Tracking device operation in risk-classified geographic area

• US 10,070,256 B1
• Filed: 12/14/2017
• Issued: 09/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TILE, INC. (Life360 Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: TILE, INC. (Life360 Incorporated)
• Inventors: Puppala, Arunkumar, Cheng, Liuyin, Patterson, Wayne
• Primary Examiner(s): Nealon, William
• Application Number:
  US15/841,874
• Time in Patent Office: 264 Days
• Field of Search: 4554563
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/01 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/05 Anti-theft or abduction
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/01 Determining conditions which influence positioning, e.g. radio environment, state of motion or energy consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02 using radio waves using satellite radio beacon systems for determining position G01S19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0205 Details
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0294 Trajectory determination or predictive filtering, e.g. target tracking or Kalman filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0295 Proximity-based methods, e.g. position inferred from reception of particular signals
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/24 Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/00 Security arrangements; Authentication; Protecting privacy or anonymity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/185 by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/23 for mobile advertising
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/30 Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/38 for collecting sensor information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/42 : for mass transport vehicles, e.g. buses, trains or aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 : Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• 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 48/04 : based on user or terminal location or mobility data, e.g. moving direction, speed
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0206 : in access points, e.g. base stations access point devices per se H04W88/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 : where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0258 : controlling an operation mode according to history or models of usage information, e.g. activity schedule or time of day
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/00 : Network data management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/10 : between location register and external networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/12 : between location registers or mobility servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/14 : between corresponding nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/16 : selectively restricting mobility data tracking
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Tracking devices can be associated with safe zones, smart zones, and high risk zones. Safe zones correspond to regions where a likelihood that a tracking device is lost within the safe zone is lower than outside the safe zone. High risk zones correspond to regions where a likelihood that a tracking device is lost within the high risk zone is higher than outside the high risk zone. Smart zones correspond to an expected tracking device, mobile device, or user behavior. Home areas are geographic regions in which a user resides, and travel areas are geographic regions in which a user does not reside. A tracking device can be configured to operate in a mode selected based on a presence of the tracking device within a safe zone, a smart zone, a high risk zone, a home area, or a travel area.

Claims

1. A method for locating a tracking device, comprising:

accessing, by a central tracking system, information describing a home area, the home area comprising a first geographic region in which a user of the tracking device resides;

accessing, by the central tracking system, information describing a travel area, the travel area comprising a second geographic region in which the user of the tracking device does not reside, wherein a boundary of the second geographic region is associated with a higher likelihood that the user will lose an object to which the tracking device is coupled when within the boundary of the second geographic region than when the user is within a boundary of the first geographic region;

in response to determining that the user is located within the home area, providing, by the central tracking system, a first instruction to a mobile device of the user to configure the tracking device to operate in a first mode, the mobile device configured to configure the tracking device to operate in the first mode in response to receiving the first instruction; and

in response to determining that the user is located within the travel area, providing, by the central tracking system, a second instruction to the mobile device to configure the tracking device to operate in a second mode, the mobile device configured to configure the tracking device to operate in the second mode in response to receiving the second instruction, wherein the tracking device is configured to transmit communications at a higher frequency when configured to operate in the second mode than when configured to operate in the first mode.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first geographic region comprises an area within a threshold distance from the user'"'"'s home.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first geographic region comprises a city, town, or neighborhood in which the user lives.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first geographic region is defined by the user.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating, by the central tracking system, the second geographic region in response to determining that the user is located at an airport outside of the first geographic region, and wherein the second geographic region includes a city in which the airport is located.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating, by the central tracking system, the second geographic region in response to determining that the user is located at one of a bus station, a train station, or a hotel outside of the first geographic region, and wherein the second geographic region includes a city in which the bus station, the train station, or the hotel is located.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating, by the central tracking system, the second geographic region in response to determining that the user is traveling, and wherein the second geographic region includes a city to which the user is traveling.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating, by the central tracking system, the second geographic region in response to a user request.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the user is located within the home area comprises receiving, from the mobile device, a location of the mobile device and determining that the received location is located within the first geographic region.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the user is located within the travel area comprises receiving, from the mobile device, a location of the mobile device and determining that the received location is located within the second geographic region.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the central tracking system and while the tracking device is configured to operate in the second mode, that the user has left the travel area while the tracking device remains within the travel area; and

