Method of Providing Alarm Service Upon Movement Out of Safety Zone

• US 20070243869A1
• Filed: 06/30/2005
• Published: 10/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Kwon, Sang-woon, Oh, Se-hyun, Lee, Joo-mun, Yoon, Jin-hee
• Granted Patent: US 8,013,746 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/435.100
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0261 System arrangements wherein the object is to detect trespassing over a fixed physical boundary, e.g. the end of a garden
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0283 via a telephone network, e.g. cellular GSM
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a method of providing alarm service upon movement out of a safety zone in a mobile communication network. The method is implemented in such a way as to acquire past location registration information for a ward'"'"'s mobile terminal designated by a subscriber (guardian), the past location registration information being base station identifiers associated with base stations at which the past locations of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal has previously been registered, store the acquired past location registration information to a My Base Station DB allocated to the ward, check base station information, associated with a base station at which the current location of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal has been registered, at the time of an observation request, determine whether base station information has been stored in the My Base Station DB, detect movement out of the safety zone when the base station information has not been stored in the My Base Station DB, and notify the subscriber of movement out of the safety zone.

Claims

1. A method of providing alarm service upon movement out of a safety zone using a base station-based positioning scheme in a mobile communication network, the mobile communication network including a service providing server that is connected to a home location registration unit, a visitor location registration unit, and an Internet to execute safety zone setting, detection and an alarm upon movement out of the safety zone, the method comprising:

a first step of acquiring past location registration information of a ward'"'"'s mobile terminal designated by a subscriber (guardian), the past location registration information being base station identifiers associated with base stations in which past locations of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal have previously been registered;

a second step of setting an observation region including a region or a point designated by a subscriber;

a third step of checking base stations within the observation region among the base stations where past locations of the ward'"'"'s mobile have been registered;

a fourth step of storing information about the base stations existing within the observation region, to a my base station DataBase (DB) allocated to the ward;

a fifth step of checking current location information at the time of observation request, the current location information being a base station identifier associated with a base station in which a current location of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal is registered;

a sixth step of judging whether the current location information has been stored in the My Base Station DB;

a seventh step of judging whether the ward has moved out of the safety zone when the current location information has not been stored in the My Base Station DB and notifying the subscriber of the movement; and

an eighth step of periodically checking a location of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal when the current location information has been stored in the My Base Station DB.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

incrementing a checking frequency by one for a base station, at which the current location of the ward′

mobile terminal has been registered, the checking frequency being stored in the My Base Station DB; and

periodically monitoring the checking frequencies for the base stations, which are stored in the My Base Station DB, and deleting base stations having checking frequencies smaller than an arbitrary natural number N from the My Base Station DB.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

calculating a distance between a central location of a base station, at which the current location of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal has been registered, and a center of the region designated by the guardian;

including the base station, at which the current location of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal has been registered, in the My Base Station DB when the calculated distance is shorter than an arbitrary reference distance; and

generating an alarm upon movement out of the safety zone when the calculated distance is greater than the arbitrary reference distance.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the arbitrary reference distance is greater than a distance between two base stations adjacent to the center of the region designated by the subscriber, and is shorter than two times of the distance.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein, at the third step, when any base station does not exist within the observation region, the center of the observation region is obtained, a reference circle having a radius of R1 around the center is formed, and base stations existing within a reference circle region are checked, wherein R1 is set to be larger than a radius of the observation region designated by the subscriber.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein R1 is set to be a maximal radius such that, when a circle having a radius of R1 from the center of the observation region is drawn, a number of base stations, which belong to a region of the circle and at which past locations of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal have previously been registered, becomes larger than a number of base stations, which belong to the region of the circle and at which the past locations of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal have not been registered.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein R1 is set so as to be greater than two times of the distance and shorter than four times of the distance, in consideration of a distance between two base stations adjacent to the center of the observation region.

8. The method according to claim 3, wherein, at the second step, when the subscriber designates a specific point at the second step, a circle having a radius of R2, which is centered on the specific point, is formed, and a region of the circle is set to be an observation region, wherein, R2 is set to be a maximal radius such that, when a circle, centered on the specific point, is drawn, the number of base stations, which belong to a region of the circle and at which past locations of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal have previously been registered, becomes larger than the number of base stations, which belong to the region of the circle and at which the past locations of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal have not been registered.

