ESTABLISHING GEO-FENCES AND RELATED ALARMS

• US 20170099577A1
• Filed: 12/15/2016
• Published: 04/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Yocam, Eric, Watts, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 10,091,612 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• 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: H04W 52/0254 detecting a user operation or a tactile contact or a motion of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

System and method of geo-fencing. A user equipment (UE) defines a geo-fence for an asset by tracking location coordinates of the UE with at least one sensor element, as the UE is moved around a perimeter of an area. The location coordinates of the geo-fence are transferred to a location aware device (LAD) attached to the asset. Upon determining, by the at least one sensor, that the LAD crossed the geo-fence, a notification is sent to a warning server operative to trigger a warning message to one or more recipients.

Claims

1. A user equipment (UE), comprising:

a processor;

a network interface coupled to the processor configured to enable communications via a radio access network;

a storage device for content and programming;

at least one sensor element;

a program stored in the storage device, wherein execution of the program by the processor configures the UE to perform acts comprising;

defining a geo-fence for an asset by tracking location coordinates of the UE with the at least one sensor element as the UE is moved around a perimeter of an area;

transferring the location coordinates of the geo-fence to a location aware device (LAD) attached to the asset; and

receiving a warning from a warning server when the LAD crosses the geo-fence.

2. The UE of claim 1, wherein execution of the program further configures the UE to perform acts comprising:

recording a picture of the asset; and

transferring the picture to the LAD.

3. The UE of claim 2, wherein the warning from the warning server includes at least one of:

the picture of the asset;

a time of when the LAD crossed the geo-fence; and

a location of where the LAD crossed the fence.

4. The UE of claim 1, wherein the geo-fence is three dimensional.

5. The UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor element includes a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver that is used for the tracking of the location coordinates of the geo-fence.

6. The UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor element includes a WiFi receiver that is used for the tracking of the location coordinates of the geo-fence.

7. The UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor performs at least one of (i) cellular triangulation and (ii) multilateration to track the location coordinates of the UE.

8. The UE of claim 1, wherein the transferring of the location coordinates of the geo-fence to the LAD is via one of:

Near Field Communication (NFC);

Bluetooth;

ZigBee; and

the radio access network.

9. The UE of claim 1, wherein the transferring of the location coordinates of the geo-fence to the LAD is via the radio access network.