Registration mapping toolkit for geofences

• US 9,396,344 B1
• Filed: 01/27/2016
• Issued: 07/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GeoFrenzy, Inc
• Original Assignee: GeoFrenzy, Inc
• Inventors: Jones, Benjamin T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Hitesh
• Application Number:
  US15/007,661
• Time in Patent Office: 174 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/006 in accordance with predefined flight zones, e.g. to avoid prohibited zones
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2816 Controlling appliance services of a home automation network by calling their functionalities arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station; in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/659 Internet protocol version 6 [IPv6] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/69 using geographic information, e.g. room number
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/457 containing identifiers of data entities on a computer, e.g. file names
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/084 using delegated authorisation, e.g. open authorisation [OAuth] protocol
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]

Abstract

Systems and methods for creating a database of geofences and registering geofences, with each geofence in the database being associated with an IP address, preferably an IPV6 address. Each geofence is defined using at least one geographic designator, preferably real property boundaries. Entitlements can be associated with geofences relating to permissive and prohibitive activities within the geofences.

Claims

1. A method for looking up a geofence in a geofence database, comprising:

determining a first geographic location;

searching for the first geographic location in the geofence database; and

identifying a geofence associated with the first geographic location in the geofence database,

wherein the geofence is defined by an anchor IPv6 address associated with a unique Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address;

a mobile device determining the anchor IPv6 address of the geofence and determining from the anchor IPv6 address a polygon defined by a plurality of IPv6 addresses defining the geofence;

wherein the geofence database further includes a second geofence defined by a second plurality of IPv6 addresses, further including the mobile device determining a second geographic location, searching for the second geographic location in the geofence database, converting the second geographic location to at least one of the plurality of IPv6 addresses and at least one of the second plurality of IPv6 addresses, determining at least two anchor IPv6 addresses of at least two geofences based on the at least one of the plurality of IPv6 addresses and the at least one of the second plurality of IPv6 addresses, determining from the at least two anchor IPv6 addresses at least two polygons for the at least two geofences defined by the plurality of IPv6 addresses and the second plurality of IPv6 addresses, and determining a location of the mobile device within the at least two geofences based on the plurality of IPv6 addresses and the second plurality of IPv6 addresses;

wherein the anchor IPv6 address includes between 0 bits and 63 bits for location data and at least 64 bits for metadata, wherein the metadata includes classes, entitlements, and lookup table identifiers, wherein the at least 64 bits for the metadata are operable to be redefined via the lookup table identifiers;

wherein the entitlements provide, upon a mobile device attempting to access restricted content within the geofence, for redirecting the mobile device to owner-defined content, wherein the owner-defined content is defined by an owner of the geofence.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first geographic location is a current location of the mobile device, wherein the step of searching for the first geographic location in the geofence database is automatically performed by the mobile device in near real-time upon the mobile device coming within a predetermined physical proximity of the first geographic location, and further comprising the mobile device automatically requesting access to an Internet connection associated with the identified geofence.

3. A geofence database system comprising:

a server including a processor and a geofence database including a geofence defined by a plurality of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) addresses; and

a mobile device;

wherein the mobile device is operable to determine an anchor IPv6 address of the geofence based on the one of the plurality of IPv6 addresses and determine from the anchor IPv6 address a polygon defined by the plurality of IPv6 addresses defining the geofence;

wherein the geofence database further includes a second geofence defined by a second plurality of IPv6 addresses, wherein the mobile device is further operable to determine a geographic location, search for the geographic location in the geofence database, convert the geographic location to at least one of the plurality of IPv6 addresses and at least one of the second plurality of IPv6 addresses, determine at least two anchor IPv6 addresses of at least two geofences based on the at least one of the plurality of IPv6 addresses and the at least one of the second plurality of IPv6 addresses, determine from the at least two anchor IPv6 addresses at least two polygons for the at least two geofences defined by the plurality of IPv6 addresses and the second plurality of IPv6 addresses, and determine a location of the mobile device within the at least two geofences based on the plurality of IPv6 addresses and the second plurality of IPv6 addresses.

