Improvements related to tracking moving objects

• US 9,467,806 B2
• Filed: 12/16/2013
• Issued: 10/11/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Omarco Network Solutions Limited
• Original Assignee: Omarco Network Solutions Limited
• Inventors: Omar, Ralph Mahmoud
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Michael T
• Application Number:
  US14/650,837
• Publication Number:
  US 20150382139A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,030 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-4566
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0294 Trajectory determination or predictive filtering, e.g. target tracking or Kalman filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0266 based on the position of the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/012 from other sources than vehicle or roadside beacons, e.g. mobile networks
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A control system for tracking moving objects and controlling an action at a selected one of a plurality of geographic locations is described. The system comprises: a receiver for receiving location data from a plurality of mobile devices; a tracking module for recording the location data from each of the plurality of location devices in a tracking database; a cluster formation module for grouping a plurality moving mobile devices into a cluster using the recorded location data over time, each cluster comprising a plurality of moving mobile devices which have substantially no relative movement with respect to each other; a route extrapolator for determining a geographic location at which the cluster of mobile devices will be at a future point in time using the tracked history of the cluster and a predetermined network of pathways along which the cluster can travel; and an action module for sending out an instruction regarding an action to be carried out at the selected geographic location where the cluster is predicted to arrive at the future point in time.

Claims

1. A control system for tracking moving objects and controlling an action at a selected one of a plurality of geographic locations, the system comprising:

a receiver for receiving location data from a plurality of mobile devices;

a tracking module for recording the location data from each of the plurality of location devices in a tracking database;

a cluster formation module for grouping a plurality moving mobile devices into a cluster using the recorded location data over time, each cluster comprising a plurality of moving mobile devices which have substantially no relative movement with respect to each other;

a route extrapolator for determining a geographic location at which the cluster of mobile devices will be at a future point in time using the tracked history of the cluster and a predetermined network of pathways along which the cluster can travel; and

an action module for sending out an instruction regarding an action to be carried out at the selected geographic location where the cluster is predicted to arrive at the future point in time.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the cluster formation module is arranged to apply predetermined thresholds to minimal allowable relative movement between different mobile devices within the definition a cluster.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the route extrapolator is arranged to determine two or more geographic locations at which the cluster may be at a future point in time, the two or more geographic locations comprising a subset of the plurality of geographic locations.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a cluster categorisation module for categorising a cluster according to a most-common feature of each of the constituents of the cluster.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the cluster categorisation module is arranged to retrieve stored user profiles of each of the constituents of a cluster from a user profile database, each profile providing information regarding a user in a plurality of categories.

6. The system of claim 4, further comprising a cluster database for storing the details of each cluster including the most common feature determined by the cluster categorisation module.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the action module is arranged to select the action based on a most common feature of the cluster.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a points-of-interaction database having a plurality of records, each record including a geographic location of a corresponding information interaction point at which audio-visual information can be provided to the cluster.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein each record comprises a communications address of a remotely controllable interactive advertising display, to which the instruction can be sent.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising a selector for selecting a point of interaction from the points-of-interaction database, the selected point of interaction being located at the determined geographic location.

11. The system of claim 8, further comprising a cluster categorisation module for categorising a cluster according to a most-common feature of each of the constituents of the cluster, and a content database for storing content to be sent to the point of interaction and a content selector for selection the content based on the most common feature of the cluster.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a pathway database storing a predetermined network of pathways along which the cluster can travel.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the pathway database includes timetabled transport network information, road network information and pedestrian walkway information.

14. The system of claim 12, further comprising a pathway sorter, for determining a predetermined pathway of the pathways database which a current mobile device is traversing, the pathway sorter being arranged to read the tracking database.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a time and location analyser remove erroneous or spurious data from each mobile device'"'"'s location data.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the time and location analyser is arranged to apply statistical analysis to remove the erroneous data over a period of time.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising a route determiner configured to determine the route that the mobile device has undertaken along a pathway and the speed of movement along the route.

18. A method of tracking moving objects and controlling an action at a selected one of a plurality of geographic locations, the method comprising:

receiving location data from a plurality of mobile devices;

recording the location data from each of the plurality of location devices;

grouping a plurality of moving mobile devices into a cluster using the recorded location data over time, each cluster comprising a plurality of moving mobile devices which have substantially no relative movement with respect to each other;

determining a geographic location at which the cluster of mobile devices will be at a future point in time using the tracked history of the cluster and a predetermined network of pathways along which the cluster can travel; and

sending out an instruction regarding an action to be carried out at the selected geographic location where the cluster is predicted to arrive at the future point in time.

19. A control system for tracking moving objects and controlling an action at a selected one of a plurality of geographic locations, the system comprising:

a receiver for receiving location data from a plurality of mobile devices;

a tracking module for recording the location data from each of the plurality of location devices in a tracking database;

a cluster formation module for grouping a plurality moving mobile devices into a cluster using the recorded location data over time, each cluster comprising a plurality of moving mobile devices which have substantially no relative movement with respect to each other;

a route extrapolator for determining a geographic location at which the cluster of mobile devices will be at a future point in time using the tracked history of the cluster and a predetermined network of pathways along which the cluster can travel; and

an action module for sending out information regarding where the cluster is predicted to arrive at the future point in time.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising an analysis module for determining the size and speed of each cluster.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the analysis module is arranged to compare the output of the cluster formation module with a plurality of predetermined profiles to determine a mode of transport which the cluster is associated with.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the analysis module is arranged to use the determined mode of transport in calculating traffic build up on parts of the network of pathways.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the action module is arranged to send the information out to the mobile device to which the information relates.

24. A method of tracking moving objects and controlling an action at a selected one of a plurality of geographic locations, the method comprising:

receiving location data from a plurality of mobile devices;

recording the location data from each of the plurality of location devices;

grouping a plurality of moving mobile devices into a cluster using the recorded location data over time, each cluster comprising a plurality of moving mobile devices which have substantially no relative movement with respect to each other;

determining a geographic location at which the cluster of mobile devices will be at a future point in time using the tracked history of the cluster and a predetermined network of pathways along which the cluster can travel; and

sending out information regarding where the cluster is predicted to arrive at the future point in time.