Tracking device operation in behavior-classified zone

• US 10,117,052 B1
• Filed: 12/14/2017
• Issued: 10/30/2018
• 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:
  US15/841,877
• Time in Patent Office: 320 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 smart zones, each smart zone associated with a geographic boundary and a smart zone category, wherein an expected behavior of a tracking device located within a smart zone is different than an expected behavior of the tracking device outside the smart zone;

receiving, by a 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 smart zone of the set of smart zones in response to the received location being located within the geographic boundary associated with the smart zone; and

in response to determining that the tracking device is located within the smart zone, providing, by the central tracking system, an instruction to the mobile device to configure the tracking device to operate in a smart zone mode based on the category of the smart zone, the mobile device configured to configure the tracking device to operate in the smart zone mode in response to receiving the instruction.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the category of the smart zone comprises one of:

a restaurant, a gym, and a church.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a first smart zone of the set of smart zones is identified based on historical location data of a population of tracking devices.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the category of the first smart zone is determined from an identification of the category by one or more owners of the population of tracking devices.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the category of the first smart zone is determined by querying an external location database with the historical location data of the population of tracking devices.

6. 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.

7. 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 smart zone in response to the received second location being located outside the geographic boundary associated with the smart zone; and

in response to determining that the tracking device is located outside of the smart 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.

8. 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 smart zones, each smart zone associated with a geographic boundary and a smart zone category, wherein an expected behavior of a tracking device located within a smart zone, of the set of smart zones, different than an expected behavior of the tracking device outside the smart zone;

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 with the smart zone of the set of smart zones in response to the received location being located within the geographic boundary associated with the smart zone; and

in response to determining that the tracking device is located within the smart zone, providing, by the central tracking system, an instruction to the mobile device to configure the tracking device to operate in a smart zone mode based on the category of the smart zone, the mobile device configured to configure the tracking device to operate in the smart zone mode in response to receiving the instruction.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the tracking device is configured to operate in the smart zone mode for a threshold amount of time, after which the tracking device is configured to operate in a normal operation mode.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the tracking device is configured to operate in the smart zone mode until a movement sensor of the tracking device detects movement of the tracking device.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the tracking device is configured to operate in the smart zone mode until the mobile device determines that the tracking device moves outside the geographic boundaries associated with the smart zone.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the tracking device is configured to operate in the smart 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.

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

receiving, by a mobile device, a communication from a 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 smart zone from the central tracking system, the central tracking system configured to access information describing a set of smart zones each associated with a geographic boundary and a smart zone category and to determine if the determined location is located within the geographic boundary associated with a smart zone, of the set of smart zones, wherein an expected behavior of the tracking device located within the smart zone is different than an expected behavior of the tracking device outside the smart zone; and

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

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the mobile device is configured to provide fewer notifications about the tracking device when the tracking device is configured to operate in the smart zone mode than when the tracking device is configured to operate in a normal operating mode.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the mobile device, when configured to operate in the smart zone mode, is configured to wait a first threshold amount of time before notifying a user that a connection between the mobile device and the tracking device has been severed, the first threshold amount of time longer than a second threshold amount of time the mobile device, when configured to operate in a normal operating mode, is configured to wait before notifying the user that the connection between the mobile device and the tracking device has been severed.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the expected behavior of the tracking device when the tracking device is located within the smart zone comprises an amount of time that an owner of the tracking device is likely to be out of communicative range of the tracking device, and wherein the first threshold amount of time is selected based on the amount of time.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the amount of time that the owner of the tracking device is likely to be out of the communicative range of the tracking device is determined based on historical behavior of a set of tracking devices.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the amount of time that the owner of the tracking device is likely to be out of the communicative range of the tracking device is determined based on a default amount of time associated with the category of the smart zone.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the mobile device, when configured to operate in the smart zone mode, is configured to wait a first threshold amount of time before notifying a user that a connection between the mobile device and the tracking device has been severed, the first threshold amount of time shorter than a second threshold amount of time the mobile device, when configured to operate in a normal operating mode, is configured to wait before notifying the user that the connection between the mobile device and the tracking device has been severed.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the expected behavior of the tracking device when the tracking device is located within the smart zone comprises the tracking device will never be out of communicative range of the mobile device.