4. The geofence database system of claim 3, wherein the mobile device is operable to determine the location of the mobile device within the geofence on a micron level based on the plurality of IPv6 addresses.

5. The geofence database system of claim 3, wherein the anchor IPv6 address includes metadata, wherein the metadata include at least one entitlement and lookup table identifiers, wherein the metadata are operable to be redefined via the lookup table identifiers.

6. The geofence database system of claim 5, wherein the metadata include at least 64 bits.

7. The geofence database system of claim 3, wherein the at least two anchor IPv6 addresses include metadata, wherein the metadata include at least one class, wherein the at least one class determines a precedence of the at least two geofences in relation to each other.

8. The geofence database system of claim 7, wherein the metadata further include entitlements, wherein the mobile device is further operable to submit a query to select one of the at least one class and determine one of the entitlements associated with the one of the at least one class.

9. The geofence database system of claim 3, wherein the geofence is a mobile geofence, wherein the polygon is around a mobile object, and wherein the mobile object is a vehicle, a plane, or a boat.

10. The geofence database system of claim 3, wherein the mobile device is further operable to convert the plurality of IPv6 addresses to geographic coordinate points.

11. A method for looking up a geofence in a geofence database comprising:

determining a first geographic location;

searching for the first geographic location in a geofence database;

identifying a geofence associated with the first geographic location in the geofence database,

wherein boundaries of the geofence include a plurality of geographic designators;

wherein each of the plurality of geographic designators is assigned a unique IPv6 address, such that there are a plurality of unique IPv6 addresses defining the geofence;

wherein one of the plurality of unique IPv6 addresses assigned to the plurality of geographic designators is encoded as an anchor IPv6 address of the geofence, wherein the anchor IPv6 address of the geofence is a unique identifier of the geofence; and

a mobile device determining the anchor IPv6 address of the geofence and determining from the anchor IPv6 address a polygon defined by the plurality of unique IPv6 addresses defining the geofence;

wherein the geofence database includes a second geofence defined by a second plurality of IPv6 addresses, further including the mobile device determining a second geographic location, searching for the second geographic location in the geofence database, converting the second geographic location to at least one of the plurality of unique IPv6 addresses and at least one of the second plurality of IPv6 addresses, determining at least two anchor IPv6 addresses of at least two geofences based on the at least one of the plurality of unique IPv6 addresses and the at least one of the second plurality of IPv6 addresses, determining from the at least two anchor IPv6 addresses at least two polygons for the at least two geofences defined by the plurality of unique IPv6 addresses and the second plurality of IPv6 addresses, and determining a location of the mobile device within the at least two geofences based on the plurality of unique IPv6 addresses and the second plurality of IPv6 addresses;

wherein each of the plurality of unique IPv6 addresses includes location data and metadata, wherein the metadata include lookup table identifiers, and wherein the metadata are operable to be redefined via the lookup table identifiers.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first geographic location is a current location of the mobile device, wherein the step of searching for the first geographic location in the database is automatically performed by the mobile device in near real-time upon the mobile device coming within a predetermined physical proximity of the first geographic location, further comprising the mobile device automatically requesting access to an Internet connection associated with the geofence.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the metadata include entitlements, further comprising, based upon at least one entitlement, upon the mobile device attempting to access restricted content within the geofence, redirecting the mobile device to owner-defined content, wherein the owner-defined content is defined by an owner of the geofence.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the metadata include classes, wherein the classes determine a precedence of the geofence in relation to an overlapping geofence which is defined using at least one of the plurality of geographic designators defining the geofence.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the location data include between 0 bits and 63 bits and wherein the metadata include at least 64 bits.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the geofence is a section of a highway and wherein the metadata include an entitlement, further comprising disabling the mobile device for texting and for website browsing within the section of the highway based on the entitlement.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the geofence is three dimensional.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the first geographic location is a current location of the mobile device, wherein the step of searching for the first geographic location in the geofence database is automatically performed by the mobile device in near real-time upon the mobile device coming within a predetermined physical proximity of the first geographic location.