Method and system to configure and utilize geographical zones

• US 7,286,929 B2
• Filed: 04/13/2005
• Issued: 10/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WirelessWERX IP LLC (Pueblo Nuevo LLC)
• Original Assignee: Wirelesswerx International, Inc.
• Inventors: Staton, Houston, Ashley, James Jr., Mooney, Patrick, Ashley, James Sr., Maggs, Charles, Santos, German, Lang, Edward, Mooney, Frank
• Primary Examiner(s): Zanelli; Michael J.
• Application Number:
  US11/105,931
• Publication Number:
  US 20060100777A1
• Time in Patent Office: 923 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 701/206
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2325/101 Bluetooth
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2325/304 Boats
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/00 Fittings or systems for preventing or indicating unauthorised use or theft of vehicles locks for vehicles E05B77/00-E05B85/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/04 operating on the propulsion system, e.g. engine or drive motor
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/1004 Alarm systems characterised by the type of sensor, e.g. current sensing means using door lock sensors B60R25/1001
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/102 a signal being sent to a remote location, e.g. a radio signal being transmitted to a police station, a security company or the owner
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/33 of global position, e.g. by providing GPS coordinates
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/14 Central alarm receiver or annunciator arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/207 with respect to certain areas, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas with possible alerting when inside or outside boundaries
• 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 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• 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 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A method to define a geographical zone is disclosed. The geographical zone can be utilized to regulate a movable entity and the actions within the geographical zone. The geographical zone can be defined by allowing a user to define and load to a transponder a plurality of waypoints, each waypoint defined by a geographical coordinate and a radius originating from the geographical coordinate. The geographical zone can also be defined by selecting a plurality of coordinates that are loaded to a transponder and mapped on a pixilated image.

Claims

1. A method to define a geographical zone utilized to regulate a movable entity having an attached transponder, comprising:

allowing a user to enter a plurality of waypoints, each waypoint in the plurality of waypoints being defined by a geographical coordinate and a radius;

wherein the geographical coordinate is represented by a latitude and longitude, and the radius is represented by a distance magnitude, wherein all waypoints in the plurality of waypoints have the same coordinate but different radii, such that all the waypoints in the plurality of waypoints are concentric; and

loading plurality of waypoints on a transponder.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising regulating the entity by performing an action that comprises at least one of monitoring, controlling and visualizing the movement the entity.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising regulating the entity by performing an action that comprises at least one of monitoring, controlling and visualizing the non-movement the entity.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising regulating the entity by performing an action that comprises at least one of monitoring, controlling and visualizing the position the entity.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the transponder can determine whether the transponder is inside or outside the geographical zone by obtaining global positioning coordinates, and calculating whether or not the global positioning coordinates are inside at least one waypoint of the plurality of waypoints.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the shape of the geographical zone is a street route.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein shape of the geographical zone is the shape of a non-geometrical shape.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said movable entity is controlled and monitored depending on the location of the movable entity relative to said geographical zone.

9. A method to identify a geographical area for regulating an entity, comprising:

allowing a user to identify a geometrical area in a computer map, the geometrical area using two coordinate attributes;

dividing the identified geometrical area into a grid;

allowing a user to select at least one section from within the grid in order to define a geographical area;

associating the at least one section to a pixel in a pixilated computer image such that the pixels selected by the user in the identified geometrical area are identified as being in the geographical area; and

loading the pixilated computer image to a memory in a transponder.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising regulating the entity by performing an action that comprises at least one of monitoring, controlling and visualizing the movement the entity.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising regulating the entity by performing an action that comprises at least one of monitoring, controlling and visualizing the non-movement the entity.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising regulating the entity by performing an action that comprises at least one of monitoring, controlling and visualizing the position the entity.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the pixilated computer image has a directly proportional number of columns and rows as the identified geometrical area.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the pixilated computer image has the same number of columns and rows as the identified geometrical area.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the geometrical area is rectangular or circular.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein a second geographical area is defined by a plurality of geographical areas.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein an entity having attached the transponder may be located in the geographical area by obtaining a position of the transponder from a ground positioning unit operably connected to the transponder, correlating the position of the transponder in the geographical area to a representative position of the transponder in the pixilated computer image, and determining whether the representative position of the transponder in the pixilated computer image falls on a pixel that is flagged as being in the geographical area.

18. The method of claim 9, wherein the shape of the geographical area is a square, rectangle, triangle, circle, oval, or trapezoid.

19. The method of claim 9, wherein shape of the geographical area is the shape of a non-geometrical shape.

20. The method of claim 9, wherein the shape of the geographical area is the shape of a border delimiting a street route, a state, a city, a county, or a country.

21. The method of claim 9, wherein the shape of the geographical area is a street route.

22. The method of claim 9, wherein said movable entity is controlled and monitored depending on the location of the movable entity relative to said geographical area.

23. A method of determining the position of a transponder in relation to a geographical zone, comprising:

locating the transponder within a pixilated computer image by activating a pixel corresponding to the geographical coordinates where the transponder is located;

extending two vertical lines in opposite direction and originating from the pixel;

extending two horizontal lines in opposite direction and originating from the pixel;

determining the number of times each line crosses the boundary of the geographical zone;

assigning an outside status to each line that crosses the boundary a even number of times;

assigning an inside status to each line that crosses the boundary a odd number of times; and

identifying the transponder as being inside the boundary if the status of three out of four lines indicate an inside status.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the transponder has a ground positioning system receiver that calculates position coordinates, further locating the transponder position as one pixel in the pixilated computer image.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein each one of the plurality of geographical coordinates are represented by a latitude and longitude.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein each one of the plurality of geographical coordinates are Mercator coordinates.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the shape of the geographical zone is a square, rectangle, triangle, circle, oval, or trapezoid.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein shape of the geographical zone is the shape of a non-geometrical shape.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein the shape of the geographical zone is the shape of a border delimiting a street route, a state, a city, a county, or a country.