User Location Tracking

• US 8,942,727 B1
• Filed: 04/11/2014
• Issued: 01/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ACR Development, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ACR Development, Inc.
• Inventors: Roman, Anthony C., Hammond, Michael P. Jr., Rose, Douglas J.
• Primary Examiner(s): PHUONG, DAI
• Application Number:
  US14/251,098
• Time in Patent Office: 291 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.2, 455/432.1, 455/435.1, 455/440, 4554561-4563
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• 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 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving information from a remote system comprising one or more time periods during which a location of the client device can be tracked and monitoring the location of the client device during each of the time periods by obtaining a plurality of location coordinates from the client device during the time period and persistently storing the location coordinates on the client device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

configuring a client device to monitor the geographic location of the client device over time;

configuring the monitoring so that the monitoring cannot be terminated by a user of the client device and that disabling of the monitoring by the user will cause the client device to be locked;

receiving, by the client device, information from a remote system comprising one or more time periods during which a location of the client device can be tracked;

monitoring, by the client device, the location of the client device by obtaining a plurality of location coordinates during each of the time periods and persistently storing the location coordinates on the client device;

determining that a first transmitter of the client device is unacceptable; and

based on the determination, sending different ones of the stored location coordinates to the remote system using a second transmitter of the client device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the user has disabled the monitoring and, based thereon, sending a notification of such to a remote system and locking the client device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining the plurality of location coordinates does not require a transmitter of the client device to be enabled.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting that the client device had been powered off and, based thereon, continuing to send different ones of the stored location coordinates to the remote system at times when a transmitter of the client device is enabled.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring the location of the client device during each of the time periods by obtaining a plurality of location coordinates of the client device during the time period comprises:

obtaining fewer location coordinates at times when the client device is traveling in a substantially straight line or at slow speeds.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring the location of the client device during each of the time periods by obtaining a plurality of location coordinates of the client device during the time period comprises:

determining that during a first period of time the client device is in a same location and, based thereon, combining multiple location coordinates for the first period of time into a single location coordinate.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein a particular transmitter is a cellular transmitter or a Wi-Fi transmitter.

8. A system comprising:

data processing apparatus programmed to perform operations comprising;

A computer-implemented method comprising;

configuring a client device to monitor the geographic location of the client device over time;

configuring the monitoring so that the monitoring cannot be terminated by a user of the client device and that disabling of the monitoring by the user will cause the client device to be locked;

receiving, by the client device, information from a remote system comprising one or more time periods during which a location of the client device can be tracked;

monitoring, by the client device, the location of the client device by obtaining a plurality location coordinates during each of the time periods and persistently storing the location coordinates on the client device;

determining that a first transmitter of the client device is unacceptable; and

based on the determination, sending different ones of the stored location coordinates to the remote system using a second transmitter of the client device.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the operations further comprise:

determining that the user has disabled the monitoring and, based thereon, sending a notification of such to a remote system and locking the client device.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein obtaining the plurality of location coordinates does not require a transmitter of the client device to be enabled.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein the operations further comprise:

detecting that the client device had been powered off and, based thereon, continuing to send different ones of the stored location coordinates to the remote system at times when a transmitter of the client device is enabled.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein monitoring the location of the client device during each of the time periods by obtaining a plurality of location coordinates of the client device during the time period comprises:

obtaining fewer location coordinates at times when the client device is traveling in a substantially straight line or at slow speeds.

13. The system of claim 8 wherein monitoring the location of the client device during each of the time periods by obtaining a plurality of location coordinates of the client device during the time period comprises:

determining that during a first period of time the client device is in a same location and, based thereon, combining multiple location coordinates for the first period of time into a single location coordinate.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein a particular transmitter is a cellular transmitter or a Wi-Fi transmitter.