Wireless location assisted zone guidance system

• US 10,080,346 B2
• Filed: 10/23/2017
• Issued: 09/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GPSip, Inc.
• Original Assignee: GPSip, Inc.
• Inventors: Landers, Rodney P., Nieuwsma, Kevin L., James, Chad R., Erickson, Michael D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Parsley, David J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Clerkley, Danielle A
• Application Number:
  US15/791,315
• Publication Number:
  US 20180055011A1
• Time in Patent Office: 337 Days
• Field of Search: 119719-721, 3405731, 3405733, 3405734
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 15/023 Anti-evasion devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2237 Vectors, bitmaps or matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2264 Multidimensional index structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2282 Tablespace storage structures; Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

A look-up table is defined by at least one reference point, and rows and columns that are offset from the reference. The table rows and columns correspond to ordinate and abscissa data points representing geographic locations. Each data point offset in the table corresponds to a predefined geographic offset. The look-up table contains machine-stored values at each table location, with each value representing a particular one of several guidance zones. The real-time determination of the guidance zone is made by first determining present location using GPS or other wireless location signals. The corresponding table location is identified by calculating latitudinal and longitudinal offsets from a reference point, and using these offsets as the two indices to access a double-indexed array. The value retrieved from the indexed array identifies the guidance zone. Each guidance zone has an associated set of characteristics used to provide behavioral guidance to an animal.

Claims

1. A wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal, having a collar, a wireless location determination apparatus configured to generate a current latitude and current longitude of a current geographic location of said collar, at least one animal stimulation apparatus carried by said collar, a processor coupled to said wireless location determination apparatus and operative to receive said current latitude and said current longitude information therefrom, memory accessible by said processor, a human interface, and a plurality of guidance zones defined using said latitude and longitude information, each one of said plurality of guidance zones having an associated unique set of characteristics used by said processor to provide behavioral guidance stimulation to said animal through said animal stimulation apparatus, wherein the improvement comprises:

a data table that is stored in said memory, has a pair of indices, and contains a plurality of unique locations within said data table that are populated with a plurality of guidance zone values;

a first one of said pair of indices corresponding to longitude;

a second one of said pair of indices corresponding to said latitude;

said pair of indices in combination identifying a single one of said plurality of unique locations within said data table;

each one of said plurality of unique locations within said data table that is also within a one of said plurality of assisted guidance zones storing an individual one of said plurality of guidance zone values;

individual ones of said guidance zone values stored in said data table identifying individual ones of said plurality of guidance zones,

wherein said processor is configured to retrieve a guidance zone value stored in said data table at a single data table location defined by a first index value corresponding with said current longitude and a second index value corresponding with said current latitude and use said associated unique set of characteristics to provide behavioral guidance stimulation to said animal through said animal stimulation apparatus.

2. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of tiles of two-dimensional data, each one of said plurality of tiles representative of unique geographic latitude and longitude locations;

wherein each one of said plurality of tiles of two-dimensional data further comprises a reference location corresponding to a specific geographic latitude and longitude; and

wherein said processor is adapted to operatively selectively load a unique one of said plurality of tiles of two-dimensional data into said memory responsive to reception by said processor of latitude and longitude information from said wireless location determination apparatus and responsive to comparison by said processor of said received latitude and longitude information with said tile reference locations.

3. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal of claim 2, wherein said memory further comprises volatile memory and non-volatile memory, and only a one of said plurality of tiles is stored in said volatile memory at a time, while all others of said plurality of tiles remain solely in said non-volatile memory.

4. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal of claim 1, wherein said data table is stored in said memory as a double-indexed array.

5. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal of claim 1, wherein said wireless location determination apparatus, said processor, and said memory are local to said collar.

6. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal of claim 1, wherein said processor is configured responsive to said retrieved guidance zone value to select a single one of said associated unique set of characteristics used by said processor to provide behavioral guidance stimulation to said animal through said animal stimulation apparatus.

7. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal of claim 1, wherein said plurality of assisted guidance zones further comprise:

a safe zone associated with a first behavioral guidance stimulation;

an alert zone circumscribing said safe zone associated with a second behavioral guidance stimulation different from said first behavioral guidance stimulation; and

an out-of-bounds zone circumscribing said alert zone associated with a third behavioral guidance stimulation different from said first and second behavioral guidance stimulations.

8. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal of claim 7, wherein said plurality of assisted guidance zones further comprise:

a warning zone circumscribing said alert zone and circumscribed by said out-of-bounds zone, said warning zone associated with a fourth behavioral guidance stimulation different from said first, second, and third behavioral guidance stimulations.

