METHODS AND DEVICES FOR SERVING AS A PROXY BEACON FOR A TRACKING DEVICE

• US 20130099920A1
• Filed: 10/24/2011
• Published: 04/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Song, Bongyong, Das, Soumya, Chakraborty, Kaushik, Soliman, Samir S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,836,501 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.13
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/68 Marker, boundary, call-sign, or like beacons transmitting signals not carrying directional information
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0009 Transmission of position information to remote stations involving assistance data G01S5/0236
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/023 Power management, e.g. system sleep and wake up provisions
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0261 System arrangements wherein the object is to detect trespassing over a fixed physical boundary, e.g. the end of a garden
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0277 Communication between units on a local network, e.g. Bluetooth, piconet, zigbee, Wireless Personal Area Networks [WPAN]
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/004 Alarm propagated along alternative communication path or using alternative communication medium according to a hierarchy of available ways to communicate, e.g. if Wi-Fi not available use GSM

Abstract

One feature includes a mobile device being used as a mobile beacon and proxy for a tracking device that may track an object, such as a pet. The mobile device may act as a beacon that transmits messages over a short range communications link to the tracking device. If the tracking device fails to receive the messages transmitted by the mobile device, it may be assumed that the pet has gone missing, and in response the tracking device may contact a tracking server with its location information via a wireless wide area network (WWAN). Additionally, the mobile device may act as a proxy of the tracking device by transmitting and receiving data to/from the tracking server using its own communication interface on behalf of the tracking device. This helps conserve the battery power of the tracking device because the tracking device does not use its own WWAN interface.

Claims

1. A method operational at a wireless communication device for tracking, comprising:

serving as a beacon for a tracking device by transmitting a beacon signal to the tracking device; and

serving as a proxy to the tracking device by communicating with a tracking server on behalf of the tracking device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving tracking device data from the tracking device via a short range communications link.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein serving as the proxy to the tracking device comprises:

transmitting the tracking device data to the tracking server.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the tracking device data comprises at least one of a check-in message, a walk-in message, a walk-out message, or a location information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein serving as the proxy to the tracking device by communicating with the tracking server on behalf of the tracking device comprises:

communicating with the tracking server via a wireless wide area network (WWAN).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein serving as the proxy to the tracking device by communicating with the tracking server on behalf of the tracking device comprises:

communicating with the tracking server via a wireless local area network (WLAN).

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving tracking server data from the tracking server.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein serving as the proxy to the tracking device comprises:

transmitting the tracking server data to the tracking device via a short range communications link.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a beacon request message from the tracking device.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

transmitting a beacon availability message to the tracking device; and

receiving a beacon confirmation message from the tracking device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the beacon availability message comprises at least one of energy efficiency information, signal to noise ratio (SNR) information, a first communications interface type of the wireless communication device, or a short range communications interface type of the wireless communication device.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a unicast beacon request page from the tracking device; and

establishing a short range communications link with the tracking device.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the beacon signal transmitted to the tracking device supplements another beacon signal associated with another beacon.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving tracking device data associated with the tracking device from a relay device via a peer to peer (P2P) connection.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request from the tracking device to obtain tracking server data via a short range communications link;

transmitting the request to the tracking server for the tracking server data via a first communications interface;

receiving the tracking server data from the tracking server via the first communications interface; and

transmitting the tracking server data to the tracking device via the short range communications link.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the tracking server data comprises global positioning system (GPS) XTRA data.

17. A wireless communication device, comprising:

a short range communications interface adapted to wirelessly communicate with a tracking device via a short range communications link (SRCL);

a first communications interface adapted to communicate with a tracking server; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the short range communications interface and the first communications interface, the processor adapted to;

serve as a beacon for the tracking device by transmitting a beacon signal to the tracking device; and

serve as a proxy to the tracking device by communicating with the tracking server on behalf of the tracking device.

18. The wireless communication device of claim 17, wherein the processor is further adapted to:

receive tracking device data from the tracking device via the SRCL.

19. The wireless communication device of claim 18, wherein the processor adapted to serve as the proxy to the tracking device comprises:

transmitting the tracking device data to the tracking server.

20. The wireless communication device of claim 18, wherein the tracking device data comprises at least one of a check-in message, a walk-in message, a walk-out message, or a location information.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the processor adapted to serve as the proxy to the tracking device by communicating with the tracking server on behalf of the tracking device comprises:

communicating with the tracking server via a wireless wide area network (WWAN) using the first communications interface.

22. The wireless communication device of claim 17, wherein the processor is further adapted to:

receive tracking server data from the tracking server.

23. The wireless communication device of claim 22, wherein the processor is further adapted to:

transmit the tracking server data to the tracking device via the SRCL.

24. The wireless communication device of claim 17, wherein the processor is further adapted to:

receive a beacon request message from the tracking device.

25. The wireless communication device of claim 24, wherein the processor is further adapted to:

transmit a beacon availability message to the tracking device; and

receive a beacon confirmation message from the tracking device.

26. The wireless communication device of claim 25, wherein the beacon availability message comprises at least one of energy efficiency information, signal to noise ratio (SNR) information, a first communications interface type of the wireless communication device, or a short range communications interface type of the wireless communication device.

27. The wireless communication device of claim 17, wherein the processor is further adapted to:

receive a unicast beacon request page from the tracking device; and

establish the short range communications link with the tracking device.

