SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING LOCATION OF AN ITEM

• US 20130069782A1
• Filed: 12/16/2011
• Published: 03/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Infosys Limited
• Original Assignee: Infosys Limited
• Inventors: Duggal, Jagjit, Agarwal, Manish
• Granted Patent: US 9,049,545 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.32
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0723 the record carrier comprising an arrangement for non-contact communication, e.g. wireless communication circuits on transponder cards, non-contact smart cards or RFIDs
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/2417 having a radio frequency identification chip
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/2462 Asset location systems combined with EAS inventory, tracking, logistic G06Q10/00; entrance control systems G07C9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42348 Location-based services which utilize the location information of a target
• 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: 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 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• 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 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a system and method for determining a location of an item using the services of an existing cellular infrastructure. A search request comprising a first item identifier of the item is received by a tracking service server from a user. A second item identifier of the item is retrieved by the tracking service server from a tracking service database. A search signal comprising the second item identifier is transmitted from the tracking service server to at least one mobile service provider system. The search signal is transmitted by the at least one mobile service provider system to a plurality of communicatively coupled transmitting towers which are configured to locate the item by capturing radio frequency signals, comprising the second item identifier, emitted by an identification tag coupled to the item.

Claims

1. A method for determining a location of an item, the method comprising:

receiving a search request from a communication device of a user by a tracking service server, the search request comprising a first item identifier of the item;

retrieving, by the tracking service server, a second item identifier of the item from a tracking service database wherein the second item identifier is stored against the first item identifier in the tracking service database;

transmitting a search signal by the tracking service server to at least one mobile service provider system, the search signal comprising the second item identifier;

transmitting the search signal by the at least one mobile service provider system to a plurality of transmitting towers communicatively coupled with the at least one mobile service provider;

capturing radio frequency signals emitted by an identification tag coupled with the item by a transmitting tower in the plurality of transmitting towers when the search signal is received by the transmitting tower, wherein the radio frequency signals include the second item identifier of the item; and

transmitting a location message by the transmitting tower to the at least one mobile service provider system when the second item identifier of the item emitted by the identification tag is received by the transmitting tower, the location message comprising a location information of the item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting tower captures the radio frequency signals when the item exists within a location range of the transmitting tower.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the location information of the item is a function of a set of location coordinates of the transmitting tower.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving by the at least one mobile provider system the location information and the second item identifier from the location message;

communicating by the at least one mobile provider system the location information and the second item identifier to the tracking service server; and

communicating by the tracking service server, a response message to the user, the response message comprising the location information of the item.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the tracking service database further comprises:

a plurality of items registered with the tracking service server,

a plurality of contact information of a plurality of users to whom one or more of the plurality of items belong, and

a plurality of first item identifiers and a plurality of second item identifiers of the plurality of items.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising

retrieving contact information of the user from the plurality of contact information for the step of communicating a response message, the contact information being stored against the second item identifier of the item in the tracking service database.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a lock request by the tracking service server from the user for deactivating the item wherein the item is at least one of an electronic device and an electromechanical device;

transmitting a lock signal to the at least one mobile service provider when the tracking service server receives the lock request, whereby the lock signal is programmed to deactivate the item; and

deactivating the item by transmitting a deactivation signal by the transmitting tower to the identification tag when the lock signal is received by the transmitting tower from the at least one mobile service provider.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification tag comprises an active RFID chip.

9. A system for determining a location of an item, the system comprising:

a tracking service server configured to;

receive a search request from a communication device of a user, the search request comprising a first item identifier of the item;

retrieve a second item identifier of the item from a tracking service database, wherein the second item identifier is stored against the first item identifier in the tracking service database; and

transmit a search signal comprising the second item identifier of the item to at least one mobile service provider system;

at least one mobile service provider system communicatively coupled with the tracking service server; and

a plurality of transmitting towers communicatively coupled with the at least one mobile service provider system, the plurality of transmitting towers configured to;

receive the search signal from the at least one mobile service provider system when the at least one mobile service provider system transmits the search signal to the plurality of transmitting towers;

capture radio frequency signals emitted by an identification tag coupled with the item when the search signal is received from the at least one mobile service provider system; and

transmit a location message to the at least one mobile service provider system on capturing the radio frequency signals emitted by the identification tag whereby the location message comprises a location information of the item.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the radio frequency signals include the second item identifier of the item.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the location information of the item is a function of a set of location coordinates of a transmitting tower in the plurality of transmitting towers that captures the radio frequency signals emitted by the identification tag of the item.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the transmitting tower captures the radio frequency signals when the item exists within a location range of the transmitting tower.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the tracking service database is configured to store a plurality of items, a plurality of contact information of a plurality of users to whom the plurality of items belong, a plurality of first item identifiers and a plurality of second item identifiers of the plurality of items, the plurality of items being registered with the tracking service server.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein at least one mobile service provider system is configured to:

receive the location message from the transmitting tower;

retrieve the location information and the second identifier of the item from the location message; and

transmit the location information and the second identifier of the item to the tracking service server.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the tracking service server is further configured to:

receive the location information and the second identifier of the item from the at least one mobile service provider; and

communicate a response message to the user, the response message comprising the location information of the item.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein tracking service server is further configured to retrieve contact information of the user from the plurality of contact information stored in the tracking service database for the step of communicating a response message, the contact information being stored against the first item identifier retrieved in the tracking service database.

17. The system of claim 9, wherein the communication device comprises a communication interface configured to communicate with the tracking service server.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the communication interface comprises:

an SMS application executing on the communication device that communicates with the tracking service server through a mobile communication network.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the communication interface comprises a web browser that communicates with a web application hosted on the tracking service server whereby the tracking service server is a Web server.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein:

the communication interface comprises a PSTN telephone that communicates with a call center; and

the call center further communicates with a web browser of the tracking service server.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the communication interface comprises a PSTN telephone that communicates with the tracking service server through an Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) system.

22. A system according to claim 17, wherein the communication interface comprises a WAP micro-browser executing on the communication device that communicates to a mobile communications network which in turn communicates to a WAP gateway, and the WAP gateway communicates to the tracking service server.

23. The system of claim 15, wherein the tracking service server is further configured to:

receive a lock request for deactivating the item from the user, wherein the item is at least one of an electronic device and an electromechanical device; and

transmit a lock signal to the at least one mobile service provider system.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the at least one mobile service provider system is further configured to transmit the lock signal to the transmitting tower.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the transmitting tower is configured to transmit an deactivation signal to the item on receiving the lock signal from the at least one mobile service provider system, whereby the deactivation signal is configured to deactivate the item.

26. The system of claim 9, wherein the identification tag comprises an active RFID chip.