APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR UTILIZING LOCATION CAPABLE TWO-WAY RADIO TRANSCEIVERS AS GEO-FENCE POSTS

• US 20130079028A1
• Filed: 09/23/2011
• Published: 03/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Inventors: Klein, David E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,670,783 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• 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

Abstract

An infield radio communication device (100) operates in a communication system (200, 300) to dynamically identify and/or share location information to form and update a geo-fence or border. A single infield radio device (100) can be used to provide electronic location markers which can be updated in real time to create a geographical fence or border as the device (100) changes location. Additional infield radio device(s) (100) can also be used to share location markers for the creation of the geographical fence or border.

Claims

1. A portable radio communication device operating within a communication system, the portable radio communication device comprising:

a microprocessor;

a two-way radio transceiver coupled to the microprocessor;

a location sensor coupled to the microprocessor; and

the microprocessor, two-way radio transceiver and location sensor providing a location capable two-way radio transceiver operating as a geo-fence post at a plurality of locations to generate a geo-fence or boundary defining a dynamic region, wherein the dynamic region is set and changed in response to input from the portable radio communication device.

2. The portable communication device of claim 1, wherein the dynamic region is set and changed in response to input from a infield user of the portable radio communication device.

3. The portable radio communication device of claim 1, further comprising:

location sharing capabilities for sharing geo-fence post information to other infield devices within the communication system.

4. The portable radio communication device of claim 1, wherein inputs from both an infield user of the portable communication device and location information data generated by the location capable two-way radio transceiver are used to operate the portable communication device as a geo-fence post.

5. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the portable communication device generates a plurality of geo-fence posts over time to create a geo-fence or border.

6. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the portable communication device generates a plurality of geo-fence posts in response to predetermined events to create a geo-fence or border.

7. A communication system, comprising:

a plurality of infield devices providing two-way radio capability, each of the plurality of infield devices having a radio ID and location sensing capability for generating location information in response to an input to each of the plurality of infield devices, the location information from each of the plurality of infield devices being used to generate a geo-fence or border that defines a dynamic region; and

the infield devices providing dynamic live, real-time updates to the geo-fence or border in response to subsequent inputs to the infield devices.

8. The communication system of claim 7, further comprising:

a network server having a central storage database, the central storage database storing the location information and the network server managing the location information stored in the central storage database.

9. The communication system of claim 8, wherein the network server sends time based requests to the plurality of infield devices requesting updated location information with which to generate an updated geo-fence or border.

10. The communication system of claim 9, wherein users of the plurality of infield devices enter the updated location information in response to the requests.

11. The communication system of claim 10, wherein the updated geo-fence or border provide synchronization management of assets within the communication system.

12. The communication system of claim 7, wherein the input into the plurality of infield devices originates from individual users within the communication system.

13. The communication system of claim 7, wherein updates to the geo-fence or border are time based or event based.

14. The communication system of claim 7, wherein once the geo-fence is established, the location information is no longer generated until a subsequent input to the infield device is received.

15. The communication system of claim 7, wherein the geo-fence is formed in response to user or system initiated location geo-fence post requests to the infield devices.

16. The communication system of claim 7, wherein inputs from both an infield user of the infield device and the location information generated by the infield device are used to provide the geo-fence or border.

17. The communication system of claim 7, wherein the communication system determines whether the infield device has permission to define the geo-fence or border.

18. A method for determining a communication boundary, comprising:

receiving a request, at an infield communication device, to generate location information;

calculating a location of the infield communication device using the infield communication device;

transmitting, by the infield communication device, the location information as a geo-fence marker at a plurality of locations;

providing dynamic, live, real-time updates to the geo-fence marker at the plurality of locations thereby creating geo-fence posts, wherein the geo-fence posts define a dynamic region, the dynamic region being set and changed in response to input from the infield communication device; and

forming a geo-fence or border in response to the geo-fence posts.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

updating the geo-fence based on both user input to the infield communication device and the location information calculated within the infield communication device.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the updating is either time based or event based.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

determining whether the infield communication device has permission to provide geo-fence markers for the formation of a geo-fence or border based on ID of the infield communication device.

22. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

identifying gap areas when the infield communication device moves out of the dynamic region defined by the geo-fence posts.

23. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

providing a visual display of the geo-fence or border on a network server having a central storage database, the central storage database storing the location information and the network server managing the location information stored in the central storage database.

24. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

creating an ad hoc geo fence or border using the geo-fence markers associated with one or more infield devices.