Systems and methods for automatically generating geofences based on property information

• US 9,706,355 B1
• Filed: 08/12/2016
• Issued: 07/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Contagious Atmosphere LLC
• Original Assignee: Contagious Atmosphere LLC
• Inventors: Cali, Ian L., Lacsamana, Earl
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo, Chuong A
• Application Number:
  US15/235,622
• Time in Patent Office: 333 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/207 with respect to certain areas, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas with possible alerting when inside or outside boundaries
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/022 with dynamic range variability
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/005 Transmission of information for alerting of incoming communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A system for generating a geofence may include a server that receives location data for an area of interest from a client device. In some embodiments, the system may determine at least two boundary coordinates for the area of interest based on the received location data. The system also may determine an anchor point for a geofence and/or a geofence size based on the at least two boundary coordinates. The at least two boundary coordinates may be opposite corners of the area of interest and the anchor point may be a coordinate between the at least two boundary coordinates. The system also may apply an adjustment factor to determine the size of the geofence. The adjustment factor may be determined based on the distance between the at least two boundary coordinates. Other implementations also are described.

Claims

1. A system for geofencing, comprising:

a software module for use on a server computer comprising one or more processors and one or more memories, the software module including instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium that;

receive, from a first device, location data for a point of interest;

determine at least two boundary coordinates for the point of interest based on the received location data, where the at least two boundary coordinates correspond to a perimeter of a target area within a property associated with the point of interest;

determine, by the server computer, geofence data for a geofence based on the determined at least two boundary coordinates for the point of interest; and

transmit the geofence data to the first device.

2. The system of claim 1, where the geofence data includes an anchor point for a geofence that is calculated based on the at least two boundary coordinates and a size for the geofence that is calculated based on the at least two boundary coordinates.

3. The system of claim 2, where the at least two boundary coordinates are opposite corners of the point of interest.

4. The system of claim 3, where the anchor point is a coordinate substantially halfway between the at least two boundary coordinates.

5. The system of claim 1, where the location data includes an address for the point of interest and where the software module further includes instructions that query a geocoding service to determine the at least two boundary conditions from the address.

6. The system of claim 1, where the location data includes a specific coordinate for the point of interest and where the software module further includes instructions that query a reverse geocoding service to determine an address for the point of interest from the specific coordinate.

7. The system of claim 6, where the software module further includes instructions that query a geocoding service to determine the at least two boundary conditions from the address.

8. The system of claim 1, where the geofence data includes a geofence size and where the software module further includes instructions that determine an adjustment factor based on a distance between the at least two boundary coordinates and instructions that determine the geofence size based on the adjustment factor.

9. The system of claim 1, where the geofence data is determined using the Haversine formula.

10. A method for determining a geofence, comprising:

receiving target location data for an area of interest;

querying a geolocation service to determine at least two boundary coordinates for the area of interest based on the received target location data;

calculating, by a device, an anchor point for a geofence based on the determined at least two boundary coordinates; and

calculating, by the device, a size for the geofence based on the at least two boundary coordinates.

11. The method of claim 10, where the at least two boundary coordinates are opposite corners of the area of interest.

12. The method of claim 11, where the anchor point is a coordinate substantially halfway between the at least two boundary coordinates.

13. The method of claim 10, where the method further includes querying a reverse geocoding service to determine an address for the area of interest and where querying the geolocation service includes querying the geolocation service for boundary coordinates associated with the address for the area of interest.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining an adjustment factor based on the at least two boundary coordinates; and

calculating the size of the geofence based on the adjustment factor.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving, from a first device, current location data of the first device; and

determining if the current location data of the first device is within the geofence.

16. A system for geofencing, comprising:

a software module for use on a mobile device comprising one or more processors and one or more memories, the software module including instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium that;

determine a target location;

determine at least two boundary coordinates for the target location, where the at least two boundary coordinates coincide with a property line for the target location;

calculate an anchor point for a geofence based on the determined at least two boundary coordinates for the target location;

calculate a size for the geofence based on the at least two boundary coordinates;

determine a current location for the mobile device; and

determine if the current location of the mobile device is within the geofence.

17. The system of claim 16, where the software module further includes instructions that determine an adjustment factor based on the at least two boundary coordinates and calculate the size of the geofence based on the adjustment factor.

18. The method of claim 17, where the software module further includes instructions that determine the adjustment factor based on a distance between the at least two boundary coordinates.

19. The system of claim 16, where the software module further includes instructions that notify a third-party service provider if the current location of the mobile device is within the geofence.

20. The system of claim 16, where the at least two boundary coordinates are opposite corners of the area of interest and where the anchor point is a coordinate substantially halfway between the at least two boundary coordinates.