CUSTOM-SHAPE WIRELESS DOG FENCE SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20160192623A1
• Filed: 08/03/2015
• Published: 07/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Radio Systems Corporation
• Original Assignee: Woodstream Corporation
• Inventors: WHITE, John J., RICH, Christopher T., KAMERY, Christopher, LUBIC, Marko, PATTERSON, Wade, CONRAD, Steve, GURLEY, Jason S., PHILLIPS, Terry G.
• Granted Patent: US 9,615,545 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 15/023 Anti-evasion devices
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 27/001 Collars
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 27/009 with electric-shock, sound, magnetic- or radio-waves emitting devices
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 29/005 Monitoring or measuring activity, e.g. detecting heat or mating
• 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 21/0269 System arrangements wherein the object is to detect the exact location of child or item using a navigation satellite system, e.g. GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/18 Status alarms G08B21/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/022 with dynamic range variability

Abstract

A custom-shaped wireless fence system is provided that contains one or more dogs in a user-defined containment area without the need for a physical fence or underground wire. The system, which is easy to set up and use, includes at least three base units and at least one collar and, preferably, a remote controller. A virtual fence is defined around the containment area, as well as around optional exclusion zones within the containment area, during system set up through communication between the base units and a trackable device as the user walks around the desired border. Visualization software enables the user to verify that the location of the fence is as desired and that the system is operating properly using a computing device having a display screen. In use, the system employs improved filtering of consecutive distance measurement values taken between the base units and the collar to discount errant measurement values in terms of their contribution to the current calculation of the dog'"'"'s location. These filtering techniques, in combination with improved signal strength and antenna diversity in the communication between the base units and the collar, improve the accuracy and consistency with which the dog'"'"'s location within a containment area is tracked so that unwanted corrections are not administered to the dog.

Claims

1-43. -43. (canceled)

44. A wireless boundary system for tracking a location of a movable entity in a user-defined area comprising:

a master base unit including a transceiver unit and at least a first slave base unit, a second slave base unit and a third slave base unit, each of said slave base units having a transceiver unit, said master base unit and said slave base units being positioned in spaced relationship to one another;

a master base unit activating mechanism for activating the master base unit during a system topology set-up stage to initiate a communication sequence between the master base unit and the slave base units during which respective distances and spatial relationships between the master base unit and the slave base units are determined and placed on a predefined planar coordinate system in which said distances and spatial relationships are identified by respective coordinates within said planar coordinate system to define an overall base unit topology;

a set-up trackable device configured to communicate with the master base unit and the slave base units during a boundary set-up stage during which said base units track consecutive positions of the set-up trackable device as the set-up trackable device is moved around a user-defined perimeter that surrounds and defines the user-defined area; and

a movable entity trackable device movable with said movable entity, said movable entity trackable device including a transceiver unit in signal communication with the transceiver units of said master base unit and said slave base units, each of said base units being configured to continuously obtain distance values between itself and the movable entity on a real time basis using said transceiver units and to communicate said distance values to the master base unit for calculation of a tracking location value indicating a location of the movable entity within the planar coordinate system.

45. The wireless boundary system as set forth in claim 44, wherein the location of the movable entity is determined using a trilateration process that includes receiving at the master base unit current distance values from said slave base units, said distance values including a first distance value (DV1) between said master base unit and said movable entity, a second distance value (DV2) between the first slave base unit and said movable entity, a third distance value (DV3) between the second slave base unit and said movable entity, and a fourth distance value (DV4) between the third slave base unit and said movable entity;

defining a circle around said master base unit having a radius equal to DV1;

defining a circle around said first slave base unit having a radius equal to DV2;

defining a circle around said second slave base unit having a radius equal to DV3;

defining a circle around said third slave base unit having a radius equal to DV4;

checking for an intersection between those two circles having radii corresponding with the two smallest distance values, said intersection when found including two points, each of said two points representing a possible location of the movable entity; and

using a circle having a next smallest distance value as a third circle to find a point of intersection between the third circle and one of said two points within a tolerance value, said point of intersection representing the current location value of the movable entity.

46. The wireless boundary system as set forth in claim 45, said system being configured to smooth out the current location value by determining a trilateration level of said current location value, said trilateration level being a relative measure of the nearness of the third circle'"'"'s point of intersection with one of the two points at which the first two circles intersected, ranking the trilateration level values according to likely accuracy and using said ranked trilateration values to weight the current location value.

47. The wireless boundary system as set forth in claim 44, wherein said user-defined area surrounded by said user-defined perimeter includes at least one exclusion zone within said perimeter, a boundary of said exclusion zone being defined by the user during an exclusion zone set-up stage after the boundary set-up stage by the user walking the set-up trackable device around the exclusion zone boundary while the base units track consecutive positions of the set-up trackable device.

48. The wireless boundary system as set forth in claim 47, wherein said user-defined perimeter and said exclusion zone boundary are made of a plurality of connected line segments, end points of said line segments being defined by selected positions of the set-up trackable device as tracked by the base units during the boundary and exclusion zone set-up stages.

