Method of providing alarm service upon movement out of safety zone

• US 8,013,746 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2005
• Issued: 09/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Kwon, Sang-woon, Oh, Se-hyun, Lee, Joo-mun, Yoon, Jin-hee
• Primary Examiner(s): Pérez-Gutiérrez; Rafael
• Assistant Examiner(s): DONADO, FRANK E
• Application Number:
  US11/630,461
• Publication Number:
  US 20070243869A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,259 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 340/573.4
• 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 21/0283 via a telephone network, e.g. cellular GSM
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a method of providing alarm service upon movement out of a safety zone in a mobile communication network. The method is implemented in such a way as to acquire past location registration information for a ward'"'"'s mobile terminal designated by a subscriber (guardian), the past location registration information being base station identifiers associated with base stations at which the past locations of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal has previously been registered, store the acquired past location registration information to a My Base Station DB allocated to the ward, check base station information, associated with a base station at which the current location of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal has been registered, at the time of an observation request, determine whether base station information has been stored in the My Base Station DB, detect movement out of the safety zone when the base station information has not been stored in the My Base Station DB, and notify the subscriber of movement out of the safety zone.

Claims

1. A method of providing alarm service regarding movement of a mobile terminal, the method comprising:

acquiring past location registration information for the mobile terminal designated by a subscriber, the past location registration information being base station identifiers associated with base stations to which the mobile terminal have previously been registered;

generating a base station database by selectively including the base stations to which the mobile terminal have previously been registered according to an observation region designated by the subscriber;

acquiring current location information, the current location information being a base station identifier associated with a current base station to which the mobile terminal is currently registered;

determining whether the current location information is stored in the base station database;

incrementing, by a service-providing server, a checking frequency for the current base station according to the current location information when the current location information has been stored in the base station database and storing the checking frequency in the base station database;

monitoring the checking frequency;

removing a base station from the base station database when its corresponding checking frequency calculated during a latest period is smaller than a predetermined value; and

notifying the subscriber if the current location information is not stored in the base station database.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

defining the observation region;

calculating a distance between a center of the observation region and the current base station to which the mobile terminal is currently registered;

including the current base station in the base station database if the calculated distance is smaller than a reference distance; and

generating an alarm if the calculated distance is greater than a reference distance.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the reference distance is greater than a distance between two base stations adjacent to the center of the observation region designated by the subscriber, and is shorter than two times of the distance between the two base stations adjacent to the center of the observation region.

4. The method according to claim 2 further comprising:

when no base station exists within the observation region, obtaining the center of the observation region, defining a reference circle region having a radius of R1 around the center, and checking base stations existing within the reference circle region, wherein R1 is set to be larger than a radius of the observation region designated by the subscriber.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein R1 is set to be a maximal radius such that, within the reference circle region, a number of base stations at which past locations of the mobile terminal have previously been registered is larger than a number of base stations at which the past locations of the mobile terminal have not previously been registered.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein R1 is set so as to be greater than two times of a distance between two base stations adjacent to the center of the observation region and shorter than four times of the distance between the two base stations adjacent to the center of the observation region.

7. The method according to claim 2 further comprising:

designating a specific point; and

defining the observation region to be a reference circle region having a radius of R2 around the specific point;

wherein R2 is a maximal radius such that, within the reference circle region, a number of base stations at which the mobile terminal have previously been registered is larger than a number of base stations at which the mobile terminal have not been registered.

8. The method according to claim 2 further comprising:

designating a specific point; and

defining the observation region to be a reference circle region having a radius of R2 around the specific point;

wherein R2 is greater than two times of a distance between two base stations adjacent to the specific point and shorter than four times of the distance between the two base stations adjacent to the specific point.

9. The method according to claim 2 the current location information is acquired according to a Mobile Identification Number of the mobile terminal.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the Mobile Identification Number of the mobile terminal is acquired from information stored in the base station database.