component of the tracking device, movement of the tracking device, providing a second request for a location of the tracking device to the mobile device, the second request identifying the tracking device and further indicating the detected movement of the tracking device, the mobile device configured to determine a second location of the mobile device and to provide the determined second location of the mobile device in association with the identity of the tracking device; and

in response to not detecting, by the motion-detection component of the tracking device, movement of the tracking device, halting further requests from the tracking device for a location of the tracking device until one of movement of the tracking device is detected and the passage of a pre-determined interval of time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the provided request for the location of the tracking device comprises a signal broadcast as a Bluetooth-format advertisement or connection event.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the motion-detection component comprises a gyroscope or an accelerometer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the location-detection component comprises a Global Positioning System (“

GPS”

) receiver.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined location comprises geographic coordinates.

6. A system comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions that, when executed, perform steps comprising;

providing, by a tracking device to a mobile device, a request for a location of the tracking device, the request signal identifying the tracking device, the mobile device configured to activate a location-detection component of the mobile device in response to receiving the request, to determine the location of the mobile device, to provide the determined location of the mobile device in association with the identity of the tracking device to a central tracking system, and to de-activate the location-detection component of the mobile device after the determined location of the mobile device is provided to the central tracking system;

in response to detecting, by a motion-detection component of the tracking device, movement of the tracking device, providing a second request for a location of the tracking device to the mobile device, the second request identifying the tracking device and further indicating the detected movement of the tracking device, the mobile device configured to determine a second location of the mobile device and to provide the determined second location of the mobile device in association with the identity of the tracking device; and

in response to not detecting, by the motion-detection component of the tracking device, movement of the tracking device, halting further requests from the tracking device for a location of the tracking device until one of movement of the tracking device is detected and the passage of a pre-determined interval of time; and

a hardware controller configured to execute the instructions.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the provided request for the location of the tracking device comprises a signal broadcast as a Bluetooth-format advertisement or connection event.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the motion-detection component comprises a gyroscope or an accelerometer.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the location-detection component comprises a Global Positioning System (“

GPS”

) receiver.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the determined location comprises geographic coordinates.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform steps comprising:

providing, by a tracking device to a mobile device, a request for a location of the tracking device, the request signal identifying the tracking device, the mobile device configured to activate a location-detection component of the mobile device in response to receiving the request, to determine the location of the mobile device, to provide the determined location of the mobile device in association with the identity of the tracking device to a central tracking system, and to de-activate the location-detection component of the mobile device after the determined location of the mobile device is provided to the central tracking system;

in response to detecting, by a motion-detection component of the tracking device, movement of the tracking device, providing a second request for a location of the tracking device to the mobile device, the second request identifying the tracking device and further indicating the detected movement of the tracking device, the mobile device configured to determine a second location of the mobile device and to provide the determined second location of the mobile device in association with the identity of the tracking device; and

in response to not detecting, by the motion-detection component of the tracking device, movement of the tracking device, halting further requests from the tracking device for a location of the tracking device until one of movement of the tracking device is detected and the passage of a pre-determined interval of time.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the provided request for the location of the tracking device comprises a signal broadcast as a Bluetooth-format advertisement or connection event.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the motion-detection component comprises a gyroscope or an accelerometer.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the location-detection component comprises a Global Positioning System (“

GPS”

) receiver.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the determined location comprises geographic coordinates.

16. A method comprising:

transmitting, by a tracking device, an advertisement signal identifying the tracking device, the advertisement signal, when received by a mobile device application corresponding to the tracking device, configured to cause the mobile device application to activate a location-detection component of the mobile device, to determine a location of the mobile device, to provide the determined location and the tracking device identity to a tracking system, and to subsequently deactivate the location-detection component of the mobile device;

until subsequent movement of the tracking device is detected, halting further transmissions of advertisements signals by the tracking device; and

in response to detecting subsequent movement of the tracking device, transmitting by the tracking device a second advertisement signal identifying the tracking device.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the advertisement signal comprises a Bluetooth-format advertisement.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the movement of the tracking device is detected using a gyroscope or an accelerometer of the tracking device.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the tracking device and the mobile device are associated with a common owner.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the tracking device and the mobile device are associated with different owners.