in response to determining that the user has left the travel area while the tracking device remains within the travel area, flagging the tracking device as lost.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein flagging the tracking device as lost comprises flagging the tracking device as lost independent of receiving an input from the user.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the tracking device is further configured to transmit communications a higher transmission power when configured to operate in the second mode than when configured to operate in the first mode.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform steps for locating a tracking device comprising:

accessing, by a central tracking system, information describing a home area, the home area comprising a first geographic region in which a user of the tracking device resides;

accessing, by the central tracking system, information describing a travel area, the travel area comprising a second geographic region in which the user of the tracking device does not reside, wherein a boundary of the second geographic region is associated with a higher likelihood that the user will lose an object to which the tracking device is coupled when within the boundary of the second geographic region than when the user is within a boundary of the first geographic region;

in response to determining that the user is located within the home area, providing, by the central tracking system, a first instruction to a mobile device of the user to configure the tracking device to operate in a first mode, the mobile device configured to configure the tracking device to operate in the first mode in response to receiving the first instruction; and

in response to determining that the user is located within the travel area, providing, by the central tracking system, a second instruction to the mobile device to configure the tracking device to operate in a second mode, the mobile device configured to configure the tracking device to operate in the second mode in response to receiving the second instruction, wherein the tracking device is configured to transmit communications at a higher frequency when configured to operate in the second mode than when configured to operate in the first mode.

15. A method for locating a tracking device, comprising:

receiving, by a mobile device, a communication from a tracking device of a user, the communication identifying the tracking device, the user associated with a home area comprising a first geographic region in which the user resides;

in response to receiving the communication, determining, by the mobile device, the location of the mobile device;

providing, by the mobile device, the determined location and an identity of the tracking device to a central tracking system;

in response to receiving an indication from the central tracking system that the tracking device is located within the home area, configuring, by the mobile device, the tracking device to operate in a first mode; and

in response to receiving an indication from the central tracking system that the tracking device is located within a travel area comprising a second geographic region in which the user does not reside, configuring, by the mobile device, the tracking device to operate in a second mode, wherein the mobile device is configured to generate more notifications regarding the tracking device when configured to operate in the second mode than when configured to operate in the first mode, and wherein a boundary of the second geographic region is associated with a higher likelihood that the user will lose an object to which the tracking device is coupled when within the boundary of the second geographic region than when the user is within a boundary of the first geographic region.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the mobile device is configured to generate a notification indicating that a connection between the mobile device and the tracking device has been severed in response to 1) waiting a threshold amount of time when the tracking device is configured to operate in the first mode without receiving a communication from the tracking device or 2) waiting an amount of time less than the threshold amount of time when the tracking device is configured to operate in the second mode without receiving a communication from the tracking device.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the mobile device is configured to generate a notification indicating that the tracking device might be lost in response to 1) determining that a distance between the mobile device and the tracking device exceeds a first threshold when the tracking device is configured to operate in the second mode, or 2) determining that the distance between the mobile device and the tracking device exceeds a second threshold greater than the first threshold when the tracking device is configured to operate in the first mode.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the mobile device is configured to 1) generate a notification indicating that the tracking device might be lost in response to determining that a distance between the mobile device and the tracking device exceeds a first threshold when the tracking device is configured to operate in the second mode, and 2) not generate the notification indicating that the tracking device might be lost in response to determining that the distance between the mobile device and the tracking device exceeds the first threshold when the tracking device is configured to operate in the first mode.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein a likelihood that a lost tracking device will be found is greater for tracking devices lost within the home area than for tracking devices lost within the travel area.