Delivery confirmation using overlapping geo-fences

• US 9,699,606 B1
• Filed: 06/24/2016
• Issued: 07/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bhatia, Sandeep, Davenport, Jr., Kevin Lee, Sharma, Rahul, Vasudevan, Vinoo, Tomay, Beryl
• Primary Examiner(s): Rampuria, Sharad
• Application Number:
  US15/192,265
• Time in Patent Office: 375 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-457
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06 characterised by the kind of the digital marking, e.g. shape, nature, code
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• 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 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Disclosed are approaches for using overlapping geo-fences to confirm delivery of a shipment. A first client computing device and a second client computing device may be in data communication with a server computing device. The server computing device may receive a delivery notification from the first client computing device. The server computing device may receive from the first client computing device a first position and a second position from the second client computing device. The server computing device may then determine that the second position is within a predefined distance of the first position or vice versa. Finally, the server computing device may generate a delivery confirmation in response to a first determination that the second position is within a predefined distance of the first position and a second determination that the first position is within a predefined distance of the second position.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a computing device comprising a processor and a memory; and

an application stored in the memory and executable by the processor,

wherein the application comprises machine readable instructions that,

when executed, cause the computing device to at least;

receive a first position of a first client computing device, the first position comprising a latitude and a longitude for the first client computing device;

receive a second position of a second client computing device, the second position comprising a latitude and a longitude for the second client computing device;

identify a first geo-fenced area surrounding the first client computing device,

wherein the first geo-fenced area is identified based at least in part on the first position;

identify a second geo-fenced area surrounding the second client computing device,

wherein the second geo-fenced area is identified based at least in part on the second position;

calculate an amount of the first geo-fenced area that overlaps the second geo-fenced area;

determine that the amount of the first geo-fenced area that overlaps the second geo-fenced area exceeds a predefined threshold; and

generate a delivery confirmation for a shipment based at least in part on a determination that the amount of the first geo-fenced area that overlaps the second geo-fenced area exceeds the predefined threshold.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the machine readable instructions that, when executed, cause the computing device to at least determine that the amount of the first geo-fenced area that overlaps the second geo-fenced area exceeds the predefined threshold further causes the computing device to at least determine that the amount of the first geo-fenced area that overlaps the second geo-fenced area exceeds the predefined threshold by an amount greater than a predefined margin of error.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first client computing device or the second client computing device comprises an embedded client computing device located at a destination for the shipment.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the predefined threshold comprises a first predefined threshold and the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the computing device to at least:

identify a third geo-fenced area surrounding a delivery location;

calculate an amount of the first geo-fenced area that overlaps the third geo-fenced area;

determine that the amount of the first geo-fenced area that overlaps the third geo-fenced area exceeds a second predefined threshold;

calculate an amount of the second geo-fenced area that overlaps the third geo-fenced area;

determine that the amount of the second geo-fenced area that overlaps the third geo-fenced area exceeds the second predefined threshold; and

wherein the delivery confirmation is further generated based at least in part on a determination that;

the amount of the first geo-fenced area that overlaps the third geo-fenced area exceeds the second predefined threshold; and

the amount of the second geo-fenced area that overlaps the third geo-fenced area exceeds the second predefined threshold.

5. A system, comprising:

a first client computing device comprising a first geolocation circuit;

a second client computing device comprising a second geolocation circuit;

a server computing device comprising a processor and a memory; and

an application stored in the memory and executed with the processor,

wherein the application comprises machine readable instructions that,

when executed, cause the server computing device to at least;

receive a delivery notification from the first client computing device;

receive from the first client computing device a first position generated with the first geolocation circuit;

receive from the second client computing device a second position generated with the second geolocation circuit;

determine that the second position is within a predefined distance of the first position; and

generate a delivery confirmation based at least in part on a determination that

the second position is within the predefined distance of the first position.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the application further comprises machine readable instructions that, when executed, cause the server computing device to at least:

identify a first time receipt, wherein the first time receipt represents when the server computing device received the first position generated with the first geolocation circuit;

identify a second time receipt, wherein the second time receipt represents when the server computing device received the second position generated with the second geolocation circuit;

determine that the first time receipt and the second time receipt fall within a predefined window of time; and

wherein the delivery confirmation is further based at least in part on a determination that the first time receipt and the second time receipt fall within the predefined window of time.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the application further comprises machine readable instructions that, when executed, cause the server computing device to at least send the delivery confirmation to at least one of the first client computing device or the second client computing device.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein at least one of the first geolocation circuit or the second geolocation circuit comprises a global positioning system (GPS) receiver.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein at least one of the first position or the second position comprises a pair of latitude and longitude coordinates.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein at least one of the first geolocation circuit or the second geolocation circuit comprises a Wi-Fi positioning system.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein at least one of the first position or the second position comprises a media access control (MAC) address of a Wi-Fi access point identified with the Wi-Fi positioning system and a corresponding received signal strength indication for the Wi-Fi access point identified with the Wi-Fi positioning system.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein at least one of the first position or the second position comprises a media access control (MAC) address of a Wi-Fi access point identified with the Wi-Fi positioning system and a corresponding angle of arrival of a signal received from the Wi-Fi access point identified with the Wi-Fi positioning system.

13. The system of claim 5, wherein at least one of the first client computing device or the second client computing device comprises a mobile computing device.

14. A method, comprising:

receiving, via an application executing on a computing device,

a delivery notification from a first client computing device;

receiving, via the application executing on the computing device,

a first position of the first client computing device,

wherein the first position is generated with a first geolocation circuit of the first client computing device;

receiving, via the application executing on the computing device,

a second position of a second client computing device,

wherein the second position is generated with a second geolocation circuit of the second client computing device;

determining, via the application executing on the computing device, that

the first position of the first client computing device is within a predefined distance of the second position of the second client computing device; and

generating, via the application executing on the computing device,

a delivery confirmation in response to determining that the first position is within the predefined distance of the second position.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

identifying, via the computing device, a first time receipt, wherein the first time receipt represents when the first position generated with the first geolocation circuit was received;

identifying, via the computing device, a second time receipt, wherein the second time receipt represents when the second position generated with the second geolocation circuit was received;

determining, via the computing device, that the first time receipt and the second time receipt fall within a predefined window of time; and

wherein the delivery confirmation is further based at least in part on a determination that the first time receipt and the second time receipt fall within the predefined window of time.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising sending, via the computing device, the delivery confirmation to at least one of the first client computing device or the second client computing device.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one of the first geolocation circuit or the second geolocation circuit comprises a global positioning system (GPS) receiver.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one of the first position or the second position comprises a pair of latitude and longitude coordinates.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one of the first geolocation circuit or the second geolocation circuit comprises a Wi-Fi positioning system.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one of the first client computing device or the second client computing device comprises a mobile computing device.