Geofence Information Delivery Systems and Methods

• US 20160360360A1
• Filed: 06/30/2015
• Published: 12/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GeoFrenzy, Inc
• Original Assignee: GeoFrenzy, Inc
• Inventors: Jones, Benjamin T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,906,902 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/00 Burglar, theft or intruder alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0052 for cruising combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value G01C23/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/006 in accordance with predefined flight zones, e.g. to avoid prohibited zones
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/025 Navigation or guidance aids radar or analogous systems specially adapted for landing purposes G01S13/913
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2816 Controlling appliance services of a home automation network by calling their functionalities arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station; in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/659 Internet protocol version 6 [IPv6] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/69 using geographic information, e.g. room number
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• 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

Abstract

The present invention is directed to methods and systems for requesting information from a mobile device about geofences based upon location services for the mobile device, wherein geofence information is stored and registered in a database of geofences, and each geofence is associated with a plurality of geographic designators, wherein each of the plurality of geographic designators is associated with an IP address, preferably an IPv6 address.

Claims

1. A method for requesting information for at least one geofence by at least one device having a processor coupled with a memory, constructed and configured for wireless communication, and programmed to include a fencing agent operable to query for geofence information over a network to at least one server computer, comprising the steps of:

generating a request for geofence information for a region of interest (ROI);

receiving in near real-time geofence information corresponding to the ROI;

wherein the geofence information includes identification of at least one geofence.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the ROI is determined based upon location services operating on the at least one device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the request includes at least one geographic designator.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one geographic designator is associated with an Internet Protocol (IP) address that is converted to an anchor point for each geofence.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the geofence information further includes at least one class and at least one entitlement.

6. The method of claim 1, further including the step of:

if at least one entitlement exists for any geofence returned, a reason code or a violation code is automatically provided with the geofence information.

7. The method of claim 1, further including the steps of:

if at least one entitlement exists for any geofence returned, a reason code or a violation code is automatically provided to the at least one device, and the at least one device responds accordingly, based upon how it has been programmed to respond.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the response includes compliance with at least one rule associated with the at least one entitlement.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving a request from the at least one device for activating at least one rule associated with a license for predetermined geofence(s) and corresponding class(es) and entitlement(s) for the at least one device.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving an activation message.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the activation message includes terms of payment, terms of time, terms of use, terms of termination, terms of assignability, terms of content, terms of confidentiality, a warranty, post-termination rights, and/or a notice.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of activating at least one rule associated with the license on the at least one device, wherein the step of activating the at least one rule associated with the license on the at least one device includes transmitting an activation packet to the at least one device, wherein transmitting the activation packet to the at least one device transforms the at least one device from a first state to a second state.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving an acceptance of a license agreement from the at least one device before activating at least one rule associated with a license for the at least one device for each geofence and a corresponding at least one entitlement.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

automatically blocking an attempt by the at least one device to access a website based on the at least one rule.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of storing information relating to at least one rule associated with the at least one geofence in a geofence database.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining a license associated with the at least one geofence;

and

activating at least one rule associated with the license on the at least one device,

wherein the at least one geofence is defined by at least one geographic designator; and

wherein the at least one rule includes a rule directed to a content stored on the at least one device or accessible from the at least one device within the at least one geofence.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the at least one rule includes a rule restricting or enabling access to the content stored on the at least one device or accessible from the at least one device within the geofence.

18. A system for requesting information for at least one geofence by at least one device within a geofence, comprising:

the at least one device having a processor coupled with a memory, constructed and configured for wireless communication, and programmed to include a fencing agent operable to query for geofence information over a network to at least one server computer associated with a geofence database;

the geofence database including at least one registered geofence having a class and at least one entitlement and/or at least one license; and

a geofence manager module for implementing rules on the at least one device,

wherein the geofence manager module is operable to confirm and/or activate the at least one license associated with the geofence in the geofence database.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the at least one geofence is determined by at least one geographic designator that is automatically associated with a corresponding Internet Protocol (IP) address.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the IP address is automatically converted to an anchor point for each geofence.