Method of and apparatus for dynamically GoeFencing movable vehicle and other equipment and the like

• US 20030060938A1
• Filed: 09/25/2001
• Published: 03/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Calamp Wireless Networks Inc. (CalAmp Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LoJack Corporation (Solera Holdings Incorporated)
• Inventors: Duvall, William
• Granted Patent: US 6,665,613 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/2
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2325/205 Mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/1012 Zone surveillance means, e.g. parking lots, truck depots
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/102 a signal being sent to a remote location, e.g. a radio signal being transmitted to a police station, a security company or the owner
• 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 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

A technique and apparatus for dynamically establishing and varying GeoFencing of a GPS-processor equipped vehicle or the like by providing specialized software and firmware at the vehicle processor to enable internal calculation of shape and size of GeoFences about the vehicle upon commands of the control center station, and without the necessity for such calculation or data point information transmission from the station.

Claims

1. A method of controlling from a remote control center the dynamic GeoFencing of a vehicle or other movable apparatus internally provided with a GPS receiver, software-implemented processor, and communication links, that comprises, transmitting a command from said control center to the vehicle to receive and transmit to the control center, its current GPS location point;

pre-determining at the control center the desired shape and size of a GeoFence around the vehicle and transmitting commands to the vehicle to establish such a GeoFence; and

responding at the processor to said commands by operating said software to calculate in the processor the location of points defining the perimeter of said desired shape and size of GeoFence, thereby establishing the desired GeoFence about the current vehicle location point from data calculated at said vehicle processor.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the GPS location point and the GeoFence perimeter points are expressed as latitude and longitude numbers.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said shape is selected as one of substantially circular and polygonic shapes.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the polygonic shape is formed of sufficient location data points to approximate a circle.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein, having established a GeoFence, the control center commands the vehicle processor to vary the radius or effective radius of the GeoFence, thereby correspondingly to vary the included area.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein both the control center and the vehicle processor software are provided with lookup tables for the respective selection and data calculation implementation of one or both of said shape and size of the GeoFence.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the vehicle initiates its current GPS location reading and transmits it to the control center.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein the control center initiates the activating of a GPS reading at the vehicle and such reading is communicated by the vehicle to the control center.

9. Apparatus for controlling from a remote control center the dynamic GeoFencing of a vehicle or other movable apparatus internally provided with a GPS receiver, a software-implemented processor, and communication links, having, in combination, means for transmitting a command from said control center to the vehicle to receive its current GPS location and transmit the same to the control center point;

means for pre-determining at the control center the desire shape and size of a GeoFence around the vehicle;

means for transmitting commands to the vehicle to establish such a GeoFence; and

software at the processor responsive to said commands for calculating the location of points defining the perimeter of said desired GeoFence about the current vehicle location point from data calculated at said vehicle processor.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the GPS location point and the GeoFence perimeter points are expressed as latitude and longitude numbers.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said shape is selected as one of substantially circular and polygonic shapes.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the polygonic shape is formed of sufficient location data points to approximate a circle.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein, having established a GeoFence, the control center is provided with means for commanding the vehicle processor to vary the radius or “

effective”

radius of the GeoFence, thereby correspondingly to vary the included area.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein both the control center and the vehicle processor software are provided with look-up tables for the respective selection and data calculation implementation of one or both of said shape and size of the GeoFence.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the vehicle is provided with means for initiating a current GPS location reading and transmitting it to the control center.

16. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the control center is provided with means for initiating the activating of a GPS reading at the vehicle, and the vehicle is provided with means for thereupon communicating said reading to the control center.