Method for conveyance of event information to individuals interested devices having phone numbers

• US 10,602,364 B2
• Filed: 08/21/2019
• Issued: 03/24/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PerdiemCo LLC
• Original Assignee: PerdiemCo LLC
• Inventors: Diem, Darrell
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Congvan
• Application Number:
  US16/547,408
• Publication Number:
  US 20190380036A1
• Time in Patent Office: 216 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561, 4554563, 4554022, 455461, 340988, 340991, 340992, 340994, 34054911
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10366 the interrogation device being adapted for miscellaneous applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 5/22 using electric transmission; using electromagnetic transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/10 including a GPS signal receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/084 using delegated authorisation, e.g. open authorisation [OAuth] protocol
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/30 : Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes
• 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 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

An improved system and method for defining an event based upon an object location and a user-defined zone and managing the conveyance of object location event information among computing devices where object location events are defined in terms of a condition based upon a relationship between user-defined zone information and object location information. One or more location information sources are associated with an object to provide the object location information. One or more user-defined zones are defined on a map and one or more object location events are defined. The occurrence of an object location event produces object location event information that is conveyed to users based on user identification codes. Accessibility to object location information, zone information, and object location event information is based upon an object location information access code, a zone information access code, and an object location event information access code, respectively.

Claims

1. A method for conveyance of event information to individuals interested in locating drivers using mobile devices having phone numbers, the method being used in a tracking service provided over a network of computing devices to groups of authorized users who carry mobile devices associated with location information sources that indicate locations of the authorized users, including the individuals in a user group and drivers in driver groups, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) managing a database management system application (DBMSA) executed on one or more servers configured to provide access to authorized user accounts under multiple levels of privilege specified based roles of the authorized users, said roles being specified in the DBMSA as a driver role in driver groups and an individual role in the user group;

said driver groups including a first group of drivers who carry a first group of mobile devices in a plurality of zones identified in the DBMSA by zone IDs, a second group of drivers who carry a second group of mobile devices for being located in the zones, and a third group of individuals who carry a third group of mobile devices for locating the drivers based on a zone ID of a zone;

(b) using a first level of privilege of an administrator of the tracking service to provide access authorizations to the authorized user accounts;

wherein the administrator controls membership of the authorized users in the groups by adding the individuals to the user group and adding the drivers to the driver groups;

(c) after providing the access authorizations, using the first level of privileges before giving corresponding second levels of privilege to the drivers for being located by the individual and giving corresponding third levels of privilege to the individuals for locating the drivers based on events set by the individuals,

(d) receiving log in requests into drivers'"'"' user accounts that contain IDs and passwords of the drivers before providing the corresponding second levels of privilege for selecting one of the first group of drivers or the second group of drivers, wherein the administrator adds the drivers to the first group of drivers or the second group of drivers;

(e) receiving log in requests into the individuals'"'"' user accounts that contain IDs and passwords of the individuals before providing user interfaces to the individuals to use corresponding third levels of privilege for selecting one of the first group of drivers or the second group of drivers,

(f) conveying locations of the individuals on mobile devices carried by the drivers that are in a selected group of drivers by the individual, wherein the mobile devices carried by the drivers in the selected group of drivers display maps showing the location of the individuals within streets of the zone;

(g) conveying locations of the drivers in the selected group of drivers to mobile devices carried by the individuals who select the group of drivers, wherein the mobile devices carried by the individuals display maps showing the location of the drivers in the selected group of drivers within streets of the zone;

(h) receiving address locations set by the individuals using the mobile devices within the zone;

(i) receiving access lists specified by the individuals that identify recipients of alerts sent based on the address location;

(j) after receiving an address location, determining occurrence of an event, wherein the event occurs based on proximity of location of an individual who set the address location relative to locations of divers in a selected group of drivers by the individual who carries a mobile device having a phone number; and

(k) after the event occurs cause

     1) an event notification to be sent to the mobile device based on the phone number and

