System for insertion of location data into a source device's storage location

• US 9,942,704 B2
• Filed: 08/26/2016
• Issued: 04/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trimble Inc.
• Original Assignee: Trimble Inc.
• Inventors: Krebs, Richard C., Kiest, Cary Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): AJIBADE AKONAI, OLUMIDE
• Application Number:
  US15/249,105
• Publication Number:
  US 20180063672A1
• Time in Patent Office: 592 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-4566
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/741 Routing in networks with a plurality of addressing schemes, e.g. with both IPv4 and IPv6
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

A system for providing locations for each of a plurality of non-Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled devices (e.g., locations of “things” or objects in the IoT, for sensors in a WSN, and so on). The system includes a source device or “thing” including memory (e.g., a long-range sensor in a WSN or the like). The system also includes a portable computing device (e.g., a handheld GPS-enabled device), and the portable computing device includes: (a) a processor; (b) a location-determining assembly operating to determine location information for the portable computing device; and (c) a location-transferring module run by the processor to provide the location information in the memory of the source device (e.g., to copy the information to a predefined storage location for later retrieval and inclusion in predefined parts of a message or data packet).

Claims

1. A system for providing locations for a network of non-Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled devices, comprising:

a source device including memory; and

a portable computing device, wherein the portable computing device comprises;

a processor;

a location-determining assembly operating, in response to a user input, to determine location information for the portable computing device; and

a location-transferring module run by the processor to provide the location information in the memory of the source device, wherein the location-transferring module initiates and establishes a communication session with the source device in response to the location-transferring module being initiated by a user input to the portable computing device and wherein the location information is only transmitted to the source device during the communication session, wherein the location information for the source device is generated by first positioning the portable computing device in a position proximate to the source device and receiving first user input to collect the location information, second operating the portable computing device to establish the communication session only after receiving second user input and third copying the location information gathered at the position proximate to the source device to the memory of the source device, wherein the source device is a non-GPS-enabled device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the location information is GPS-related information including latitude and longitude coordinates of the portable computing device.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the location information further includes an altitude of the portable computing device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the location-determining assembly comprises a GPS receiver.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the location-determining assembly is operated to determine the location information when the portable computing device is in a location gathering position relative to the source device.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the location gathering position is at a location within 12 inches of the source device.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the location information is modified based on an offset of the location gathering position from a physical location of the source device during the determining of the location information.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the source device is configured for wireless communications to a remote client device and wherein the source device transmits at least a portion of the location information in the memory in a message to the remote client device.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the wireless communications include TCP/IP-based communications and the message comprises an IP packet including the portion of the location information.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the IP packet is an IPv4 packet and the portion of the location information is provided in the data field of the IPv4 packet.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the portion of the location information is provided at the end of the data field of the IPv4 packet.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the IP packet is an IPv6 packet and the portion of the location information is provided in a field of the header of the IPv6 packet or in the data field of the IPv6 packet.

13. A system of objects each providing its physical location over a communications network, comprising:

a monitoring device communicatively linked to the communications network; and

a plurality of non-GPS-enabled devices positioned at a plurality of locations in a physical space, wherein each of the non-GPS-enabled devices comprises;

a communications module operable to communicate messages to the monitoring device over the communications network; and

memory storing location information, wherein the location information is included in the messages communicated to the monitoring device and wherein the location information is received from a portable computing device in a communications session established by the portable computing device via the communications module,

wherein the portable computing device comprises a handheld GPS-enabled device and

wherein the location information for each of the non-GPS-enabled devices is generated by first positioning the handheld GPS-enabled device in a position proximate to the non-GPS-enabled device and receiving first user input to collect the location information, second operating the handheld GPS-enabled device to establish the communication session only after receiving second user input, and third copying the location information gathered at the position proximate to the non-GPS-enabled device to a predefined storage location in the memory of the non-GPS-enabled device.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the messages comprise a network-communications packet and the location information is provided in one or more headers of the network-communications packet or in a data section of the network-communications packet.

15. A method for providing location information in messages from devices without location determining capabilities, comprising:

positioning a source device at a first location within a physical space;

positioning a portable computing device at a second location within a predefined distance from the source device;

first operating the portable computing device to determine location information corresponding to the second location;

second operating the portable computing device to initiate a communication session with the source device;

third operating the portable computing device, during the communication session, to provide the location information to the source device for defining the first location;

operating the source device to generate and transmit a message over a communications network, wherein the message includes at least a portion of the location information; and

modifying the location information prior to the third operating of the portable computing device based on an offset distance between the first and second locations.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the location information includes latitude and longitude coordinates.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the message comprises a digital communications packet and wherein the at least a portion of the location information is provided in a field of the header of the communications packet.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the message comprises a digital communications packet and wherein the at least a portion of the location information is provided in a data section of the digital communications packet.