Geo-fencing based location detection method and electronic device

• US 9,813,860 B2
• Filed: 12/02/2016
• Issued: 11/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hisense International Company Limited (Qingdao Huatong State-Owned Capital Operation Company Limited), Hisense USA Corporation (Qingdao Huatong State-Owned Capital Operation Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: Hisense International Company Limited (Qingdao Huatong State-Owned Capital Operation Company Limited), Hisense Mobile Communications Technology Co., Ltd. (Qingdao Huatong State-Owned Capital Operation Company Limited), Hisense USA Corporation (Qingdao Huatong State-Owned Capital Operation Company Limited)
• Inventors: Zhao, Linhu, Song, Tao
• Primary Examiner(s): Arevalo, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US15/367,381
• Publication Number:
  US 20170086020A1
• Time in Patent Office: 340 Days
• Field of Search: 4554563, 4554561, 4554562, 455440, 455410, 4554565, 4554042
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/24 Cell structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

Disclosed are a geo-fencing based location detection method and electronic device, and the method includes: obtaining present geographic coordinates of a terminal, when an update of location of the terminal is detected; and checking whether or not the obtained geographic coordinates are within a rectangular coverage area denoted by any leaf node in a pre-built tree data structure, and if they are, obtaining an actual coverage area of a polygonal geo-fence within the rectangular coverage area; checking whether or not the geographic coordinates are in the actual coverage area of the polygonal geo-fence, and outputting a checking result.

Claims

1. A geo-fencing based location detection method, the method comprising:

obtaining present geographic coordinates of a terminal, when an update of location of the terminal is detected; and

checking whether the obtained geographic coordinates are within a rectangular coverage area denoted by any leaf node in a pre-built tree data structure, and if they are, obtaining an actual coverage area of a polygonal geo-fence within the rectangular coverage area, checking whether the geographic coordinates are in the actual coverage area of the polygonal geo-fence, and outputting a checking result,

wherein the polygonal geo-fence is a preset geo-fence, an outer contour of which is a closed polygon, and the tree data structure is a dynamic balanced tree structure which uses a minimum bounding rectangle of the polygonal geo-fence as a leaf node and is pre-built according to predetermined building rules of tree data structure, and

wherein the polygonal geo-fence is preset by obtaining geographic coordinates of points clicked by a user for selecting a target area, after a polygonal geo-fence setting mode is enabled, and determining whether a number of the clicked points is not less than three, and if so, setting a polygonal geo-fence, the outer contour of which is the closed polygon, according to the geographic coordinates and a clicking order of the clicked points.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the tree data structure is an R-tree, an R+ tree, an R* tree, a Hilbert R-tree, or an X-tree.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein after obtaining the geographic coordinates of the points clicked by the user on a map for selecting the target area, the method further comprises:

saving the geographic coordinates of the corresponding points in a preset dynamic array in turn, according to the clicking order of the user; and

if it is determined that the number of the clicked points is not less than three, setting the polygonal geo-fence comprises;

if it is determined that a number of pairs of geographic coordinates of the saved points in the dynamic array is not less than three, setting the polygonal geo-fence according to the geographic coordinates and the saving order of the geographic coordinates of the points saved in the dynamic array.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the minimum bounding rectangle of the polygonal geo-fence is constructed in following operations:

among the geographic coordinates of all the points forming the polygonal geo-fence saved in the dynamic array, finding a maximum latitude X_max, a minimum latitude X_min, a maximum longitude Y_max and a minimum longitude Y_min; and

using the points (X_max, Y_max) and (X_min, Y_min) respectively as vertexes of the minimum bounding rectangle of the polygonal geo-fence, and using a line between the points (X_max, Y_max) and (X_min, Y_min) as a diagonal of the minimum bounding rectangle, to construct the minimum bounding rectangle of the polygonal geo-fence.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the tree structure is built in following operations:

each time when a newly constructed minimum bounding rectangle of a polygonal geo-fence is obtained, using the coordinates of the vertexes of the minimum bounding rectangle which are (X_max, Y_max) and (X_min, Y_min) as an index of a corresponding node in the tree structure, and add this node as a leaf node into the tree structure according to a predetermined building rules of the tree.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said checking whether the obtained geographic coordinates are within a rectangular coverage area denoted by any leaf node in the pre-built tree structure, comprises:

performing recursive searching on each branch of the tree structure, in an order that is from a root node to a leaf node;

if it is determined that a recursive searched node is a root node or a branch node, then determining the terminal is not within the coverage area of any polygonal geo-fence; and

if it is determined that the recursive searched node is a leaf node, then obtaining the actual coverage area of the polygonal geo-fence corresponding to the leaf node, using a preset ray equation to construct a ray starting from the geographic coordinates, counting a number of intersections at which the ray and a boundary of the polygonal geo-fence intersect, and if the number of intersections is determined as an odd number, determining the terminal is within the actual coverage area of the polygonal geo-fence, and if the number of intersections is determined as an even number, determining the terminal is not within the actual coverage area of the polygonal geo-fence.

