Real-time location information system using multiple positioning technologies

• US 9,068,836 B2
• Filed: 10/18/2007
• Issued: 06/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: iAnywhere Solutions Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: iAnywhere Solutions Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Arteaga, Carlos, Diaz, Alberto
• Primary Examiner(s): Keith, Jack W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chuong P
• Application Number:
  US11/874,539
• Publication Number:
  US 20090105950A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,812 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/24, 701/200, 701/201, 701206-208, 701/213, 701/408, 701/409, 701/516, 701/519, 701/520, 340988-990, 340/993, 340/995.1, 340/995.17, 340/539.1, 340/539.11, 34053913-5392, 340/539.22, 340/539.23, 340/539.25
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel

Abstract

Systems, methods and computer program products for tracking objects in an area of interest are described. According to an embodiment, an object is tracked as follows. First position information relating to the object is received from a first sensor and translated to a coordinate system of a map. The object is displayed on the map in accordance with the translated first position information. Second position information relating to the object is received from a second sensor, where the second sensor is based on a second positioning technology different from the first positioning technology. The second position information is translated to the coordinate system of the map, and the object is displayed on the map in accordance with the translated second position information. In an embodiment, other information relating to the object is also received from sensors.

Claims

1. A computer program product including a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, if executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving a first notification of a first event occurring at a first sensor, the first sensor being one of a plurality of different sensors positioned throughout a physical area and fixed at a first geographical location of the physical area;

determining a user is at the fixed first geographical location of the first sensor based on the received first notification;

receiving information from an environmental sensor, the environmental sensor being one of the plurality of different sensors positioned throughout the physical area and fixed at a second geographical location of the physical area, the second geographical location being different from the first geographical location, wherein the information includes a current environmental characteristic of the physical area and the second geographical location;

translating the first geographical location and the second geographical location to a coordinate system of a map;

displaying an object representing the user on the map in accordance with the translated first geographical location and relative to the translated second geographical location; and

displaying, on the map, at the first geographical location and proximate to the object representing the user on the map, information corresponding to the current environmental characteristic of the physical area.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

receiving a second notification of a second event occurring at a second sensor, the second sensor being one of the plurality of different sensors positioned throughout the physical area and fixed at a third geographical location of the physical area;

determining the user is at the fixed third geographical location of the second sensor based on the received second notification;

translating the third geographical location to the coordinate system of the map; and

updating the object representing the user on the map in accordance with the translated third geographical location.

3. The computer program product of claim 2, the operations further comprising:

receiving from the first sensor and the second sensor other information relating to the user; and

displaying the other information on the map at the third geographical location.

4. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the other information, the notification of the first event, and the notification of the second event are received in separate messages, the messages each including an identifier to associate the separate messages.

5. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the first sensor is a RFID reader and the second sensor is a biometric scanner.

6. The computer program product of claim 2, the operations further comprising:

generating one or more alerts upon receipt of the notification of the first event and the notification of the second event, the alerts acting to automatically initiate one or more user-defined operations.

7. The computer program product of claim 2, the operations further comprising:

receiving a third notification of a third event occurring at a third sensor, the third sensor being one of the plurality of different sensors positioned throughout the physical area and fixed at a fourth geographical location of the physical area, the third sensor purposed to perform operations different from the first sensor and the second sensor;

determining the user is at the fixed fourth geographical location of the third sensor based on the received third notification;

translating the fourth geographical location to the coordinate system of the map; and

updating the object representing the user on the map in accordance with translated the fourth geographical location.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the user has a user that is at least one of a:

cellular phone;

RFID card; and

WIFI transceiver, wherein the user is detected by the first sensor and triggers the first event.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein receiving information from the environmental sensor comprises receiving information from a sensor measuring the temperature at the first geographical location.

10. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein receiving information from the environmental sensor comprises receiving information from a sensor measuring the moisture at the first geographical location.

11. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising generating an alert based on the current environmental characteristic of the first geographical location;

and

initiating a user defined operation based on the generated alert.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein generating the alert based on the current environmental characteristic comprises generating an alert based on the current temperature of the first geographical location.

13. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising:

querying the map for positional information related to the user, based on a tag identifier associated with the user; and

displaying, on the map, a plot of different positions of the object and different environmental characteristics at the different positions, over a period of time.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the indication of query is received in response to a user-generated visual query or tabular query.