     2) an alert to be sent to a recipient based on an access list specified by the individual.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a first network of computing devices has a first administrator which is the administrator of the tracking service, wherein the DBMSA is executed in a second network of computing devices independent of the first network, wherein a first computing device in the first network is used to cause transmission of a request to exercise the first level of administrative privilege for performing one or more first administrative functions in a tracking application software, which configures the one or more servers to convey the event notification, the request containing a first administrator ID of the first administrator, wherein an authorization is received based on the first administrator ID to exercise the first level of administrative privilege, the authorization being received from a second computing device in the second network of computing devices that includes the one or more servers, which execute the tracking application software by accessing a database (DB) maintained by a second administrator of the second network that authorizes the request to exercise the first level of administrative, the first level of administrative privilege including a privilege to use one or more central or distributed control stations to control access to the authorized user accounts of the authorized users in the groups identified in the database by corresponding group IDs associated with the first administrator ID in the DB.

3. A method used by a tracking service that tracks locations of mobile objects for controlling conveyance of event notifications that are conveyed to authorized users of the tracking service based on mobile object locations, the authorized users having authorized user accounts used in a tracking application software of the tracking service that when executed in one or more computing devices comprising one or more servers is configurable to track the mobile object locations for determining occurrences of events that meet event conditions related to the locations of the mobile objects, wherein the locations of the mobile objects are determined based on information received from wireless location information sources (LISs), the method comprising:

(a) using a first computing device in a first network of computing devices to cause transmission of a request to exercise a first level of administrative privilege given to a first administrator of the tracking service for performing one or more first administrative functions using the tracking application software, which configures the one or more servers to determine whether the event conditions are met before conveying the event notifications, the request containing a first administrator ID of the first administrator;

(b) receiving an authorization based on the first administrator ID to exercise the first level of administrative privilege, the authorization being received from a second computing device in a second network of computing devices that includes the one or more servers, which execute the tracking application software by accessing a database (DB) maintained by a second administrator of the second network that authorizes the request to exercise the first level of administrative, the first level of administrative privilege including a privilege to use-one or more central or distributed control stations to control access to the authorized user accounts of the authorized users in different groups identified in the database by corresponding group IDs which are associated in the DB with object IDs that identify the mobile objects in the groups;

(c) using the first level of administrative privilege to

     1) identify a group by a group ID associated with the first administrator ID in the database and

     2) control access to a group administrator account of a group administrator of the group who is identified by a group administrator ID, wherein the group ID is associated in the database with the group administrator ID, a first object ID of a first mobile object and a second object ID of a second mobile object in the group;

(d) granting access to the group administrator account based on the group administrator ID before giving a second level of administrative privilege to the group administrator to identify one or more authorized users of the group in the database including a first authorized user having a first user account identified by a first user ID associated with the group ID;

(e) granting access to the first user account based on the first user ID before receiving

     1) an event condition for occurrence of a group event that is met based on a boundary and locations of the first mobile object and the second mobile object and

     2) an access list that identifies one or more recipients of an event notification after the group event occurs; and

