Systems and methods for location and movement tracking using GPS enabled cell phones

• US 20100022255A1
• Filed: 11/03/2008
• Published: 01/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tara Chand Singhal
• Original Assignee: Tara Chand Singhal
• Inventors: Singhal, Tara Chand
• Granted Patent: US 11,272,321 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/457
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• 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 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/24 Transfer of terminal data

Abstract

A system of tracking location and movement of geographically dispersed entities with a cell phone with a GPS function, has a slave agent operable in the phone that collects location data from the GPS function and periodically sends a time and location data record to a master cell phone using prior art wireless network. The master cell phone has a master agent operable in the master cell phone that receives and saves the location data record, and plots and displays a location plot of each of the entity, enabling the master cell phone to track and display location and movement data of a plurality of entity cell phones that are geographically dispersed. The system requires the entity phone to be attached to or in possession of each of the entities.

Claims

1. A system of tracking location and movement of geographically dispersed entities, using a GPS enabled wireless cell phone with a GPS function, comprising:

a. a slave agent operable in the cell phone that collects location data from the GPS function and sends a time and location data record to a master cell phone;

b. a master agent, operable in the master cell phone, receives and saves the location data record, and plots and displays a location of each of the entities, when the GPS enabled phone is attached to or in possession of each of the entities.

2. The system as in claim 1, comprising:

the master cell phone tracks and displays location and movement data of a one or more of entities that are geographically dispersed enabling the system used for applications from a group that includes, (i) parents monitoring their children traveling to and from to school and extended activity away from home, (ii) scout master monitoring scouts on a hiking trips and ranger station monitoring hikers, where the master phone is at base station, (iii) a base station monitoring a vehicle fleet, unmanned vehicles such as exploration robots, and monitoring goods in transit and in storage, and (iv) electronic monitoring of people under court order, where the GPS phone is enclosed in an electronic monitoring jacket.

3. The system as in claim 1, the slave agent includes:

a. a help function activated by a help function key that sends a help message to the master cell phone;

b. a push to talk function that is activated by a talk function key to dial out a connection to the master cell phone.

4. The system as in claim 1, further comprising:

the master agent sends a location query to the slave agent and the slave agent responds with the entity phone location from the GPS function.

5. The system as in claim 1, further comprising:

the slave agent suppresses sending location message records, when there is no change in location from the previous location message record sent to the master cell phone.

6. The system as in claim 1, further comprising:

the master agent in the master cell phone sends command and data messages to the slave agent in the GPS cell phone to include turn on/off sending location feature in the slave agent in the GPS enabled cell phone, and the slave agent in the GPS phone receives commands and data from the master agent in the master cell phone.

7. The system as in claim 1, further comprising:

the slave agent in the GPS phone has means to uniquely identify, verify, and authorize the commands and data from the master agent in the master cell phone via encryption and remote user authentication and digital signature techniques and the master agent in the master phone, has means to uniquely identify, and verify and authorize the location data as having come from a specific slave agent in a specific GPS enabled cell phone.

8. The system as in claim 1, further comprising:

the master agent in the master phone has means to specify a geographic boundary for each of the entities, and when the entity crosses the boundary to generate an advisory alarm in the master phone.

9. The system as in claim 1, further comprising:

a user interface in the master agent enables setup features of the system to be specified to include, entity names and the groups they belong, tracking on demand or periodically, and choices of display between map, distance and geography.

10. The system as in claim 1, further comprising:

the master agent enables automatic display of location and movement by a display in distance, display by street map and display by geography features.

11. A method of tracking location and movement of geographically dispersed entities, using a GPS enabled cell phone with a GPS function, comprising the steps of:

a. operating a slave software agent in the phone, the agent collecting location data from the GPS function and sending a time and location data record via SMS protocol to a master cell phone;

b. operating a master software agent in the master cell phone with, the agent receiving and saving the location data record, and plotting and displaying a location plot of each of the entity, enabling the master cell phone to track and display location and movement data of a plurality of entities that are geographically dispersed, by attaching the GPS phone or giving for possession to each entity.

12. The method as in claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

sending a location query by the master agent to the slave agent and the slave agent responding with the entity phone location from the GPS function.

13. The method as in claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

a. suppressing sending location messages by the agent in the GPS enabled phone, when there is no change in location from the previous location message.

b. suppressing recording of SMS messages in the GPS enabled phones by the slave agent in the GPS phone.

14. The method as in claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

a. sending command and data including a message by the master agent in the master cell phone to the slave agent in the GPS cell phone to turn on/off location feature in each GPS enabled cell phone;

b. receiving commands and data by the slave agent in the GPS phone from the master agent in the master cell phone.

15. The method as in claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

a. uniquely identifying, verifying and authorizing the commands and data by the slave agent in the GPS phone from the master agent in the master cell phone;

b. the master agent in the master phone has means to uniquely identify, and verify and authorize the location data from the slave agent in the master cell phone.

16. The method as in claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

specifying a boundary in the master agent in the master phone, for each of the entity, and when the entity crosses the boundary to generating an alarm in the master phone.

17. The method as in claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

loading the master agent to a master phone from an internet server, the master agent then wirelessly loading the slave agent in each of the GPS phones.

18. A means of tracking location and movement of geographically dispersed entities, comprising:

a. a GPS enabled cell phone with a GPS function means, has a slave agent means that collects location data from the GPS function and periodically sends a time and location data record via SMS protocol to a master cell phone;

b. the master cell phone has a master agent means that receives and saves the location data record, and plots and displays a location plot of each of the entity, enabling the master cell phone to track and display location and movement data of a plurality of GPS enabled cell phones, that are geographically dispersed.

19. The means as in claim 18, further comprising:

the master agent in the master phone has means for specifying a boundary for each of the entities and when the entity crosses the boundary to an alarm generating means in the master phone.

20. The means as in claim 18, further comprising:

means for loading the master agent to a master phone from an internet server, the master agent means then loading the slave agent in each of the GPS phones wirelessly.