MANAGEMENT OF LOCATIONS OF GROUP MEMBERS VIA MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES

• US 20080146205A1
• Filed: 12/14/2006
• Published: 06/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Aaron, Jeffrey
• Granted Patent: US 8,116,748 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/18 Comparators
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2044 Group features, e.g. closed user group
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4228 in networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42357 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5322 for recording text messages

Abstract

The location of group members having mobile communications devices such as cellular telephones, PDAs, and the like are managed by maintaining group member location awareness among the individual group members. The location of each group member is known on the basis of the determined location of the mobile communications device of each, either in absolute terms or in relative terms. The absolute and/or relative location may be reported by the mobile communications devices, such as to a mobile communications device of an administrator of the group or directly to individual group members. Rules may be established for providing notifications such as alerts and alarms to the group members when a group member strays from the group or from a fixed reference point and information may be provided to the straying member to assist the straying member in returning to the group.

Claims

1. A mobile communications device, comprising:

a wireless communications transceiver;

a location determination device;

a memory storing a first identifier of the mobile communications device and one or more identifiers for other mobile communications devices in a group; and

a processor configured to report information specifying a determined location generated by the location determination device in association with the first identifier to at least one other mobile communications device for which an identifier is stored and to receive information specifying a current location and identifier of at least one other mobile communications device, the processor being further configured to compare the determined location generated by the location determination device relative to a specified location parameter, compare the current location of the at least one other mobile communications device to the specified location parameter, and generate a notification upon determining that the determined location or the current location of the other mobile communication device is outside of the specified location parameter.

2. The mobile communications device of claim 1, wherein the wireless communications transceiver is a short-range transceiver.

3. The mobile communications device of claim 1, wherein the wireless communications transceiver is a wireless network transceiver.

4. The mobile communications device of claim 3, further comprising a short-range wireless communications transceiver, and wherein the processor is configured to report the information via the short-range wireless communications transceiver when in short-range of the at least one other mobile communications device to which the information is being sent and to report the information via the wireless network transceiver when not in short-range of the at least one other mobile communications device.

5. The mobile communications device of claim 1, wherein the specified location parameter is a maximum allowable distance threshold between the determined location of the mobile communications device and the current location of the other mobile communications device and wherein the processor is further configured to determine the distance between the location of the mobile communications device and the location of the other mobile communications device and generate the notification when the distance exceeds the maximum allowable distance threshold.

6. The mobile communications device of claim 5, wherein the processor is configured to keep track of an amount of time that the distance has exceeded the maximum allowable distance threshold and generate the notification once the time exceeds a time threshold.

7. The mobile communications device of claim 5, wherein the distance from the at least one other mobile communications device comprises at least one of:

distance from a closest mobile communications device of the group, distance from a calculated centroid of the group, distance from a mobile communications device at a center of the group, distance from a mobile communications device of an administrator of the group, and distance from a mobile communications device of a defined sub-group of the group.

8. The mobile communications device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to determine a distance between the mobile communications device and a reference point and to determine a distance between the at least one other mobile communications device and the reference point, determine whether the mobile communications device or the at least one other mobile communications device exceeds a distance threshold from the reference point, and generate a notification when either the mobile communications device or the at least one other mobile communications device exceeds the distance threshold from the reference point, wherein the reference point is either fixed or dynamic.

9. A method of grouping users of mobile communications devices, comprising:

at a mobile communications device of one of the users, storing in memory a first identifier of the mobile communications device and one or more identifiers for other mobile communications devices in a group;

determining a current location of the mobile communications device at the mobile communications device;

reporting from the mobile communications device information specifying the determined location in association with the first identifier to at least one other mobile communications device for which an identifier is stored;

receiving at the mobile communications device information specifying a current location and an identifier of at least one other mobile communications device of the group;

determining whether the mobile communications device or the at least one other mobile communication device has exceeded a maximum distance threshold from a point of reference specified for the group; and

when the mobile device or the at least one other mobile communications device has exceeded the maximum distance threshold, then generating a notification at the mobile communications device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining whether the mobile communications device or the at least one other mobile communications has exceeded a maximum distance threshold occurs at the mobile communications device.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the point of reference specified for the group comprises at least one of distance from a closest mobile communications device of the group, distance from a calculated centroid of the group, distance from a mobile communications device at a center of the group, distance from a mobile communications device of an administrator of the group, and distance from a mobile communications device of a defined sub-group of the group.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining an amount of time that the distance has been exceeded and comparing to an amount of time that a distance may be exceeded prior to generating the notification.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating the notification upon determining that the amount of time that the distance has been exceeded is greater than the amount of time that the distance may be exceeded.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the notification comprises instructions for returning to the group.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the instructions include at least one of commands to re-join the group by moving in a certain direction, looking for a nearest other device of the group, moving toward a specified landmark, and following a sequence of specified movements.

16. A computer readable medium containing instructions that perform acts comprising:

at a mobile communications device of a user of a group, storing in memory a first identifier of the mobile communications device and one or more identifiers for other mobile communications devices in the group;

determining a current location of the mobile communications device at the mobile communications device;

reporting from the mobile communications device information specifying the determined location in association with the first identifier to at least one other mobile communications device for which an identifier is stored;

receiving at the mobile communications device information specifying a current location and an identifier of at least one other mobile communications device of the group;

determining whether the mobile communications device or the at least one other mobile communication device has exceeded a maximum distance threshold from a point of reference based on a current position of the group members; and

when the mobile device or the at least one other mobile communications device has exceeded the maximum distance threshold, then generating a notification at the mobile communications device.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the point of reference is a distance from a closes group member.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the point of reference is a distance from a centroid of the group.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the point of reference is a fixed or dynamic reference point within a perimeter surrounding a current position of at least one of the group members.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the acts further comprise completing a call between the mobile communications device and the at least one other mobile communications device when either the mobile communications device or the at least one other mobile communications device exceeds the maximum distance threshold.