Locating system for autistic child and others

• US 9,002,372 B2
• Filed: 10/23/2012
• Issued: 04/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DBI Technologies, LLC
• Original Assignee: Danielle's Buddy, Inc.
• Inventors: Shakespeare, Walter Jeffrey, Crompton, Clarence William, Levitt, Lawrence P., Vaknin, Sharone, Wallace, Phillip William
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Dung
• Application Number:
  US13/658,217
• Publication Number:
  US 20130260785A1
• Time in Patent Office: 896 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.2, 4554141-4142, 4554561-457, 340/539.13, 340/539.14, 340/539.15, 340/539.32, 340/8.1
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0027 of actual mobile position, i.e. position determined on mobile
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0263 by combining or switching between positions derived from two or more separate positioning systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/20 Position of source determined by a plurality of spaced direction-finders
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Mentally challenged persons such as autistic children and Alzheimer'"'"'s patients can become lost and they are hard to find because they have difficulty communicating or they are confused and disoriented. The present invention provides an apparatus, system and methods for locating lost persons (or animals or packages) whether they are indoors or outdoors. The apparatus comprises a cellular telephone unit which can be activated by a RF signal and which a child or patient can wear. The wearable unit can be activated by a caregiver'"'"'s smart phone having a locating application installed therein. The locating application enables the caregiver to locate the lost person using radio direction finder triangulation when the lost person is within a few hundred feet of the caregiver. When the lost person is further away, the locating application employs cell phone tower triangulation or the wearable unit GPS/Assisted GPS application to determine an approximate location of the lost person. As the caregiver moves close enough to the approximate location, the radio direction finder triangulation is used to calculate a more exact location to find the lost person.

Claims

1. Apparatus for locating a lost or missing person, animal or package comprising:

a cellular telephone unit which can be activated by an activating RF signal and which emits a pulsed WiFi or other cellular telephone unit RF signal following activation by the activating RF signal and which is adapted to be affixed to or worn by the person, animal or package;

a smart phone capable of transmitting the activating RF signal and having a visual display screen, a compass and an accelerometer;

a locating application installed in the smart phone and being capable of measuring the strength of the WiFi or other cellular telephone unit RF signal, taking compass direction readings, taking accelerometer distance readings and computing smart phone location relative to the cellular telephone unit location by triangulation wherein the triangulation points include the relative locations of the smart phone to the cellular telephone unit;

the cellular telephone unit has GPS/Assisted GPS capability and the smart phone further comprises a GPS/Assisted GPS application and the locating application further comprises triangulation capability using as triangulation points several closest cell phone towers to the cellular telephone unit and/or locations of nearby WiFi or other third party RF signals; and

a WPAN application with paging capability incorporated in the cellular telephone unit which is manually actuatable by the smart phone following activation by the activating RF signal;

wherein a RF wireless connection is maintained between the cellular telephone unit and the smart phone as long as said cellular telephone unit and smart phone are within a specified range;

when the range is exceeded the connection is broken whereupon the activating RF signal is transmitted by the smart phone and the RF signal is pulsed to conserve energy.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the cellular telephone unit has SMS paging capability, the smart phone has SMS paging capability and the activating RF signal is an SMS paging signal.

3. A system for locating a lost or missing person, animal or package comprising:

a cellular telephone unit which can be activated by an activating RF signal and which emits a pulsed WiFi or other cellular telephone unit RF signal following activation by the activating RF signal and which is adapted to be affixed to or worn by the person, animal or package;

a smart phone capable of transmitting the activating RF signal and having a visual display screen, a compass and an accelerometer;

a locating application installed in the smart phone and being capable of measuring the strength of the WiFi or other cellular telephone unit RF signal, taking compass direction readings, taking accelerometer distance readings and computing smart phone location relative to the cellular telephone unit location by triangulation wherein the triangulation points include relative locations of the smart phone to the cellular telephone unit;

the cellular telephone unit has GPS/Assisted GPS capability and the smart phone further comprises a GPS/Assisted GPS application and the locating application further comprises triangulation capability using as triangulation points several closest cell phone towers to the cellular telephone unit and/or locations of nearby WiFi or other third party RF signals; and

a WPAN application with paging capability incorporated in the cellular telephone unit which is manually actuatable by the smart phone following activation by the activating RF signal;

wherein a RF wireless connection is maintained between the cellular telephone unit and the smart phone as long as said cellular telephone unit and smart phone are within a specified range;

when the range is exceeded the connection is broken whereupon the activating RF signal is transmitted by the smart phone, the RF signal is pulsed to conserve energy and upon activation of the cellular telephone unit a first WiFi or other cellular telephone unit RF signal strength is computed with respect to a first smart phone location, and upon movement of the smart phone a second smart phone location is computed with respect to the first smart phone location by means of the compass and accelerometer readings, then a second WiFi or other cellular telephone unit RF signal strength is computed and the location of the cellular telephone unit relative to the second smart phone location is computed by triangulation and displayed on the visual display screen and/or wherein, using the GPS/Assisted GPS capability upon activation of the cellular telephone unit, the approximate location of the lost or missing person, animal or package is determined by the GPS/Assisted GPS application and/or by cell phone tower triangulation.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the cellular telephone unit has SMS paging capability, the smart phone has SMS paging capability and the activating RF signal is an SMS paging signal.