Machine or group of machines for monitoring location of a vehicle or freight carried by a vehicle

• US 9,607,283 B1
• Filed: 08/29/2016
• Issued: 03/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Macropoint LLC (The Descartes Systems Group Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Macropoint LLC (The Descartes Systems Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: Adelson, Bennett H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rushing, Mark
• Application Number:
  US15/249,825
• Time in Patent Office: 211 Days
• Field of Search: 340988-994
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/46 the supplementary measurement being of a radio-wave signal type
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/13 the indicator being in the form of a map
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

A machine or group of machines for monitoring location of at least one of a vehicle or freight carried by the vehicle includes a server comprising a central processing unit, a memory, a clock, and a server communication transceiver that receives location information of a mobile device, the mobile device comprising a GPS receiver, a microprocessor and a wireless communication transceiver coupled to the GPS receiver, the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver programmed to receive data sent by a plurality of GPS satellites, calculate location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver and transmit the location information.

Claims

1. A system for obtaining location of a vehicle or freight carried by the vehicle, the system comprising:

a mobile device comprising a GPS receiver, a display, a microprocessor and a wireless communication transceiver coupled to the GPS receiver, the mobile device programmed to receive data sent by a plurality of GPS satellites, calculate location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver and transmit the location information;

a server comprising a central processing unit, a memory, a clock, and a server communication transceiver that receives the location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver, and the central processing unit programmed to;

receive a request for the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle,

request the location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver from a location information provider corresponding to a device other than the mobile device and associated with one or more of;

a wireless service provider providing wireless service to the mobile device,

a third party obtaining the location information from the wireless service provider providing wireless service to the mobile device, and

a party that has access to the location information, but is other than the wireless service provider or the third party that obtains the location information from the mobile service provider; and

receive the location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver from the location information provider corresponding to the device other than the mobile device;

estimate the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle based on the location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver; and

transmit the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle as estimated based on the estimation for visual representation on a display,

wherein the central processing unit is further programmed to;

receive data that indicates consent to transmission of the location information of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver is originally obtained using a technique utilizing the GPS receiver that forms part of the mobile device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver is originally obtained using a method that does not require a GPS receiver to form part of the mobile device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver is originally obtained through techniques including at least one:

triangulation between radio towers,

obtaining a range of locations corresponding to a transmission range of a single radio tower,

advance forward link trilateration (AFLT),

observed time difference (OTD), and

Cell-ID (CID).

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the central processing unit is programmed to transmit the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle to at least one of:

a freight service provider,

a party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services, or

a party that provides location information services to the freight service provider or to the party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the request for the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle is received from a device associated with:

a freight service provider,

a party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services, or

a party that provides location information services to the freight service provider or to the party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle is estimated based at least in part on the mobile device being associated with the vehicle or a driver of the vehicle.

8. A system for obtaining location of a vehicle or freight carried by a vehicle, the system comprising:

a server comprising a central processing unit, a memory, a clock, and a server communication transceiver that receives location information of a mobile device, the mobile device comprising a GPS receiver, a microprocessor and a wireless communication transceiver coupled to the GPS receiver, the mobile device programmed to receive data sent by a plurality of GPS satellites, calculate location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver and transmit the location information, the central processing unit programmed to;

receive a request for the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle,

request the location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver from a location information provider corresponding to a device other than the mobile device and associated with one or more of;

a wireless service provider providing wireless service to the mobile device,

a third party obtaining the location information from the wireless service provider providing wireless service to the mobile device, and

a party that has access to the location information, but is other than the wireless service provider or the third party that obtains the location information from the mobile service provider; and

receive the location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver from the location information provider corresponding to the device other than the mobile device;

estimate the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle based on the location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver; and

transmit the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle as estimated for visual representation on a display,

wherein the central processing unit is further programmed to;

receive data that indicates consent to transmission of the location information of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver is originally obtained using a technique utilizing the GPS receiver that forms part of the mobile device.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver is originally obtained using a method that does not require a GPS receiver to form part of the mobile device.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver is originally obtained through techniques including at least one:

triangulation between radio towers,

obtaining a range of locations corresponding to a transmission range of a single radio tower,

advance forward link trilateration (AFLT),

observed time difference (OTD), and

Cell-ID (CID).

