Systems and methods for beacon device fleet management

• US 10,191,137 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2017
• Issued: 01/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Weaver, Mark William, Sasaki, Peter, Morace, Jonathan Robert, Scellato, Salvatore
• Primary Examiner(s): Hua, Quan M
• Application Number:
  US15/838,545
• Publication Number:
  US 20180113188A1
• Time in Patent Office: 413 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/024 of beacon transmitters
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/68 Marker, boundary, call-sign, or like beacons transmitting signals not carrying directional information
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0236 Assistance data, e.g. base station almanac
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• 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 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/244 using a network of reference devices, e.g. beaconing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment

Abstract

Systems and methods for beacon device fleet management are provided. One example system includes a plurality of beacon devices, a plurality of mobile computing devices, a fleet management system, and a fleet owner computing devices. One example method includes receiving, by the fleet management system, a device status request from the fleet owner computing device. The fleet management system determines one or more operational statuses of beacon devices owned by the fleet owner and transmits data indicative of the one or more operational statuses to the fleet owner computing device. The operational statuses can include a current detection status (e.g., online or offline), a location status, a power source status, and/or other operational parameters.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to enable beacon device fleet management, the method comprising:

receiving, by a fleet management system, a plurality of observation reports respectively from a plurality of mobile computing devices, each observation report identifying at least one of a plurality of beacon devices observed by a reporting mobile computing device and describing at least a time at which the reporting mobile computing device observed the identified at least one beacon device;

analyzing, by the fleet management system, at least a portion of the plurality of observation reports that are associated with a first beacon device to determine a detection interval for the first beacon device, the detection interval comprising an amount of time that is based at least in part on a historical observation frequency at which the first beacon device has been observed by the mobile computing devices;

comparing, by the fleet management system, the detection interval of the first beacon device to a difference between a current time and a timestamp of a most recent observation report associated with the first beacon device; and

determining, by the fleet management system, a detection status of the first beacon device based at least in part on the comparison of the detection interval of the first beacon device to the difference between the current time and the timestamp of the most recent observation report associated with the first beacon device, wherein the detection status is indicative of a current operation status of the first beacon device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the detection status of the first beacon device provides an indication of whether the first beacon device is actively broadcasting or not actively broadcasting.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining, by the fleet management system, the detection status comprises:

when the difference between the current time and the timestamp of the most recent observation report is greater than the detection interval, designating, by the fleet management system, the first beacon device as not currently detected; and

when the difference between the current time and the timestamp of the most recent observation report is less than the detection interval, designating, by the fleet management system, the first beacon device as currently detected.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the fleet management system from a fleet owner computing device, a device status request that requests an operational status of at least the first beacon device of the plurality of beacon devices; and

transmitting, by the fleet management system to the fleet owner computing device, data that describes at least the determined detection status of the first beacon device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein said analyzing, comparing, and determining are performed in response to receipt of the device status request from the fleet owner computing device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein transmitting, by the fleet management system to the fleet owner computing device, data that describes at least the determined detection status of the first beacon device comprises transmitting, by the fleet management system to the fleet owner computing device, data that further describes the timestamp of the most recent observation report.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein receiving, by the fleet management system from the fleet owner computing device, the device status request comprises receiving, by the fleet management system from the fleet owner computing device via an application programming interface, the device status request that requests the operational status of at least the first beacon device of the plurality of beacon devices.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein analyzing, by the fleet management system, at least the portion of the plurality of observation reports that are associated with the first beacon device to determine the detection interval for the first beacon device comprises:

selecting, by the fleet management system in real-time, the portion of the plurality of observation reports based at least in part on respective timestamps included in the plurality of observation reports;

determining, by the fleet management system in real-time, the historical observation frequency at which the first beacon device has been observed by mobile computing devices based at least in part on the selected portion of the plurality of observation reports; and

determining, by the fleet management system in real-time, the detection interval for the first beacon device based at least in part on the determined historical observation frequency.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein selecting, by the fleet management system in real-time, the portion of the plurality of observation reports based at least in part on respective timestamps included in the plurality of observation reports comprises selecting, by the fleet management system, only the portion of the plurality of observation reports that have timestamps included in a time window.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein selecting, by the fleet management system in real-time, the portion of the plurality of observation reports based at least in part on respective timestamps included in the plurality of observation reports comprises selecting, by the fleet management system, only a predefined number of the most recently received observation reports associated with the first beacon device.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting, by the fleet management system, a change in the detection status of the first beacon device from currently detected to not currently detected; and

in response to detection of the change in the detection status, transmitting, by the fleet management system, an alert to a fleet owner computing device that indicates the detected change in detection status of the first beacon device from currently detected to not currently detected.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first beacon device comprises a non-stationary beacon device.

13. A computing system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more non-transitory computer-readable media that collectively store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system to perform operations, the operations comprising;

receiving a plurality of observation reports respectively from a plurality of mobile computing devices, each observation report corresponding to an observation of a first beacon device by the reporting mobile device;

analyzing the plurality of observation reports to determine a detection interval for the first beacon device, the detection interval comprising an amount of time that is based at least in part on a historical observation frequency at which the first beacon device has been observed by the mobile computing devices;

comparing the detection interval of the first beacon device to a difference between a current time and a timestamp of a most recent observation report associated with the first beacon device; and

determining a detection status of the first beacon device based at least in part on the comparison of the detection interval of the first beacon device to the difference between the current time and the timestamp of the most recent observation report associated with the first beacon device, wherein the detection status is indicative of a current operation status of the first beacon device.

14. The computing system of claim 13, wherein the detection status of the first beacon device provides an indication of whether the first beacon device is actively broadcasting or not actively broadcasting.

15. The computing system of claim 13, wherein determining the detection status comprises:

when the difference between the current time and the timestamp of the most recent observation report is greater than the detection interval, designating the first beacon device as not currently detected; and

when the difference between the current time and the timestamp of the most recent observation report is less than the detection interval, designating the first beacon device as currently detected.

16. The computing system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a device status request that requests an operational status of at least the first beacon device of the plurality of beacon devices; and

transmitting data that describes at least the determined detection status of the first beacon device.

17. The computing system of claim 13, wherein the operations of analyzing, comparing, and determining are performed in response to receipt of the device status request from the fleet owner computing device.

18. The computing system of claim 13, wherein analyzing the plurality of observation reports to determine the detection interval for the first beacon device comprises:

selecting a portion of the plurality of observation reports based at least in part on respective timestamps associated with the plurality of observation reports;

wherein selecting the portion comprises;

selecting only a predetermined number of the most recent observation reports;

or

selecting only observation reports that have been received within a threshold amount of time.

19. The computing system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

detecting a change in the detection status of the first beacon device from currently detected to not currently detected; and

in response to detection of the change in the detection status, transmitting an alert to a fleet owner that indicates the detected change in detection status of the first beacon device from currently detected to not currently detected.

20. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media that collectively store instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations, the operations comprising;

receiving a plurality of observation reports respectively from a plurality of mobile computing devices, each observation report corresponding to an observation of a first beacon device by the reporting mobile device;

analyzing the plurality of observation reports to determine a detection interval for the first beacon device, the detection interval comprising an amount of time that is based at least in part on a historical observation frequency at which the first beacon device has been observed by the mobile computing devices;

comparing the detection interval of the first beacon device to a difference between a current time and a timestamp of a most recent observation report associated with the first beacon device; and

determining a detection status of the first beacon device based at least in part on the comparison of the detection interval of the first beacon device to the difference between the current time and the timestamp of the most recent observation report associated with the first beacon device, wherein the detection status is indicative of a current operation status of the first beacon device.