Geofence information delivery systems and methods

• US 10,025,800 B2
• Filed: 01/19/2018
• Issued: 07/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GeoFrenzy, Inc
• Original Assignee: GeoFrenzy, Inc
• Inventors: Jones, Benjamin T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Hitesh
• Application Number:
  US15/875,682
• Publication Number:
  US 20180143999A1
• Time in Patent Office: 179 Days
• Field of Search: 709224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

The present invention is directed to methods and systems for querying a database of geofences. A method for querying a database of geofences in the present invention includes generating at a device a first request comprising an Internet Protocol address, converting the IP address to a geographic location, identifying one or more geofences associated with the geographic location, and creating a first response to the first request wherein the first response comprises information describing the one or more geofences.

Claims

1. A method for delivering geofence information by one or more processors, comprising:

generating at a device a first request, wherein the first request is a Domain Name System (DNS) query comprising an Internet Protocol (IP) address;

converting the IP address to a geographic location point;

matching the geographic location point to at least one anchor point, wherein a single anchor point of the at least one anchor point defines a geofence, is located on or within a geofence boundary, and is a geofence address;

creating a first response to the first request, wherein the first response is a DNS response comprising the at least one anchor point;

generating at the device at least one second request, wherein the at least one second request is a second DNS query comprising one of the at least one anchor point;

identifying a geofence associated the one of the at least one anchor point;

identifying fence points of the identified geofence; and

creating at least one second response to the at least one second request wherein the at least one second response comprises information describing the identified geofence, including the fence points of the identified geofence;

wherein the information describing the identified geofence comprises an indication whether the identified geofence is verified or unverified and at least one class of the identified geofence;

wherein the IP address is an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address; and

wherein the DNS query and the second DNS query are validated by DNS Security (DNSSEC).

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first response to the first request corresponds to a Region of Interest (ROI).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information describing the identified geofence further comprises an entitlement of the identified geofence, a time-to-live value, or a context summary of the identified geofence.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein converting the IP address to the geographic location point comprises using the IP address as a database key and querying a geofence database with data stored thereon for IP addresses, anchor points for geofences, and coordinate points for geofences.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first request, the at least one second request, converting the IP address to the geographic location point, the IP address, the at least one anchor point, or the information describing the identified geofence is displayed via a Graphical User Interface (GUI), wherein the GUI comprises an interactive map showing boundaries and the fence points of the one or more geofences.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the IP address is associated with an Internet connection, wherein the device is located within a connection range of the Internet connection when the step of creating a first response to the first request is performed.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the IP address is associated with a WiFi connection, wherein the device is located within signal range of at least one WiFi access point associated with the WiFi connection when the step of creating the first response to the first request is performed.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering the at least one anchor point by the at least one class of the identified geofence.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one class of the identified geofence is encoded in a CNAME, TXT, or other Resource Record.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing geometry of the identified geofence at the device and computing actions based on the geometry of the identified geofence and the information describing the geofence.

11. A system for a geofence delivery network, comprising:

at least one geofence database with at least one geofence; and

at least one server comprising a processor, a memory, a conversion engine, and a search engine;

wherein a geofence is defined by one anchor point, wherein the one anchor point is located on or within a geofence boundary and is at least one geofence address;

wherein the conversion engine is configured to convert between an Internet Protocol (IP) address and a coordinate point of a geographic location;

wherein the search engine is configured to match the coordinate point of the geographic location to at least one anchor point;

wherein the search engine is configured to receive a Domain Name System (DNS) query via a network and query the at least one geofence database to identify one or more anchor points;

wherein the search engine is further configured to query the at least one geofence database to identify one or more geofences with corresponding fence points;

wherein the search engine is operable to send a DNS response comprising the one or more anchor points, information describing the one or more identified geofences, and/or the corresponding fence points;

wherein the information describing the one or more identified geofences comprises at least one of an indication whether each of the one or more identified geofences is verified or unverified and at least one class of the one or more identified geofences;

wherein the IP address is an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address; and

wherein the DNS query is validated by DNS Security (DNSSEC).

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a Graphical User Interface (GUI), wherein the GUI is configured to receive a request and display a response.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the GUI comprises an interactive map showing boundaries, and the corresponding fence points of the one or more identified geofences.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the DNS response further comprises an entitlement of the one or more identified geofences, a time-to-live value, and a context summary of the one or more identified geofences.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein search engine is operable to validate the DNS query with DNSSEC.

16. The system of claim 11, further comprising an application program communicating with the at least one server and the at least one geofence database via the network.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the information describing the one or more identified geofences is stored in the geofence database.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one geofence is non-centriodal.

19. A method for delivering geofence information by one or more processors, comprising:

establishing a connection to an application program installed on at least one computing device;

receiving and processing a first request from the at least one computing device over a network, the first request comprising an Internet Protocol (IP) address;

converting the IP address to a geographic location point, and matching at least one anchor point corresponding to the geographic location point through a database using the IP address as a database key, wherein a single anchor point of the at least one anchor point defines a geofence, is located on or within a geofence boundary, and is an address of the geofence;

identifying one or more geofences corresponding to the at least one anchor point;

identifying a range of geographic location points associated with fence points of one or more geofences;

creating a response to the first request wherein the response comprises information describing the one or more geofences, including the range of geographic location points within the one or more geofences;

wherein the range of geographic location points within the one or more geofences correspond to fence points for the one or more geofences;

wherein the first request is a Domain Name System (DNS) query and wherein the response is a DNS response;

wherein the response to the first request corresponds to a Region of Interest (ROI);

wherein the information describing the one or more geofences includes an entitlement of the one or more geofences;

wherein the one or more geofences is defined by at least one geographic designator, wherein the at least one geographic designator is the geographic location point or a set of geographic location points;

wherein the IP address is an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address; and

wherein the DNS query is validated by DNS Security (DNSSEC).