Spatial calendar

• US 20060077055A1
• Filed: 10/06/2005
• Published: 04/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: E-Lane Systems Inc., Appy Risk Technologies Limited (Trak Global Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Intelligent Mechatronic Systems Inc. (Trak Global Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Basir, Otman Adam
• Granted Patent: US 9,100,776 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.130
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/24 Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Utilizing a spatial calendar device and service, the user can associate an event reminder to a location in space. The location can be fed into the device manually, from the map unit, GIS address book unit, or from the current reading of the GPS unit, as well as any other source of GPS location media. An event reminder can be text and/or audio to remind the user of a specific thing to do or pick once he or she approaches the location. Examples: once at the parking lot of an airport (inside the car or in the vicinity of the car), the user can associate a reminder (text, audio, or visual) to the location of his/her vehicle at the airport. In this case the system will automatically read the GPS location of the car and will prompt the user to enter an audio or text event reminder.

Claims

1. A system for generating spatially-triggered reminders comprising:

a database of events, each event including a space condition;

a position-determination system determining a current location; and

an event manager comparing the space conditions of the events to the current location and generating a notification based upon the comparison of the space conditions and the current location.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein each event further includes a time condition, the event manager further comparing the time condition with a current time and generating the notification based upon the comparison of the time condition with the current time.

3. The system of claim 2 further including a user interface providing the notification to a user, wherein the user interface is provided on a mobile device.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the mobile device includes a mobile phone.

5. The system of claim 3 wherein the mobile device includes a data cache storing the events and wherein the events are also stored on a central server.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the mobile device and the central server communicate wirelessly.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the position-determination system is at least partially located on the mobile device.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the space condition includes a location and a radius.

9. The system of claim 6 wherein the space condition includes another mobile device.

10. The system of claim 6 wherein the space condition includes a category of locations.

11. The system of claim 6 wherein the event manager compares the current location with the space condition using hysteresis.

12. A method of handling an event including the steps of:

a) associating an event with a space condition;

b) determining a current location;

c) comparing the space condition with the current location; and

d) activating the event based upon the comparison in said step c).

13. The method of claim 12 further including the steps of:

e) associating a time condition with the message;

f) comparing a current time with the time condition; and

g) activating the event in said step d) based upon the comparison in said step f).

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the current location in said step b) is the current location of a mobile device, the method further including the step of sending a notification wirelessly to the mobile device based upon said steps c) and f).

15. The method of claim 13 further including the step of sharing the event among a plurality of users.

16. The method of claim 15 further including the step of changing a status of the event for the plurality of users based upon the current location of one of the plurality of users.

17. The method of claim 12 further including the steps of:

e) determining a vehicle location while present at the vehicle location; and

f) storing the vehicle location as the space condition.

18. The method of claim 17 further including the step of generating directional instructions from the current location to the vehicle location.