7. An electronic device, the device comprising:

at least processor; and

a memory communicatively connected with the at least one processor, wherein;

the memory stores therein instructions executable by the at least one processor, wherein the instructions are executed by the at least one processor to enable the at least one processor to perform;

obtaining present geographic coordinates of a terminal, when an update of location of the terminal is detected; and

checking whether the obtained geographic coordinates are within a rectangular coverage area denoted by any leaf node in a pre-built tree data structure, and if they are, obtaining an actual coverage area of a polygonal geo-fence within the rectangular coverage area, checking whether the geographic coordinates are in the actual coverage area of the polygonal geo-fence, and outputting a checking result,

wherein the polygonal geo-fence is a preset geo-fence, an outer contour of which is a closed polygon, and the tree data structure is a dynamic balanced tree structure which uses a minimum bounding rectangle of the polygonal geo-fence as a leaf node and is pre-built according to predetermined building rules of tree data structure, and

wherein the instructions are executed by the at least one processor to enable the at least one processor to set the polygonal geo-fence by obtaining geographic coordinates of points clicked by a user for selecting a target area, after a polygonal geo-fence setting mode is enabled, and determining whether a number of the clicked points is not less than three, and if so, setting the polygonal geo-fence, the outer contour of which is a closed polygon, according to the geographic coordinates and a clicking order of the clicked points.

8. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein the tree data structure is an R-tree, an R+ tree, an R* tree, a Hilbert R-tree, or an X-tree.

9. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein after obtaining the geographic coordinates of the points clicked by the user on a map for selecting the target area, the instructions are executed by the at least one processor to further enable the at least one processor to perform saving the geographic coordinates of the corresponding points in a preset dynamic array;

and

if it is determined that the number of the clicked points is not less than three, setting the polygonal geo-fence comprises;

if it is determined that a number of pairs of geographic coordinates of the saved points in the dynamic array is not less than three, setting the polygonal geo-fence according to the geographic coordinates and the saving order of the geographic coordinates of the points saved in the dynamic array.

10. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein the instructions are executed by the at least one processor to enable the at least one processor to construct the minimum bounding rectangle of the polygonal geo-fence through following operations:

among the geographic coordinates of all the points forming the polygonal geo-fence saved in the dynamic array, finding a maximum latitude X_max, a minimum latitude X_min, a maximum longitude Y_max and a minimum longitude Y_min; and

using the points (X_max, Y_max) and (X_min, Y_min) respectively as vertexes of the minimum bounding rectangle of the polygonal geo-fence, and using a line between the points (X_max, Y_max) and (X_min, Y_min) as a diagonal of the minimum bounding rectangle, to construct the minimum bounding rectangle of the polygonal geo-fence.

11. The electronic device according to claim 10, wherein the instructions are executed by the at least one processor to enable the at least one processor to build the tree structure through following operations:

each time when a newly constructed minimum bounding rectangle of a polygonal geo-fence is obtained, using the coordinates of the vertexes of the minimum bounding rectangle which are (X_max, Y_max) and (X_min, Y_min) as an index of a corresponding node in the tree structure, and add this node as a leaf node into the tree structure according to a predetermined building rules of the tree.

12. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein said checking whether the obtained geographic coordinates are within a rectangular coverage area denoted by any leaf node in the tree structure, comprises:

performing recursive searching on each branch of the tree structure, in an order that is from a root node to a leaf node;

if it is determined that a recursive searched node is a root node or a branch node, then determining the terminal is not within the coverage area of any polygonal geo-fence; and

if it is determined that the recursive searched node is a leaf node, then obtaining the actual coverage area of the polygonal geo-fence corresponding to the leaf node, using a preset ray equation to construct a ray starting from the geographic coordinates, counting a number of intersections at which the ray and a boundary of the polygonal geo-fence intersect, and if the number of intersections is determined as an odd number, determining the terminal is within the actual coverage area of the polygonal geo-fence, and if the number of intersections is determined as an even number, determining the terminal is not within the actual coverage area of the polygonal geo-fence.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

obtaining present geographic coordinates of a terminal, when an update of location of the terminal is detected; and

checking whether the obtained geographic coordinates are within a rectangular coverage area denoted by any leaf node in a pre-built tree data structure, and if they are, obtaining an actual coverage area of a polygonal geo-fence within the rectangular coverage area, checking whether the geographic coordinates are in the actual coverage area of the polygonal geo-fence, and outputting a checking result,

wherein the polygonal geo-fence is a preset geo-fence, an outer contour of which is a closed polygon, and the tree data structure is a dynamic balanced tree structure which uses a minimum bounding rectangle of the polygonal geo-fence as a leaf node and is pre-built according to predetermined building rules of tree data structure, and

wherein the polygonal geo-fence is preset by obtaining geographic coordinates of points clicked by a user for selecting a target area, after a polygonal geo-fence setting mode is enabled, and determining whether a number of the clicked points is not less than three, and if so, setting the polygonal geo-fence, the outer contour of which is a closed polygon, according to the geographic coordinates and the clicking order of the clicked points.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 13, wherein the tree data structure is an R-tree, an R+ tree, an R* tree, a Hilbert R-tree, or an X-tree.