System and method for tracking people

• US 9,418,531 B2
• Filed: 09/11/2014
• Issued: 08/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Umm Al-Qura University
• Original Assignee: Umm Al-Qura University
• Inventors: Basalamah, Anas, Jamil, Shuja, Basalamah, Saleh
• Primary Examiner(s): BLOUIN, MARK S
• Application Number:
  US14/387,973
• Publication Number:
  US 20160078738A1
• Time in Patent Office: 705 Days
• Field of Search: 340/8.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0284 Relative positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10366 the interrogation device being adapted for miscellaneous applications
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0269 System arrangements wherein the object is to detect the exact location of child or item using a navigation satellite system, e.g. GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0277 Communication between units on a local network, e.g. Bluetooth, piconet, zigbee, Wireless Personal Area Networks [WPAN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/35 involving non-standard use of addresses for implementing network functionalities, e.g. coding subscription information within the address or functional addressing, i.e. assigning an address to a function
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

The present invention relates to receiving information of detected wireless electronic tags, comparing the received information to information stored in the server, and updating the information stored in the server based on the received information. Further, the invention relates to receiving a request regarding location information of an electronic wireless tag, determining whether identification information regarding the electronic wireless tag is available, and transmitting the identification information regarding the electronic wireless tag in response to the request regarding location information after determining that the identification information is available.

Claims

1. A location tracking method, the method comprising:

receiving, by at least one server, a first list of identification information and a first list of location information corresponding to a first set of a plurality of detected wireless electronic tags detected by a first device, the first set of the plurality of detected wireless electronic tags being within a detectable zone of the first device;

comparing, by the at least one server, a second list of identification information of a second set of a plurality of wireless electronic tags and the first list of identification information of the first set of the plurality of detected wireless electronic tags, and updating a second list of location information corresponding to the second set of the plurality of wireless electronic tags based on the first list of identification information and the first list of location information of the first set of the plurality of detected wireless electronic tags, wherein location information corresponding to a wireless electronic tag within the second list of location information is updated only when a subsequently detected location of the wireless electronic tag exceeds a predetermined distance from a previously detected location of the wireless electronic tag;

receiving, at the at least one server, a request from a second device regarding a first location information of a first wireless electronic tag having a first identification information;

determining, at the least one server, whether the first identification information is included in the second list of identification information; and

transmitting, from the at least one server to the second device based on said determining that the first identification information is included in the second list of identification information, the first location information of the first wireless electronic tag.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second list of identification information of the second set of the plurality of wireless electronic tags includes a Media Access Control (MAC) address of each tag of the second set of the plurality of wireless electronic tags.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second list of location information includes a latitude and longitude of each tag of the second set of the plurality of wireless electronic tags.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second list of location information includes a date and time of detection of each tag of the second set of the plurality of wireless electronic tags.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second list of identification information of the second set of the plurality of wireless electronic tags is received by the at least one server from a plurality of devices.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second list of location information includes an initial location of registration of each tag of the second set of the plurality of wireless electronic tags.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second list of location information includes a latest detected location, a second to last detected location, and a third to last detected location for each tag of the second set of the plurality of wireless electronic tags.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

identifying, by the first device, a date and time of detection of the first set of the plurality of detected wireless electronic tags;

transmitting, to the at least one server by the first device, the date and time of detection of the first set of the plurality of detected wireless electronic tags;

counting a number of devices that detect a particular wireless electronic tag at a particular location; and

storing the number of devices that detect the particular wireless electronic tag at the particular location in a database.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first list of identification information and the first list of location information corresponding to the first set of the plurality of detected wireless electronic tags detected by the first device are transmitted by the first device to the at least one server in response to a query by the at least one server.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the at least one server sends the query to the first device at predetermined time intervals.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein a corresponding location of each detected wireless electronic tag of the first set of the plurality of detected wireless electronic tags is identified based on a Global Positioning System (GPS).

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first set of the plurality of detected wireless electronic tags and the second set of the plurality of wireless electronic tags correspond to Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) tags.

13. A system to track location, the system comprising:

processing circuitry configured to;

receive a first list of identification information and a first list of location information corresponding to a first set of a plurality of detected wireless electronic tags detected by a first device, the first set of the plurality of detected wireless electronic tags being within a detectable zone of the first device;

compare a second list of identification information of a second set of a plurality of wireless electronic tags and the first list of identification information of the first set of the plurality of detected wireless electronic tags, and update a second list of location information corresponding to the second set of the plurality of wireless electronic tags based on the first list of identification information and the first list of location information of the first set of the plurality of detected wireless electronic tags, wherein location information corresponding to a wireless electronic tag within the second list of location information is updated only when a subsequently detected location of the wireless electronic tag exceeds a predetermined distance from a previously detected location of the wireless electronic tag;

receive a request from a second device regarding a first location information of a first wireless electronic tag having a first identification information;

determine whether the first identification information is included in the second list of identification information; and

transmit to the second device, based on said determination that the first identification information is included in the second list of identification information, the first location information of the first wireless electronic tag.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the second list of identification information of the second set of the plurality of wireless electronic tags includes a Media Access Control (MAC) address of each tag of the second set of the plurality of wireless electronic tags.

15. The system according to claim 13, wherein the second list of location information includes a latitude and longitude of each tag of the second set of the plurality of wireless electronic tags.

16. The system according to claim 13, wherein the second list of location information includes a date and time of detection of each tag of the second set of the plurality of wireless electronic tags.

17. The system according to claim 13, wherein the second list of location information includes a latest detected location, a second to last detected location, and a third to last detected location for each tag of the second set of the plurality of wireless electronic tags.

18. The system according to claim 13, wherein the first list of identification information and the first list of location information corresponding to the first set of the plurality of detected wireless electronic tags detected by the first device is received by the processing circuitry from the first device in response to a query by the processing circuitry.

19. A device to track location, the device comprising:

processing circuitry configured to;

detect a first set of a plurality of wireless electronic tags, the first set of the plurality of detected wireless electronic tags being within a detectable zone of the circuitry;

identify and determine a first list of identification information and a first list of location information corresponding to the first set of a plurality of detected wireless electronic tags;

send to at least one server the first list of identification information and the first list of location information corresponding to the first set of a plurality of detected wireless electronic tags detected by the circuitry;

send a request to the at least one server regarding a first location information of a first wireless electronic tag having a first identification information; and

receive, from the at least one server, the first location information of the first wireless electronic tag, the first location information of the first wireless electronic tag being received based on a determination that the first identification information of the first wireless electronic tag is included in a second list of identification information of a second set of a plurality of wireless electronic tags in the at least one server, the second list of identification information of the second set of the plurality of wireless electronic tags being updated based on the first list of identification information and the first list of location information corresponding to the first set of the plurality of detected wireless electronic tags, and location information corresponding to a wireless electronic tag within the second list of location information being updated only when a subsequently detected location of the wireless electronic tag exceeds a predetermined distance from a previously detected location of the wireless electronic tag.

20. The device according to claim 19, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:

identify a date and time of detection of the first set of the plurality of detected wireless electronic tags; and

transmit, to the at least one server, the date and time of detection of the first set of the plurality of detected wireless electronic tags.