9. A wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal, having a collar, a wireless collar location determination apparatus, at least one animal stimulation apparatus carried by said collar, a processor coupled to said wireless location determination apparatus and operative to receive latitude and longitude information therefrom, memory accessible by said processor, a human interface, and a plurality of guidance zones defined using said latitude and longitude information, each one of said plurality of guidance zones having an associated unique set of characteristics used by said processor to provide behavioral guidance stimulation to said animal through said animal stimulation apparatus, wherein the improvement comprises:

a data table stored in said memory as a two-dimensional array having an axis of ordinates and an axis of abscissae, a first one of said axis of ordinates and axis of abscissae corresponding to longitude and a second one of said axis of ordinates and axis of abscissae corresponding to said latitude;

a plurality of guidance zone values stored in said data table, with each guidance zone value stored in said data table identifying a one of a safe zone associated with a first behavioral guidance stimulation, an alert zone circumscribing said safe zone associated with a second behavioral guidance stimulation different from said first behavioral guidance stimulation, and an out-of-bounds zone circumscribing said alert zone associated with a third behavioral guidance stimulation different from said first and second behavioral guidance stimulations;

said processor adapted to retrieve a guidance zone value from a unique location in said data table, said data table unique location defined by said received longitude information corresponding to a first one of a data table ordinate and a data table abscissa and by said received latitude information corresponding to a second one of said data table ordinate and said data table abscissa.

10. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal of claim 9, wherein said wireless location determination apparatus, said processor, and said memory are local to said collar.

11. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal of claim 9, wherein said processor is configured responsive to said retrieved guidance zone value to select a single one of said associated unique set of characteristics used by said processor to provide behavioral guidance stimulation to said animal through said animal stimulation apparatus.

12. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal of claim 9, further comprising:

a plurality of tiles of two-dimensional data generated automatically by said processor, each one of said plurality of tiles representative of a unique portion of a single map outer limit;

wherein each one of said plurality of tiles of two-dimensional data further comprises a reference location corresponding to a specific geographic latitude and longitude; and

wherein said processor is adapted to operatively selectively load a unique one of said plurality of tiles of two-dimensional data into said memory responsive to reception by said processor of latitude and longitude information from said wireless location determination apparatus and responsive to comparison by said processor of said received latitude and longitude information with said tile reference locations.

13. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal of claim 12, wherein said memory further comprises volatile memory and non-volatile memory, and only a one of said plurality of tiles is stored in said volatile memory at a time, while all others of said plurality of tiles remain solely in said non-volatile memory.

14. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal of claim 9, wherein each position within said data table stores a single one of said guidance zone values.

15. A wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal, having a collar, a wireless location determination apparatus local to and configured to generate a current latitude and current longitude of a current geographic location of said collar, at least one animal stimulation apparatus carried by said collar, a processor local to said collar and coupled to said wireless location determination apparatus and operative to receive said current latitude and said current longitude information therefrom, memory local to said collar and accessible by said processor, a human interface, and a plurality of guidance zones defined using said latitude and longitude information, each one of said plurality of guidance zones having an associated unique set of characteristics used by said processor to provide behavioral guidance stimulation to said animal through said animal stimulation apparatus, wherein the improvement comprises:

a data table that is stored in said memory as a double-indexed array, has a pair of indices, and contains a plurality of guidance zone values stored within said data table;

a first one of said pair of indices corresponding to longitude;

a second one of said pair of indices corresponding to said latitude;

individual ones of said guidance zone values stored in said data table identifying individual ones of said plurality of guidance zones;

said data table divided into a plurality of tiles of two-dimensional data;

each one of said plurality of tiles having a reference location corresponding to a specific geographic latitude and longitude;

said memory comprising volatile memory and non-volatile memory;

said processor adapted to operatively selectively load a unique one of said plurality of tiles of two-dimensional data into said volatile memory responsive to reception by said processor of latitude and longitude information from said wireless location determination apparatus and responsive to comparison by said processor of said received latitude and longitude information with said tile reference locations while all others of said plurality of tiles remain solely in said non-volatile memory;

said processor configured to retrieve a guidance zone value stored in said data table at a single data table location defined by a first index value calculated by subtracting said tile reference location longitude from said wireless location determination apparatus longitude information and a second index value calculated by subtracting said tile reference location latitude from said wireless location determination apparatus latitude information and configured responsive to said retrieved guidance zone value to select a single one of said associated unique set of characteristics used by said processor to provide behavioral guidance stimulation to said animal through said animal stimulation apparatus.

16. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system of claim 15, wherein said processor is configured to determine said first index value by subtracting said tile reference location longitude from said wireless location determination apparatus longitude information and is configured to determine said second index value by subtracting said tile reference location latitude from said wireless location determination apparatus latitude information.

17. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system of claim 15, wherein said wireless location determination apparatus, said processor, and said memory are local to said at least one animal stimulation apparatus.

18. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal of claim 15, wherein each position within each one of said plurality of guidance zones defined within said data table stores a single one of said guidance zone values.