(f) conveying the event notifications only to the one or more recipients on the access list after determining that the event condition is met.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein a recipient is a second authorized user in the group having a second user account, wherein the event notification is conveyed to the second authorized user after granting access to the second user account based on a second user ID, which is associated with the group ID, wherein the first level of administrative privilege is used to associate the first mobile object ID and the second object ID with corresponding firs LIS and second LISs in the DB, the method further includes the steps of 1) receiving the authorization under a first level of access control based on the administrator ID before giving the second level of administrative privilege to the group administrator under a second level of access control, which is based on the group administrator ID, 2) checking a third level of access control based on the first user ID before 1) associating the event condition with an event ID in the DB and ii) identifying the second authorized user on the access list and 3) checking a fourth level of access control based on the access list before conveying the event notifications with the event ID to the second authorized user.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the second level of administrative privilege includes a privilege to associate a sub-group ID of a sub-group with the group ID in the DB and identify an authorized user in the group as a sub-group administrator having a sub-group administrator ID associated with the sub-group ID, wherein the method further comprises steps of 1) receiving the authorization under a first level of access control based on the administrator ID before giving the second level of administrative privilege to the group administrator under a second level of access control based on the group administrator ID and 2) granting access to a sub-group administrator account of the sub-group administrator based on the second level of administrative privilege before giving a third level of administrative privilege to the sub-group administrator to identify authorized users of the sub-group in the database, wherein the third level of administrative privilege is checked under a third level of access control that is based on the sub-group administrator ID, said sub-group administrator ID being received from a third computing device in a network of computing devices associated with the one or more authorized users of the group (the group network), wherein the group network is administered by the group administer, and wherein the access list identifies a recipient based on the third level of administrative privilege of the sub-group administrator, and wherein a fourth level of access control is checked based on the access list before conveying an event notification to the recipient.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the access list comprises an information access code that controls access to the event notifications such that anyone who is not identified on the access control list is not a recipient and wherein the event condition comprises a first event condition including a pre-defined event condition identified by a first event ID, which is specified at the application level of DBMSA by the first administrator and a second event condition identified by a second event ID, including a user-defined event condition specified by an authorized user in the group, wherein the event notifications are conveyed based on the first event ID and the second event ID.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the first level of administrative privilege is used to control access in a central or distributed database management system (DBMS) in the second network, which uses a DBMS application (DBMSA) executed based on multiple levels of administrative privileges that are checked under multiple levels of access control, including the first level of administrative privilege which is checked under a first level of access control based on the first administrator ID to administer the tracking application software, which interfaces with location tracking applications (LTAs) executed in the mobile objects, wherein the second level administrative privilege is checked under a second level of access control based on the group administrator ID to control conveyance of event information within the group by enabling access to the LTAs based on driver IDs.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the first level administrative privilege is used to control membership of authorized users in the groups such that the first administrator specifies the group associated with the group ID by associating an authorized user ID and a first and a second object IDs different from the authorized user ID with the group ID, wherein the method further comprises 1) checking the second level administrative privilege before providing one or more interfaces for setting a group notification for the group event, 2) adding a second authorized user to the group and 3) conveying the group notification based on the second level administrative privilege after determining an occurrence of the group event.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the first level administrative privilege is used to administer a first information sharing environment (ISE) and the second level administrative privilege is used to administer a corresponding second ISE of a plurality of second ISEs, an ISE comprising a network of computing devices used to convey information, the method further comprising:

1) checking the first level administrative privilege to control user membership in the groups by receiving authorization from the second administrator under a first level of access control that is based on the first administrator ID, the groups being defined by the first administrator having the first level administrative privilege by authorizing an authorized user to be the group administrator and

     2) checking the second level administrative privilege under a second level of access control that is based on the group administrator ID before providing one or more interfaces for setting a zone, an event and an event notification conveyed based on an information access codes comprising the access list.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first level of administrative privilege is checked by receiving authorization from the second administrator before the first administrator performs a set of first administrative functions, including giving the second level of administrative privilege to the group administrator to perform a set of group administrative functions, wherein the first administrator having the first level of administrative privilege does not perform the set of group administrative functions performed under the second level of administrative privilege given to the group administrator, the method further comprising 1) checking a first level of access control based on the administrator ID before the first administrator gives the second level administrative privilege to the group administrator;

and

     2) checking a second level of access based on the group administrator ID before the group administrator performs the second set of administrative functions, wherein a third level of access control is checked based on the access list before conveying event notifications.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the mobile objects are carried by corresponding carriers, including devices, vehicles, animals or persons identified by carrier IDs (CIDs) in the groups identified by the corresponding group IDs (GIDs) in the DB, the method further comprising:

a) using the first level of administrative privileges to provides access authorization to the authorized user accounts of the tracking service in response to received log in requests that contain IDs and passwords of the authorized users of the groups,

b) based on the login requests, providing access authorization to the authorized user accounts using a database management system application (DBMSA) executed in the one or more servers of the second network, which are configured to use the CIDs in the DBMSA for performing functions based on multiple levels of administrative privileges including the first level of administrative privilege;

c) based on the first level of administrative privilege, giving the second level of administrative privilege to perform the group administrative functions in the group identified by the group ID, wherein members of the group include