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the central processing unit is programmed to transmit the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle to at least one of:

a freight service provider,

a party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services, or

a party that provides location information services to the freight service provider or to the party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the request for the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle is received from a device associated with:

a freight service provider,

a party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services, or

a party that provides location information services to the freight service provider or to the party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle is estimated based at least in part on the mobile device being associated with the vehicle or a driver of the vehicle.

15. A system for monitoring location of at least one of a vehicle or freight carried by the vehicle, the system comprising:

a mobile device comprising a GPS receiver, a display, a microprocessor and a wireless communication transceiver coupled to the GPS receiver, the mobile device programmed to receive data sent by a plurality of GPS satellites, calculate location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver and transmit the location information;

a server comprising a central processing unit, a memory, a clock, and a server communication transceiver that receives the location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver, and the central processing unit programmed to;

determine whether consent was given to transmission of location information of the mobile device;

receive a request for information regarding the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle;

request location information of the mobile device from a location information provider corresponding to a device other than the mobile device;

receive the location information of the mobile device from the location information provider;

estimate the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle based on the location information of the mobile device; and

transmit the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle for visual representation on a display.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the location information provider corresponds to a device associated with at least one of:

a wireless service provider providing wireless service to the mobile device,

a third party that obtains the location information of the mobile device from the wireless service provider providing wireless service to the mobile device, and

a party that has access to the location information of the mobile device but is other than the wireless service provider or the third party that obtains the location information of the mobile device from the wireless service provider.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the location information of the mobile device is originally obtained using a method including a technique utilizing the GPS receiver that forms part of the mobile device.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the location information of the mobile device is originally obtained using a method including a technique other than a technique utilizing the GPS receiver that forms part of the mobile device.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver is originally obtained through techniques including at least one:

triangulation between radio towers,

obtaining a range of locations corresponding to a transmission range of a single radio tower,

advance forward link trilateration (AFLT),

observed time difference (OTD), and

Cell-ID (CID).

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the central processing unit is programmed to transmit the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle as estimated for visual representation on a display by exposing an application programming interface (API) from which the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle is obtained.

21. The system of claim 15, wherein the central processing unit is programmed to transmit the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle as estimated for visual representation on a display by interfacing with an exposed application programming interface (API) through which the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle is transmitted.

22. The system of claim 15, wherein the request for information regarding the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle is received from a device associated with:

a freight service provider,

a party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services, or

a party that provides location information services to the freight service provider or to the party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services.

23. A system for obtaining location of a vehicle or freight carried by a vehicle, the system comprising:

a server comprising a central processing unit, a memory, a clock, and a server communication transceiver that receives location information of a mobile device, the mobile device comprising a GPS receiver, a microprocessor and a wireless communication transceiver coupled to the GPS receiver, the mobile device programmed to receive data sent by a plurality of GPS satellites, calculate location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver and transmit the location information, the central processing unit programmed to;

determine whether consent was given to transmission of location information of the mobile device;

receive a request for information regarding the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle;

request location information of the mobile device from a location information provider corresponding to a device other than the mobile device;

receive the location information of the mobile device from the location information provider;

estimate the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle based on the location information of the mobile device; and

transmit the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle as estimated for visual representation on a display.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the location information provider corresponds to a device associated with at least one of:

a wireless service provider providing wireless service to the mobile device,

a third party that obtains the location information of the mobile device from the wireless service provider providing wireless service to the mobile device, and

a party that has access to the location information of the mobile device but is other than the wireless service provider or the third party that obtains the location information of the mobile device from the wireless service provider.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the location information of the mobile device is originally obtained using a method including a technique utilizing the GPS receiver that forms part of the mobile device.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein the location information of the mobile device is originally obtained using a method including a technique other than a technique utilizing the GPS receiver that forms part of the mobile device.

27. The system of claim 23, wherein the location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver is originally obtained through techniques including at least one:

triangulation between radio towers,

obtaining a range of locations corresponding to a transmission range of a single radio tower,

advance forward link trilateration (AFLT),

observed time difference (OTD), and

Cell-ID (CID).

28. The system of claim 23, wherein the central processing unit is programmed to transmit the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle by exposing an application programming interface (API) from which the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle is obtained for visual representation on a display.

29. The system of claim 23, wherein the central processing unit is programmed to transmit the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle by interfacing with an exposed application programming interface (API) through which the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle is transmitted for visual representation on a display.

30. The system of claim 23, wherein the request for information regarding the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle is received from a device associated with:

a freight service provider,

a party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services, or

a party that provides location information services to the freight service provider or to the party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services.