28. The wireless communication device of claim 17, wherein the processor is further adapted to:

receive a request from the tracking device to obtain tracking server data via the SRCL;

transmit the request to the tracking server for the tracking server data via the first communications interface;

receive the tracking server data from the tracking server via the first communications interface; and

transmit the tracking server data to the tracking device via the SRCL.

29. A wireless communication device, comprising:

means for serving as a beacon for a tracking device by transmitting a beacon signal to the tracking device; and

means for serving as a proxy to the tracking device by communicating with a tracking server on behalf of the tracking device.

30. A computer readable medium having instructions for tracking, which when executed by one or more processors causes the processor to:

serve as a beacon for a tracking device by transmitting a beacon signal to the tracking device; and

serve as a proxy to the tracking device by communicating with a tracking server on behalf of the tracking device.

31. A method operational at a tracking device for tracking, comprising:

transmitting a beacon request message to a plurality of beacons;

receiving a plurality of beacon availability messages from the plurality of beacons;

ranking the plurality of beacons by applying a rule set to the plurality of beacon availability messages, the ranking determining an order of beacons with which to associate with; and

associating with a first beacon of the plurality of beacons based on the order of beacons.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein each of the plurality of beacon availability messages comprises identification information and at least one of energy efficiency information, signal to noise ratio (SNR) information, a first communications interface type, or a short range communications interface type.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

caching at least one of the beacon availability messages.

34. The method of claim 31, wherein prior to transmitting the beacon request message to the plurality of beacons, the method further comprises:

losing a beacon signal associated with another beacon.

35. The method of claim 31, wherein prior to transmitting the beacon request message to the plurality of beacons, the method further comprises:

determining that a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of a communications link between another beacon and the tracking device is below a predetermined threshold.

36. The method of claim 31, wherein prior to transmitting the beacon request message to the plurality of beacons, the method further comprises:

determining to use a different short range communications protocol than one used with another beacon the tracking device associated with.

37. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

establishing a long range communications link with a tracking server via a wireless wide area network (WWAN).

38. The method of claim 31, wherein ranking the plurality of beacons by applying the rule set to the plurality of beacon availability messages comprises:

calculating the ranking based on the rule set that comprises at least one of energy efficiency parameter, signal to noise ratio (SNR) parameter, a first communications interface type parameter, or a short range communications interface type parameter.

39. The method of claim 31, wherein the order of beacons with which to associate with comprises a second beacon of the plurality of beacons, the first beacon having a first short range communications interface that is more energy efficient than a second short range communications interface of the second beacon.

40. A tracking device, comprising:

a short range communications interface adapted to communicate with a plurality of beacons via a short range communications link;

a processor communicatively coupled to the short range communications interface, the processor adapted to;

transmit a beacon request message to the plurality of beacons via the short range communications link;

receive a plurality of beacon availability messages from the plurality of beacons via the short range communications link;

rank the plurality of beacons by applying a rule set to the plurality of beacon availability messages, the ranking determining an order of beacons with which to associate with; and

associate with a first beacon of the plurality of beacons based on the order of beacons.

41. The tracking device of claim 40, wherein each of the plurality of beacon availability messages comprises identification information and at least one of energy efficiency information, signal to noise ratio (SNR) information, a first communications interface type, or a short range communications interface type.

42. The tracking device of claim 41, wherein the processor is further adapted to:

cache at least one of the beacon availability messages.

43. The tracking device of claim 40, wherein prior to transmitting the beacon request message to the plurality of beacons, the processor is further adapted to:

lose a beacon signal associated with another beacon.

44. The tracking device of claim 40, wherein prior to transmitting the beacon request message to the plurality of beacons, the processor is further adapted to:

determine that a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of a communications link between another beacon and the tracking device is below a predetermined threshold.

45. The tracking device of claim 40, wherein prior to transmitting the beacon request message to the plurality of beacons, the processor is further adapted to:

determine to use a different short range communications protocol than one used with another beacon the tracking device associated with.

46. The tracking device of claim 40, wherein the processor is further adapted to:

establish a long range communications link with a tracking server via a wireless wide area network (WWAN).

47. The tracking device of claim 40, wherein ranking the plurality of beacons by applying the rule set to the plurality of beacon availability messages comprises:

calculating the ranking based on the rule set that comprises at least one of energy efficiency parameter, signal to noise ratio (SNR) parameter, a first communications interface type parameter, or a short range communications interface type parameter.

48. The tracking device of claim 40, wherein the order of beacons with which to associate with comprises a second beacon of the plurality of beacons, the first beacon having a first short range communications interface that is more energy efficient than a second short range communications interface of the second beacon.

49. A tracking device, comprising:

means for transmitting a beacon request message to a plurality of beacons;

means for receiving a plurality of beacon availability messages from the plurality of beacons;

means for ranking the plurality of beacons by applying a rule set to the plurality of beacon availability messages, the ranking determining an order of beacons with which to associate with; and

means for associating with a first beacon of the plurality of beacons based on the order of beacons.

50. A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon for tracking, which when executed by one or more processors cause the processor to:

transmit a beacon request message to a plurality of beacons;

receive a plurality of beacon availability messages from the plurality of beacons;

rank the plurality of beacons by applying a rule set to the plurality of beacon availability messages, the ranking determining an order of beacons with which to associate with; and

associate with a first beacon of the plurality of beacons based on the order of beacons.