System and method for determining a vehicle proximity to a selected address

• US 9,253,251 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2014
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Endeavoring, LLC
• Original Assignee: Endeavoring, LLC
• Inventors: Jackson, Scott A., Smith, Luke
• Primary Examiner(s): Johns, Andrew W
• Application Number:
  US14/213,176
• Publication Number:
  US 20140201266A1
• Time in Patent Office: 690 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/625 License plates
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0175 by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A system for determining the proximity of client devices to locations of interest is provided. The system includes a data server configured to receive data identifying a plurality of vehicles and associated vehicle locations and an input processor configured to process the received data to identify a plurality of locations of interest related to one or more assets. A database in operative communication with the data server is provided to store the locations of interest as information records. A notification server is provided to receive data identifying geographic locations of a plurality of client devices. An output processor is operatively coupled to the notification server and is configured to determine whether one or of more the client devices are within a predetermined proximity to one or more of the locations of interest. The output processor is further configured to generate a proximity alert when the one or more client devices are determined to be within the predetermined proximity to one or more of the locations of interest.

Claims

1. A system for determining the proximity of client devices to locations of interest, comprising:

a data server configured to receive data identifying a plurality of vehicles and associated vehicle locations;

an input processor configured to process the received data to identify a plurality of locations of interest related to one or more of the plurality of vehicles;

a database in operative communication with the data server and configured to store the locations of interest as information records;

a notification server configured to receive data identifying geographic locations of a plurality of client devices; and

an output processor operatively coupled to the notification server and configured to determine whether one or of more the client devices are within a predetermined proximity to one or more of the locations of interest,

wherein the output processor is further configured to generate a proximity alert when the one or more client devices are determined to be within the predetermined proximity to one or more of the locations of interest.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the output processor is further configured to generate instructions using data stored in the information records and corresponding to the one or more locations of interest.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the proximity alert includes the instructions generated using the data stored in the information records.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the proximity alert comprises one or more of a short message service (SMS) message, multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages, email, video message, cellular call, voicemails, or pop-up notification displayed on the client device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein data identifying the plurality of vehicles is generated by a plurality of automatic recognition devices.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the data identifying the plurality of vehicles comprises a vehicle identification number (VIN), a license plate number, a photographic image of a license plate number, or a video stream containing images of a license plate number.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the input processor is further configured to generate a plurality of location indices for storing associated data related to each of the plurality of locations of interest in a corresponding information record.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the input processor is further configured to identify patterns of behavior for the plurality of vehicles and store the patterns of behavior to an information record corresponding to a location of interest.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the identifying patterns of behavior includes identifying a frequently visited residential or commercial location, a frequently traveled route, or a propensity to be located near another vehicle.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for determining proximity of communication devices to locations of interest, the storage medium comprising instructions operative for:

receiving data identifying a plurality of assets and geographic locations associated with the assets;

processing the received data to identify a plurality of locations of interest related to one or more of the assets;

storing the locations of interest to a database as an information record including data related to the location of interest;

identifying a location of a communication device;

determining whether the location of the communication device is within a predetermined proximity to one or more locations of interest; and

generating a proximity notification when the communication device is within the predetermined proximity to the one or more locations of interest.

11. The storage medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions operative for sending the proximity notification to the communication device to be displayed to a device user.

12. The storage medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions operative for sending the proximity notification to a third-party institution associated with the location of interest.

13. The storage medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions operative for generating instructions using data stored in the information records corresponding to the location of interest, and sending the generated instructions as part of the proximity notification.

14. The storage medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions operative generating a plurality of location indices for storing data associated with each of the plurality of locations of interest in the related information record.

15. A computer-implemented method using at least one processor for determining proximity of client devices to a location of interest, comprising:

receiving data identifying information related to a plurality of assets and a plurality of geographic locations associated with the assets;

processing the received data to identify locations of interest related to one or of the plurality of assets and a proximity area for each of the identified locations of interest;

monitoring location data for a plurality of client devices; and

generating a proximity alert when one or more of the plurality of client devices is determined to be within the proximity area for one or more identified location of interest.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising storing information related to each of the identified locations of interest as a location index associated with the location of interest.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising generating instructions using the stored information in the location index associated with the location of interest, and including the instructions as part of the proximity alert.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising receiving a confirmation that an asset is located at the location of interest, and sending an alert to a third-party institution notifying the institution of the asset'"'"'s location.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the proximity alert comprises one or more of a short message service (SMS) message, multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages, email, video message, cellular call, voicemails, or pop-up notification displayed on the client device.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the identifying information for the plurality of locations includes data identifying a vehicle and is generated by a plurality of automatic recognition devices.