9. The method according to claim 3, wherein, at the second step, when the subscriber designates a specific point, a circle having a radius of R2, which is centered on the specific point, is formed, and a region of the circle is set to be an observation region, wherein, R2 is set so as to be greater than two times of the distance and shorter than four times of the distance, in consideration of a distance between two base stations adjacent to the center of the observation region.

10. The method according to claim 3, wherein, at the fifth step, a Mobile Identification Number (MIN) of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal is input by the subscriber so as to check the current location information of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal.

11. The method according to claim 3, wherein, at the fifth step, the MIN of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal is acquired from information stored in the DB when the subscriber has conducted registration for the service, so as to check the current location information of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal.

16. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the steps of:

calculating a distance between a central location of a base station, at which the current location of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal has been registered, and a center of the region designated by the guardian;

including the base station, at which the current location of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal has been registered, in the My Base Station DB when the calculated distance is shorter than an arbitrary reference distance; and

generating an alarm upon movement out of the safety zone when the calculated distance is greater than the arbitrary reference distance.

12. A method of providing alarm service upon movement out of a safety zone using a base station-based positioning scheme in a mobile communication network, the mobile communication network including a service providing server that is connected to a home location registration unit, a visitor location registration unit, and the Internet to execute safety zone setting, detection and an alarm upon movement out of the safety zone, the method comprising:

a first step of acquiring past location registration information of a ward'"'"'s mobile terminal designated by a subscriber (guardian), the past location registration information being base station identifiers associated with base stations at which past locations of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal have previously been registered;

a second step of storing the acquired past location registration information to a My Base Station DB allocated to the ward;

a third step of checking base station information, associated with base stations at which a current location of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal has been registered, at the time of an observation request;

a fourth step of judging whether base station information has been stored in the My Base Station DB;

a fifth step of detecting movement out of the safety zone when the base station information has not been stored in the My Base Station DB and then notifying the subscriber of movement out of the safety zone; and

a sixth step of periodically checking a location of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal when the base station information has been stored in the My Base Station DB.

13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

incrementing a checking frequency by one for a base station, at which the current location of the ward′

mobile terminal has been registered, the checking frequency being stored in the My Base Station DB; and

periodically monitoring checking frequencies for the base stations stored in the My Base Station DB, and deleting base stations having checking frequencies smaller than an arbitrary natural number N from the My Base Station DB.

14. A computer readable storage medium storing a program executed by a server connected to a mobile communication network, the program conducting a method comprising:

a first step of acquiring past location registration information of a ward'"'"'s mobile terminal designated by a subscriber (guardian), the past location registration information being base station identifiers associated with base stations in which past locations of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal have previously been registered;

a second step of setting an observation region including a region or a point designated by a subscriber;

a third step of checking base stations within the observation region among the base stations where past locations of the ward'"'"'s mobile have been registered;

a fourth step of storing information about the base stations existing within the observation region, to a my base station DataBase (DB) allocated to the ward;

a fifth step of checking current location information at the time of observation request, the current location information being a base station identifier associated with a base station in which a current location of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal is registered;

a sixth step of judging whether the current location information has been stored in the My Base Station DB;

a seventh step of judging whether the ward has moved out of the safety zone when the current location information has not been stored in the My Base Station DB and notifying the subscriber of the movement; and

an eighth step of periodically checking a location of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal when the current location information has been stored in the My Base Station DB.

15. A computer readable storage medium storing a program executed by a server connected to a mobile communication network, the program conducting a method comprising:

a first step of acquiring past location registration information of a ward'"'"'s mobile terminal designated by a subscriber (guardian), the past location registration information being base station identifiers associated with base stations at which past locations of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal have previously been registered;

a second step of storing the acquired past location registration information to a My Base Station DB allocated to the ward;

a third step of checking base station information, associated with base stations at which a current location of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal has been registered, at the time of an observation request;

a fourth step of judging whether base station information has been stored in the My Base Station DB;

a fifth step of detecting movement out of the safety zone when the base station information has not been stored in the My Base Station DB and then notifying the subscriber of movement out of the safety zone; and

a sixth step of periodically checking a location of the ward'"'"'s mobile terminal when the base station information has been stored in the My Base Station DB.