Systems and Methods of Facilities Location

• US 20160042010A1
• Filed: 08/11/2014
• Published: 02/11/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Cox Communications Incorporated (Cox Enterprises Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Cox Communications Incorporated (Cox Enterprises Incorporated)
• Inventors: Schuler, John Robert
• Application Number:
  US14/456,802
• Publication Number:
  US 20160042010A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems and methods of facilities location, in which a customer activates an application and that application determines, from the GPS device, a location and the locations of the various cables or equipment buried in their yard. The customer may mark the service location using the supplied information on the device application. In an example embodiment, if the customer has further questions, he may call into the center, for example, by pressing a voice button, to talk to a person regarding the questions. In this embodiment, a two way communication is enabled to provide the customer with additional assistance in locating the facilities.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a facilities location request, the request comprising location information;

accessing a database of facility location data related to the location information;

creating a geofence using the facility location data; and

sending the created geofence.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the database is populated using at least one of customer data;

installation data;

municipality data;

contractor data; and

location data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating geographic information system (GIS) boundaries for known facilities.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the facilities location request is received through an ANDROID or IOS mobile application or a web-based application.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the facilities location comprises at least one of television cable location, plain old telephone service wire location, gas line location, electrical power line location, water line location, and sprinkler system pipe location.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the geofence comprises global positioning system (GPS) coordinates referenced to premises dimensions supplied by a property records entity.

7. A system, comprising:

a computer server configured to collect facilities location data from a plurality of sources and store the data in a storage device;

a boundary generation system configured to receive a facilities location request for a particular location and to generate a set of boundaries that contain facilities for that particular location; and

an application server configured to send the set of boundaries for the particular location.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the computer is configured to collect facilities location data from at least one of customer data;

installation data;

municipality data;

contractor data; and

location data.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the computer is configured to collect facilities location data from at least one of utility records, maps, drawings, physical observations, and aerial views.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the boundary generation system creates geographic information system (GIS) boundaries for known facilities.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the set of boundaries is sent to a device running at least one of an ANDROID or an IOS mobile application or a web-based application.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the facilities location data comprises at least one of television cable location, plain old telephone service wire location, gas line location, electrical power line location, water line location, and sprinkler system pipe location.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein the set of boundaries defines a geofence around the facilities.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the geofence comprises global positioning system (GPS) coordinates referenced to premises dimensions supplied by a property records entity.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising software, the software comprising instructions for:

receiving a facilities location request, the request comprising location information;

accessing a database of facility location data related to the location information;

creating a geofence using the facility location data; and

sending the created geofence.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions for populating the database using at least one of customer data;

installation data;

municipality data;

contractor data; and

location data.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions for creating geographic information system (GIS) boundaries for known facilities.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the facilities location request is received through an ANDROID or IOS mobile application or a web-based application.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the facilities location comprises at least one of television cable location, plain old telephone service wire location, gas line location, electrical power line location, water line location, and sprinkler system pipe location.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the geofence comprises global positioning system (GPS) coordinates referenced to premises dimensions supplied by a property records entity.