49. The wireless boundary system as set forth in claim 48, wherein said system is configured to detect a breach of said boundary by said movable entity using a point-in-polygon methodology that includes using the tracking location value or a current location value as a starting point, mathematically generating a vector from said starting point to infinity, calculating a number of boundary and exclusion zone line segments intersected by said vector, and if said number is odd, determining that the current location value or tracking location value is within the user-defined area and, if said number is even, determining that the current location value or tracking location value is either in an exclusion zone or outside the user-defined area.

50. The wireless boundary system as set forth in claim 44, further comprising visualization software compatible with a personal computer device having a display screen, said software configured to run during the boundary set-up stage and to create a visual representation of the user-defined perimeter which is displayed on the display screen.

51. The wireless boundary system as set forth in claim 50, wherein the visualization software displays the locations of the base units and includes an on-screen grid system that permits the user to make distance measurement estimates between various points shown in the screen.

52. The wireless boundary system as set forth in claim 50, wherein said visualization software is configured to create a visual depiction of the user-defined perimeter on the display as the user walks the perimeter with the set-up trackable device and to present at least one screen appearance change upon movement of the movable entity outside the user-defined area indicating a breach of the boundary.

53. The wireless boundary system as set forth in claim 52, wherein said screen appearance change includes a change in color of the boundary perimeter when the breach occurs.

54. The wireless boundary system as set forth in claim 50, wherein said visualization software creates a digital log file of the consecutive positions of the set-up trackable device recorded during the boundary set-up stage, said digital log file providing the data that is used to create the visual representation of the boundary perimeter which is displayed on the display screen.

55. The wireless boundary system as set forth in claim 44, wherein said boundary is a wireless fence and said movable entity trackable device is a collar worn by a dog.

56. The wireless boundary system as set forth in claim 44, further comprising a remote controller configured as said set-up trackable device.

57. A method of defining a custom roaming area and of locating an object within the roaming area using a wireless boundary system, said system including a plurality of base units including a master base unit and at least a first slave base unit, a second slave base unit and a third slave base unit, each of said slave units having a transceiver unit, and at least one movable remote unit constituting the object to be located and having a transceiver unit, said method comprising the steps of:

placing the base units in spaced relationship to one another;

activating the master base unit to bring said master base unit and said slave base units into two-way communication with one another, said master base unit determining and recording respective distances and spatial relationships between itself and the slave base units on a predefined planar coordinate system in which said distances and spatial relationships are identified by respective coordinates within said planar coordinate system to define an overall base unit topology;

creating the custom roaming area by a user moving a trackable device along a path that defines a boundary surrounding the roaming area, said base units tracking consecutive positions of the trackable device as the trackable device is moved along the path;

placing the movable remote unit within the roaming area and continuously obtaining distance values between each of the base units and the remote unit on a real time basis;

calculating, by the master base unit using said distance values, a tracking location value indicating a location of the remote unit within the planar coordinate system.

58. The method as set forth in claim 57, wherein said step of calculating the tracking location values includes the steps of:

receiving at the master base unit current distance values from said slave base units, said distance values including a first distance value (DV1) between said master base unit and said movable remote unit, a second distance value (DV2) between the first slave base unit and said movable remote unit, a third distance value (DV3) between the second slave base unit and said movable remote unit, and a fourth distance value (DV4) between the third slave base unit and said movable remote unit;

defining a circle around said master base unit having a radius equal to DV1;

defining a circle around said first slave base unit having a radius equal to DV2;

defining a circle around said second slave base unit having a radius equal to DV3;

defining a circle around said third slave base unit having a radius equal to DV4;

checking for an intersection between those two circles having radii corresponding with the two smallest distance values, said intersection when found including two points, each of said two points representing a possible location of the movable remote unit; and

using a circle having a next smallest distance value as a third circle to find a point of intersection between the third circle and one of said two points within a tolerance value, said point of intersection representing the current location value of the movable remote unit.

59. The method as set forth in claim 57, further comprising the step of verifying, by the user, the boundary location after creating the custom roaming area, said step of verifying the boundary location including running visualization software during the step of creating the custom roaming area, said visualization software being compatible with a personal computer device having a display screen, said software creating a visual representation of the boundary which is displayed on the display screen.

60. The method as set forth in claim 59, further comprising said visualization software creating a digital log file of the consecutive positions of the trackable device recorded during the step of creating the custom roaming area, said digital log file providing the data that is used to create the visual representation of the boundary which is displayed on the display screen.

61. The method as set forth in claim 60, further comprising the step of using the digital log file as a troubleshooting mechanism to identify any areas of base unit communication difficulty.

62. The method as set forth in claim 61, further comprising reviewing the digital log file and comparing image data obtained therefrom to images from a satellite service to identify any discrepancies exceeding a threshold and, if a discrepancy exceeding the threshold exists, manually entering a topology value more nearly corresponding with the satellite service images.

63. The method as set forth in claim 57, wherein said boundary perimeter is made of a plurality of connected line segments, end points of said line segments being defined by selected positions of the trackable device as tracked and recorded by the base units, said method further comprising detecting a breach of said boundary by said remote unit using a point-in-polygon methodology, said point-in-polygon methodology including the steps of:

using a current location value as a starting point;

mathematically generating a vector from said starting point to infinity;

calculating a number of boundary line segments intersected by said vector;

if said number is odd, determining that the current location value is within the roaming area and, if said number is even, determining that the current location value is outside the boundary.