     1) the group administrator who is authorized by the first administrator to use the second level of administrative privileges after accessing the group administrator account and

     2) the first authorized user in the group who is not authorized to use the second level of administrative privilege, wherein authorization to the group administrator account is granted before performing the group administrative functions using the second level of administrative privileges.

12. A method for tracking driving events in a tracking service that track locations of vehicles which carry mobile devices identified by mobile device IDs used by drivers of the vehicles who are authorized users of the tracking service, said authorized users having authorized user accounts used to access a first tracking application software executed in one or more computing devices comprising one or more serves, where the authorized user accounts are accessed based on authorized user IDs that identify the authorized users, including divers user IDs that identify the drivers of the vehicles with corresponding driver user accounts used in the tracking service, the method comprising:

a. using a first computing device in a first network of computing devices to cause transmission of a request to exercise a first level of administrative privilege given to a first administrator of the tracking service to configure the first tracking application software to performs one or more administrative functions based on the authorized user IDs and the mobile device IDs including conveying log files that contain driving event information recoded by the mobile devices using event IDs, said driving event information indicating times or locations of a plurality of driving events including vehicle movement events and vehicle non-movement events, the request containing a first administrator ID that identifies the first administrator;

b. receiving an authorization based on the first administrator ID to exercise the first level of administrative privilege, the authorization being received from a second computing device in a second network of computing devices that includes one or more servers that execute the first tracking application software by accessing a database (DB) storing the user IDs, the mobile device IDs and the event IDs, said DB being maintained by a second administrator of the second network that authorizes the request to exercise the first level of administrative privilege;

c. using the first level of administrative in one or more central or distributed control stations to control access to the authorized user accounts of the authorized users in different groups identified in the database by corresponding group IDs before granting access to a group administrator account based on a group administrator ID that identifies a group administrator of a group identified by a group ID, which is associated in the DB with the group administrator ID and the first administrator ID, wherein a second level of administrative privilege is given to the group administrator to identify one or more authorized users of the group in the database including identifying a first authorized user having a first user account associated with a first authorized user ID and one or more drivers having corresponding driver user accounts accessible based on corresponding driver IDs, which are associated with the group ID in the DB;

d. receiving an access request containing a driver ID to log into a diver user account of a driver in the group, the request being received over a wireless link from a mobile device before granting access to a second tracking application executed at the mobile device;

e. receive a log file from the second tracking application over the wireless link that contains edits or additional information entered by the driver after the driver is granted access to the driver user account based on the driver ID;

f. granting access to the first user account based on the first authorized user ID before receiving an access list that identifies one or more recipients of the driving event information; and

