APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING LOCATION AND TRACKING COORDINATES OF A TRACKING DEVICE

• US 20090174603A1
• Filed: 01/06/2008
• Published: 07/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LBT IP I LLC (Location Based Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Location Based Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Butler, David, Anderson, Roger B., Scalisi, Joseph F., Beydler, Michael L., Mejia, Desiree
• Granted Patent: US 8,102,256 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/450
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/165 combined with non-inertial navigation instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/19 Sporting applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/34 Power consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/49 whereby the further system is an inertial position system, e.g. loosely-coupled
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/10 including a GPS signal receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10

Abstract

An apparatus to monitor location coordinates of an electronic tracking device. The apparatus includes a transceiver, a signal processor, an accelerometer, and an antenna. The antenna communicates signal strength, to the signal processor associated with the electronic tracking device. In response to signal strength, a battery power monitor controls battery usage by electronic circuitry associated with the electronic tracking device. An accelerometer provides a supplemental location tracking system to improve tracking accuracy of a primary location tracking system of the electronic tracking device.

Claims

1. A portable electronic tracking device to monitor location coordinates of one or more individuals and objects comprising:

transceiver circuitry to receive at least one portion of a receive communication signal comprising location coordinates information;

accelerometer circuitry to measure displacements of the portable electronic tracking device;

a battery power monitor configured to activate and deactivate at least one portion of the transceiver circuitry and the location tracking circuitry to conserve battery power in response to a signal level of the at least one portion of the receive communication signal; and

processor circuitry configured to process the at least one portion of the receive communication signal.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the at least one portion of the receive communication signal comprises a snapshot of the receive communication signal.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the processor circuitry is further configured to compute the location coordinates of the portable electronic tracking device from the at least one portion of the receive communication signal and the displacements of the portable electronic tracking device in response to the signal level of the at least one portion of the receive communication signal.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the accelerometer comprises a multi-beam structure having at least one beam of the multi-beam structure comprising a directional orientation substantially orthogonal to at least one other beam of the multi-beam structure.

5. The device of claim 4, wherein the directional orientation substantially orthogonal to at least one other beam of the multi-beam structure comprises a multi-directional orientation to measure differential displacement accelerations in x, y, and z orientation directions utilized to compute differential location coordinates information in response to the portable electronic tracking device detection of a signal, level less than a first signal level.

6. The device of claim 4, wherein the directional orientation substantially orthogonal to at least one beam of the multi-beam structure comprises a multi-directional orientation to measure differential displacement accelerations in x, y, and z orientation directions to compute differential location coordinates information in response to the portable electronic tracking device detection of a signal level less than a first signal level.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the displacements are transmitted to a monitoring station to determine current location coordinates information of the portable electronic tracking device based in part on the displacements and at least one of last known location coordinates of the portable electronic tracking device, last known location coordinates of another electronic tracking device, and landmark location coordinates.

8. A proximately measurement location coordinates monitoring apparatus for an electronic tracking device to track by a monitoring station comprising:

an accelerometer to generate displacement vectors associated with the electronic tracking device; and

signal processor to measure a signal level of a receive communication signal comprising location coordinates information;

wherein the accelerometer activates or deactivates based in part of a value of the signal level of the receive communication signal.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein to generate displacement vectors comprises to generate differential voltage values representative of acceleration with respect to an initial location coordinates reference values, convert the differential voltage values into acceleration values that represent instantaneous acceleration values of the electronic tracking device;

and communicate the acceleration values to the monitoring station.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the monitoring station converts the acceleration values to delta positional values and calculates current location coordinates information of the electronic tracking device in response to initial location coordinates reference values and delta positional values.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the monitoring station comprises a mobile phone electrically coupled to a wireless communication network to communicate information between the electronic tracking device and the mobile phone.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising an additional accelerometer responsive to physical impacts of the electronic tracking device;

wherein a user is alerted of the physical impacts based in part on a magnitude value of the physical impacts.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

a multitude of additional accelerometers to provide outputs responsive to physical impacts of the electronic tracking device in a variety of physical orientations;

wherein the monitoring station contacts an individual on a contact list in response to magnitude of the outputs above a threshold level; and

wherein the contact list and the threshold level in response to inputs from a system administrator or a user.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

a power amplifier to amplify a signal level of at least one of the receive communication signal and a transmit communication signal; and

battery monitor circuitry to measure available battery power and adjust power usage to the power amplifier responsive to available battery power and to a signal level of the receive communication signal.

15. Tire apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

power amplifier circuitry;

location tracking circuitry; and

battery management circuitry to adjust a power level applied to the location tracking circuitry and the power amplifier responsive to the signal level.

16. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the first signal level comprises a threshold value determined by a user or system administrator to deactivate location tracking circuitry and power amplifier circuitry and to activate the accelerometer to measure differential voltage values responsive to a measurement of displacement of the electronic tracking device from known reference coordinate values.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the known reference coordinate values comprise a last known location of the electronic tracking device.

18. A method to control power usage comprising:

measuring receive communication signal level by primary location tracking circuitry of an electronic tracking device communicated by a primary location tracking system;

reducing applied power level to the primary location tracking circuitry in response to measurement of a receive communication signal level less than a first signal level;

increasing applied power level to supplemental location tracking circuitry response to measurement of the receive communication signal less than the first signal level;

determining differential positional measurements based in part on acceleration measurements of supplemental location tracking circuitry associated with a secondary location tracking system; and

determining positional coordinates of electronic tracking device responsive to a known reference coordinate values and the differential positional measurements.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the receive communication signal, less than a first signal level comprises an attenuated receive communication, signal less than a first signal level in response to the electronic tracking device moving to at least one of a partially enclosed or substantially enclosed structure at least partially blocked from communication with the primary location tracking system.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising the steps of:

reactivating the primary location tracking circuitry in response to measurement of the receive communication signal above the first signal level;

wherein the primary location tracking system comprises a wireless location, tracking system;

wherein the supplemental location, tracking system comprises an accelerometer; and

wherein, the known reference coordinate values comprise last known coordinate values of the electronic tracking device.

21. A portable electronic tracking device to monitor location coordinates of one or more individuals and objects comprising:

transceiver circuitry to receive at least one portion, of a receive communication signal comprising location coordinates information;

accelerometer circuitry to measure displacements of the portable electronic tracking device;

a battery power monitor configured to activate and deactivate at least one portion of signaling circuitry in response to the accelerometer circuitry detecting a substantially stationary position of the electronic tracking device since last known location coordinate measurement; and

processor circuitry configured to process the displacements.

22. The device of claim 21, wherein the displacements comprise movements of an object or individual associated with the electronic tracking device.

23. The device of claim 22, wherein, the processor circuitry is further configured to associate the displacements with a specified pattern and generate an alert message in response to the specified pattern.

24. The device of claim 21, wherein the accelerometer comprises a multi-beam structure having at least one beam, of the multi-beam structure comprising a directional orientation substantially orthogonal to at least one other beam of the multi-beam structure.