Electronic fence (E-Fence) control technology for dockless sharing vehicles

• US 10,290,211 B2
• Filed: 10/11/2017
• Issued: 05/14/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: China Superoo Network Technology Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: China Superoo Network Technology Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Lin, Shaorong, Hu, Zijie, Wang, Xinbo, Li, Angyun
• Primary Examiner(s): Previl, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US15/730,026
• Publication Number:
  US 20180330614A1
• Time in Patent Office: 580 Days
• Field of Search: 3409322, 3404255, 3404261, 340429, 340937-938, 340958, 340990, 3409951, 34042616, 34042619, 34042622, 340432, 340441, 340457
• CPC Class Codes: B62H 5/00 Appliances preventing or indicating unauthorised use or theft of cycles; Locks integral with cycles fittings for preventing or indicating use or theft of vehicles in general B60R; general features of locks E05B
• CPC Class Codes: B62H 5/20 indicating unauthorised use, e.g. acting on signalling devices alarm locks in general E05B45/00, e.g. alarm cable or chain lock E05B45/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0057 for the hiring or rent of vehicles, e.g. cars, bicycles or wheelchairs car rental G07B15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/246 provided with vehicle proximity-detectors detecting hidden masses, e.g. metal detectors, G01V, e.g. G01V3/00; proximity switches per se H03K17/00; traffic control systems G08G1/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/0636 in which the trolleys or carts are kept in a restricted zone such as a coral-like enclosure, or are passing a gate before use is possible
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/144 on portable or mobile units, e.g. personal digital assistant [PDA]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/149 coupled to means for restricting the access to the parking space, e.g. authorization, access barriers, indicative lights
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/207 with respect to certain areas, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas with possible alerting when inside or outside boundaries
• 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 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]

Abstract

The present disclosure discloses a dockless vehicle-based electric fence control method. The method comprises: demarcating and forming, by a backend server, a non-parking area and/or a riding boundary of a vehicle by using a map engine tool, wherein longitude and latitude coordinates at which the non-parking area and/or the riding boundary is located is stored into a database of the backend server; when ride comes to an end, sending, by a mobile terminal or intelligent hardware installed in a ridden vehicle, the parking position coordinates of a current vehicle to the backend server; and receiving, by the backend server, parking position coordinates of the vehicle, comparing the parking position coordinates of the vehicle with the database, determining whether the parking position coordinates of the current vehicle are located in the non-parking area or beyond the riding boundary, and feeding back a determining result to the mobile terminal and/or the intelligent hardware. According to the present disclosure, existing problems that shared vehicles are inappropriately parked and placed and there is no riding boundary, which hinder management and operation of vehicles, are solved. By setting a virtual electric fence, as well as related non-parking areas and riding boundaries, parking of vehicles is regulated, and management is strengthened.

Claims

1. A dockless vehicle-based electric fence control method, comprising:

demarcating and forming, by a backend server, a non-parking area of a vehicle by using a map engine tool, and storing longitude and latitude coordinates of the non-parking area into a database of the backend server;

when a ride comes to an end, sending, by a mobile terminal or intelligent hardware installed in a ridden vehicle, parking position coordinates of a current vehicle to the backend server; and

receiving, by the backend server, the parking position coordinates of the vehicle, calling the database for comparison, determining whether the parking position coordinates of the current vehicle are located in the non-parking area, and feeding back a determining result to the mobile terminal and/or the intelligent hardware.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

demarcating and forming, by the backend server, a riding boundary of the vehicle by using the map engine tool again, and storing longitude and latitude coordinates of the riding boundary into the database of the backend server;

when the ride comes to an end, sending, by the mobile terminal or the intelligent hardware installed in the ridden vehicle, the parking position coordinates of the current vehicle to the backend server; and

receiving, by the backend server, the parking position coordinates of the vehicle for comparison with the database, and determining whether the parking position coordinates of the current vehicle are beyond the riding boundary;

wherein, the coverage of the riding boundary is not less than the coverage of the non-parking area as set.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein, only when the vehicle is near to the riding boundary as set, the mobile terminal voluntarily display the geometric figure corresponding to riding boundary that is returned to the mobile terminal.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

when the backend server determines that a parking position of the current vehicle is located within the demarcated coverage of the non-parking area or beyond the riding boundary, pushing, by the backend server, a message to the mobile terminal and/or issuing an alarm instruction to the intelligent hardware in the vehicle for alarming.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the method further comprises:

when the user'"'"' riding trip comes to an end, sending to the backend server, by the mobile terminal, an instruction request for finishing the trip, and a coordinate information of the real-time position;

or, locking an intelligent electronic lock of the vehicle, so that the intelligent hardware sends, to the backend server, an instruction message for finishing the trip.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the method further comprises:

when the ride comes to an end, and the backend server determines that the parking position coordinates of the vehicle are located in a non-parking area or beyond the riding boundary, pushing, by the backend server, a message to the mobile terminal and/or issuing an alarm instruction to the intelligent hardware in the vehicle for alarming, wherein the backend server further sets a handling time for the inappropriately parked vehicle and waits until the vehicle is unlocked and ridden away, and if it is not found by the backend server that the lock is re-unlocked within a set time, the backend server repeatedly reminds the mobile terminal and/or repeats the alarming.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein the method further comprises:

determining the position in a realtime way and wirelessly sending, by the mobile terminal, current position coordinates of the ridden vehicle to the backend server; and

receiving, by the backend server, the current position coordinates of the ridden vehicle sent by the mobile terminal, calculating a non-parking area and/or a riding boundary within a coverage near to the coordinates, and returning the non-parking area and/or the riding boundary to the mobile terminal for displaying.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein a method for demarcating the map engine tool comprises:

redeveloping a region engine tool to enable the region engine tool to draw a geometric figure on a map by using one or more of a point, a line segment, a circle, and a polygon to form the non-parking area and the riding boundary.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

rendering, by an api interface of the map engine tool, the formed non-parking area and riding boundary, and highlighting the formed non-parking area and riding boundary on a mobile terminal screen of a user, so that within a riding process of the user, the mobile terminal continuously requests the backend server for data synchronization rendering.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

editing and modifying the geometric figure drawn of the non-parking area and the riding boundary, to complete updating of the non-parking area and the riding boundary.