g. conveying the driving event information including the event IDs only to the one or more recipients on the access list.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first level of administrative privilege is used to control access to the first tracking application software in a central or distributed database management system (DBMS) comprising a database used by a DBMS application (DBMSA), which is executed by the one or more servers under multiple levels of administrative privilege, wherein the first level of administrative privilege is checked under a first level of access control based on the first administrator ID to administer the first tracking application software, wherein the second level administrative privilege is checked under a second level of access control based on the group administrator ID to control the conveyance of the log files in the group, and wherein a third level of access control is checked based on the access list before conveying the log file to the one or more recipients, wherein the DB is classified based on corresponding one or more roles of authorized users in a company or an organization, a first role classifying an authorized user in a group of vehicles as a fleet administrator and a second role classifying the authorized users as one or more drivers of the vehicles in the group of vehicles.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the mobile devices comprise electronic logging devices (ELDs) identified in the DBMS by corresponding ELD IDs, wherein the second level of administrative privilege is used to enable the ELDs in the group to execute location tracking applications (LTAs), which record driving events and location information into log files stored in the ELDs, wherein the LTAs provide user interfaces to log into the driver user accounts over the wireless link using the ELDs, wherein the ELDs are associated with corresponding LISs that determine ELD locations based on the first level of administrative privilege, the ELDs including a first ELD associated with a first sensor that provides a first sensor information at a location of the first ELD and a second ELD associated with a second sensor that provides a second sensor information at a location of the second ELD, wherein the locations of the first and second ELDs are received respectively from a first LIS and a second LIS at different times, including a first time and a second time, which indicate a period of a driving event recorded by an LTA executed in an ELD.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first administrator is an administrator of a plurality of ELDs (ELD administrator) having access to a first administrator account in the second network based on the first administrator ID, the first administrator account being associated with the authorized users accounts in the DBSMA, when accessing the DB in the DBSM in the second network, and wherein the group administrator is an administrator of drivers of vehicles that carry the ELDs (Driver administrator) who is given access to the group administrator account to classify 1) an authorized user as a fleet administrator of a group of vehicles and 2) a plurality of authorized users as drivers of the group of vehicles, and wherein the first level of administrative privilege is used to associates the first ELD with the first LIS and the second ELD with the second LIS in the database based on the first administrator ID.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein after granting access to the driver user account, the LTA executed in the ELD determines whether a vehicle in the group of vehicles which carries the ELD is powered up and periodically receives location information from a GPS device associated with an ELD ID that identifies the ELD in the DB, wherein the location information is received at a rate used for recording the driving events at a log file in response to the LTA determining that the vehicle is powered up, the method further including the steps of 1) interfacing over a wireless network with the LTA before causing conveyance of the log file to a recipient based on an access code specified by a driver of the vehicle.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the first level of administrative privilege is used to enable access to the DBMS in the second network under an access control privilege of the Driver administrator to the driver user accounts, wherein the second level of administrative privilege is used for tracking the ELD in the group, and wherein the ELD is subject to periods of movements and periods of non-movements determined based on location information received at the different times.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the second level of administrative privilege is checked under an access control privilege of the Driver administrator based on the group administrator ID before associating 1) the group ID with a sub-group ID (SGID) of a sub-group in the group identified by the group ID and 2) an authorized user ID with a sub-group administrator having a third level of administrative privilege to control conveyance of information to one or more authorized users in the sub-group, wherein the third level of administrative privilege is checked before associating an authorized user ID with the SGID of the sub-group, which includes a plurality of ELDs.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein a mobile device is a mobile computing device (MCD) that executes a location tracking application (LTA) comprising the second tracking application, which accesses an storage device in the MCD containing the log file stored in a document, said LTA being configured to track the vehicle by recording movement or and non-movement of the vehicle after specified event conditions are met, said specified event conditions being met based on sensor information comprising one or more physical characteristics, including a first speed that characterizes movement and a second speed that characterizes non-movement;

the method including authorizing the MCD to

     1) cause execution of the LTA which periodically receives location information from a GPS device associated with the MCD;

     2) provide a first user interface configured to enable the driver to edit the document after the driver logs in the driver user account; and

     3) provide a second user interface configured to enable the driver to turn off a tracking mode of the MCD, wherein location information is periodically received from the GPS device when the tracking mode is turned off.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the driving events are tracked in a zone by interfacing with a mobile computing device (MCD) having a wireless interface, the MCD being carried in the vehicle driven by the driver for tracking the driving events based on the event IDs in the zone, which is identified by a zone ID associated with the group ID in the database, wherein the driving events is tracked using location information received from a source comprising one or more wireless devices used to locate the MCD, wherein the method further comprises the steps of sending access authorization to the driver account based on the driver ID and password received in a log-in before providing a user interface on the MCD that enables the driver to a) access an stored event log file in a storage device of the MCD and b) authorize the event log file to be conveyed.