Tracking device operation in risk-classified zone

• US 10,075,811 B1
• Filed: 12/14/2017
• Issued: 09/11/2018
• 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): Zewdu, Meless
• Application Number:
  US15/841,884
• Time in Patent Office: 271 Days
• 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 set of high risk zones, each high risk zone of the set of high risk zones associated with a geographic boundary, wherein a probability that the tracking device is lost when located within the geographic boundary is higher than a probability that the tracking device is lost when located outside the geographic boundary;

receiving, by the central tracking system from a mobile device, a location of the tracking device, the mobile device configured to provide the location of the tracking device to the central tracking system in response to receiving a communication from the tracking device;

determining, by the central tracking system, that the tracking device is located within a high risk zone of the set of high risk zones in response to the received location being located within the geographic boundary associated with the high risk zone; and

in response to determining that the tracking device is located within the high risk zone, providing, by the central tracking system, an instruction to the mobile device to configure the tracking device to operate in a high risk zone mode, the mobile device configured to configure the tracking device to operate in the high risk zone mode in response to receiving the instruction.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the high risk zone of the set of high risk zones is defined by an owner of the tracking device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the high risk zone of the set of high risk zones is identified based on historical location data or behavior data of the tracking device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a first high risk zone of the set of high risk zones is identified based on historical location data and behavior data of additional tracking devices associated with the central tracking system.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first high risk zone comprises a geographic area in which a subset of the additional tracking devices were previously lost.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a high risk zone of the set of high risk zones comprises one of:

an airport, a train station, a concert venue, a location associated with a sporting event, a location associated with public transit, a store, or a shopping mall.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the location of the tracking device comprises a location of the mobile device when the mobile device receives the communication from the tracking device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the frequency of communication transmissions increases when the tracking device switches from operating in a normal operation mode to the high risk zone mode.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the tracking device, when operating in the high risk zone mode, uses more power relative to the tracking device operating in a normal operation mode.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the tracking device, when operating in the high risk zone mode, transmits communications at a greater power than when operating in a normal operation mode.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the central tracking system is configured to classify the tracking device, when configured to operate in the high risk zone mode, as lost after a first threshold amount of time has passed, and wherein the central tracking system is configured to classify the tracking device, when configured to operate in a normal operation mode, as lost as a second threshold amount of time longer than the first threshold amount of time has passed.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the central tracking system, a second location of the tracking device;

determining, by the central tracking system, that the tracking device is located outside of the high risk zone in response to the received second location being located outside the geographic boundary associated with the high risk zone; and

in response to determining that the tracking device is located outside of the high risk zone, providing, by the central tracking system, a second instruction to the mobile device to configure the tracking device to operate in a normal operating mode, the mobile device configured to configure the tracking device to operate in the normal operating mode in response to receiving the second instruction.

13. 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 set of high risk zones, each high risk zone of the set of high risk zones associated with a geographic boundary, wherein a probability that a tracking device is lost when located within the geographic boundary is higher than a probability that the tracking device is lost when located outside the geographic boundary;

receiving, by the central tracking system from a mobile device, a location of the tracking device, the mobile device configured to provide the location of the tracking device to the central tracking system in response to receiving a communication from the tracking device;

determining, by the central tracking system, that the tracking device is located within the high risk zone of the set of high risk zones in response to the received location being located within the geographic boundary associated with the high risk zone; and

in response to determining that the tracking device is located within the high risk zone, providing, by the central tracking system, an instruction to the mobile device to configure the tracking device to operate in a high risk zone mode, the mobile device configured to configure the tracking device to operate in the high risk zone mode in response to receiving the instruction.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the tracking device is configured to operate in the high risk zone mode until an owner of the tracking device manually configures the tracking device to operate in a different mode.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the tracking device is configured to operate in the high risk zone mode until the tracking device moves outside of the geographic boundary associated with the high risk zone mode.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the tracking device is configured to operate in the high risk zone mode until the central tracking system provides a second instruction to the mobile device to configure the tracking device to operate in a different mode.

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

receiving, by a mobile device, a communication from the tracking device, the communication identifying the tracking device;

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;

receiving, by the mobile device, an indication that the tracking device is located within a high risk zone from the central tracking system, the central tracking system configured to access information describing a set of high risk zones each associated with a geographic boundary and to determine if the determined location is located within a geographic boundary associated with the high risk zone of the set of high risk zones, wherein a probability that the tracking device is lost when located within the geographic boundary associated with the high risk zone is higher than a probability that the tracking device is lost when located outside the geographic boundary of the high risk zone; and

in response to receiving the indication that the tracking device is located within the high risk zone, configuring, by the mobile device, the tracking device to operate in a high risk zone mode.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the mobile device is configured to provide more frequent notifications regarding the location of the tracking device or the status of a connection between the tracking device and the mobile device when the tracking device is configured to operate in the high risk zone mode relative to when the tracking device is configured to operate in a normal operating mode.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the mobile device, when the tracking device is configured to operate in the high risk zone mode, is configured to provide a notification that the tracking device is potentially lost after a passage of a first interval of time during which no communications are received from the tracking device, and wherein the mobile device, when the tracking device is configured to operate in a normal operating mode, is configured to provide the notification that the tracking device is potentially lost after a passage of a second interval of time longer than the first interval of time during which no communications are received from the tracking device.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the mobile device, when the tracking device is configured to operate in the high risk zone mode and when a communicative connection between the mobile device and tracking device has been severed, is configured to notify a user of the mobile device immediately that the communicative connection between the mobile device and the tracking device has been severed, and wherein the mobile device, when the tracking is configured to operate in a normal operating mode, is configured to wait until a passage of a threshold amount of time before notifying the user that the communicative connection between the mobile device and the tracking device has been severed.