METHOD OF MANAGING GEO-FENCE AND ELECTRONIC DEVICE THEREOF

• US 20170048666A1
• Filed: 06/13/2016
• Published: 02/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: CHOI, Areum, KIM, Woo-Young, LEE, Sunggyu
• Granted Patent: US 9,801,017 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• 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: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Disclosed are a method of managing geo-fences by an electronic device and an electronic device therefor. An operation of the electronic device may include: identifying a deletion of at least some geo-fences among a plurality of geo-fences stored in the electronic device or an addition of other geo-fences; identifying a number of remaining geo-fences among the plurality of geo-fences according to the deletion or the addition; and when the number of remaining geo-fences is larger than a number of geo-fences which can be allowed by hardware resources, grouping the remaining geo-fences as one or more geo-fence groups.

Claims

1. A method of an electronic device, the method comprising:

identifying a deletion of at least some geo-fences among a plurality of geo-fences stored in the electronic device or an addition of other geo-fences;

identifying a number of remaining geo-fences among the plurality of geo-fences based on the deletion or the addition; and

when the number of remaining geo-fences is larger than a number of geo-fences which can be allowed by hardware resources, grouping the remaining geo-fences as one or more geo-fence groups.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring the geo-fences within the one or more grouped geo-fence groups.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising,

when the electronic device is located inside a first group of geo-fences, monitoring at least one geo-fence in the first group;

and

when the electronic device is located outside the first group of geo-fences, re-grouping the plurality of geo-fences.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the re-grouping of the plurality of geo-fences further comprises:

acquiring a current location of the electronic device;

detecting a distance between the current location and each geo-fence in the plurality of geo-fences;

re-forming a second group of geo-fences comprising a second subset of the identified plurality of geo-fences based on the detected distance, wherein a third number of geo-fences included in the second group is less than the identified limit of geo-fences; and

monitoring the second group.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the detecting of the distance between the current location and each geo-fence comprises:

calculating an internal distance from the electronic device to a first boundary of the geo-fence where the electronic device exits the geo-fence when the electronic device is located inside the geo-fence; and

calculating an external distance from the electronic device to a second boundary of the geo-fence where the electronic device enters the geo-fence when the electronic device is located outside the geo-fence.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the monitoring the geo-fences comprises:

when the electronic device approaches a region corresponding to a first group of geo-fences, classifying the first group into a plurality of sub groups, and

monitoring the plurality of sub groups,

wherein the plurality of sub groups are classified based on location information of latitude and longitude.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring of the geo-fences further comprises

monitoring a first virtual geo-fence of the first group of geo-fences;

and

when the electronic device is outside from the first virtual geo-fence, forming a second virtual geo-fence of another group of geo-fences based on current location information of the electronic device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device comprises first and second processors, the method further comprising:

monitoring by the second processor geo-fences in the first group of geo-fences grouped by the first processor; and

re-forming a second group of geo-fences based on a result of monitoring by the second processor.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of geo-fences which can be allowed by the hardware resources is set by a user'"'"'s input.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of geo-fences which can be allowed by the hardware resources can be changed according to settings or a state of the electronic device.

11. An electronic device comprising:

a first processor configured to monitor a geo-fence group; and

a second processor functionally connected to the first processor,

wherein the second processor is configured to identify a deletion of at least some geo-fences among a plurality of geo-fences stored in the electronic device or an addition of other geo-fences, identify a number of remaining geo-fences among the plurality of geo-fences according to the deletion or the addition, and when the number of remaining geo-fences is larger than a number of geo-fences which can be allowed by hardware resources, group the remaining geo-fences as one or more geo-fence groups.

12. An electronic device comprising:

a first processor configured to monitor a geo-fence group; and

a second processor functionally connected to the first processor,

wherein the second processor is configured to transmit the geo-fence group including at least some of a plurality of geo-fences to the first processor and receive, from the first processor, a notification that the electronic device moves from an outside to an inside of one geo-fence of the geo-fence group or from the inside to the outside of the one geo-fence.

13. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the second processor is configured to acquire a current location of the electronic device;

detect a distance between the current location and each geo-fence in the plurality of geo-fences; and

re-form a second group of geo-fences comprising a second subset of the identified plurality of geo-fences based on the detected distance, wherein a number of geo-fences included in the second group is less than the identified limit of geo-fences.

14. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the second processor is configured to calculate an internal distance from the electronic device to a first boundary of the geo-fence where the electronic device exits the geo-fence when the electronic device is located inside the geo-fence;

and calculate an external distance from the electronic device to a second boundary of the geo-fence where the electronic device enters the geo-fence when the electronic device is located outside the geo-fence, and then sort the plurality of geo-fences based on the calculated internal and external distances.

15. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the second processor is further configured to classify, when the electronic device approaches a region corresponding to a first group of geo-fences, the first group into a plurality of sub groups.

16. The electronic device of claim 15, wherein the first processor is configured to monitor the sub-groups.

17. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the second processor is configured to generate the first group of geo-fences based on the identified limit of geo-fences.

18. The electronic device of claim 17, wherein the second processor is configured to form the first group of geo-fences based on a behavior pattern of a user and then form a second group of geo-fences based on location information.

19. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the first processor is configured to consume lower power in comparison with the second processor.