Method and system to control movable entities

• US 8,009,037 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2007
• Issued: 08/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WirelessWERX IP LLC (Pueblo Nuevo LLC)
• Original Assignee: Wirelesswerx International, Inc.
• Inventors: Staton, Houston, Maggs, Charles, Santos, German, Lang, Edward, Mooney, Frank, Ashley, James Jr., Mooney, Patrick, Ashley, James Sr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Tai T
• Application Number:
  US11/949,975
• Publication Number:
  US 20080176539A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,365 Days
• Field of Search: 340/539.13, 340/539.26, 340/573.4, 340/825.49, 340/5.92, 340/10.1, 340/527.4, 340/572.7, 455/456.1, 455/456.6, 701/200, 701/206, 701/208
• US Class Current: 340/539.13
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2325/101 Bluetooth
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2325/304 Boats
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/00 Fittings or systems for preventing or indicating unauthorised use or theft of vehicles locks for vehicles E05B77/00-E05B85/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/04 operating on the propulsion system, e.g. engine or drive motor
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/1004 Alarm systems characterised by the type of sensor, e.g. current sensing means using door lock sensors B60R25/1001
• 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: B60R 25/33 of global position, e.g. by providing GPS coordinates
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/14 Central alarm receiver or annunciator arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A method to wirelessly control an entity having an attached transponder is disclosed. A geographical zone is defined. The geographical zone can be defined by allowing a user to define and load to a transponder a plurality of waypoints, each waypoint defined by a geographical coordinate and a radius originating from the geographical coordinate. The geographical zone can also be defined by selecting a plurality of coordinates that are loaded to a transponder and mapped on a pixilated image. The microprocessor in the transponder is programmed to determine the occurrence of an event associated with the status of the entity in relation to the geographical zone. Finally, the microprocessor is configured to execute a configurable operation if the event occurs.

Claims

1. A method to wirelessly manage an entity having a transponder, comprising:

loading from a computing device to a transponder'"'"'s memory a plurality of coordinates;

programming a microprocessor in the transponder to define a geographical zone by creating an area on a pixilated image using said plurality of coordinates, wherein said area is representative of a geographical zone; and

sending a command to the transponder to execute a configurable operation upon receiving a command from a control center, the command being associated with a status of the entity in relation to the geographical zone.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the command from the control center to the transponder.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the status of the entity is based upon movement of the entity.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the status of the entity is based upon position of the entity.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the status of the entity is based upon non-movement of the entity.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said geographical zone represented in the pixilated image is formed by assigning each coordinate to a pixel and configuring a distance between each assigned pixel.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said enclosed area is created by connecting a plurality of assigned pixels by lines, wherein a series of contiguous and connected lines enclose an area in the pixilated image and wherein said pixels that lie on the lines are turned on in order to form a contiguous array of pixels that enclose a shape in the pixilated image.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the entity is a vehicle, a vessel, a craft, a boat, a helicopter, or a plane.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the command is a request for a time and a corresponding location of an occurrence of a previous event.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the command is a request for a speed and direction of the entity.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the command is a request for a state of any assigned inputs or outputs.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the transponder is wirelessly configurable using a wireless communications network.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating at least one event message from the transponder to a central computer using a communications network, the at least one event message including data representative of the occurrence of the event.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the communications network is a cellular communications network, satellite communications network, short range radio or a short message service network.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the command comprises a request to switch communication from a first communications network to a second communications network.

16. A method to wirelessly control an entity having a transponder, comprising:

defining a geographical zone using a plurality of waypoints, wherein each waypoint is defined by a geographical coordinate and a radius originating from the geographical coordinate;

loading from a computing device to a transponder'"'"'s memory a plurality of waypoints; and

sending a command to the transponder to execute a configurable operation upon receiving a command from a control center, the command being associated with a status of the entity in relation to the geographical zone.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising transmitting the command from the control center to the transponder.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the status of the entity is based upon movement of the entity.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the status of the entity is based upon position of the entity.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the status of the entity is based upon non-movement of the entity.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the geographical coordinate is represented by a latitude and longitude, and the radius is represented by a distance magnitude.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the transponder can determine whether the transponder is inside or outside the geographical zone by obtaining global positioning coordinates, and calculating whether or not the global positioning coordinates are inside at least one waypoint of the plurality of waypoints.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein a shape of the geographical area is a street route.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein a shape of the geographical area is a non-geometrical shape.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the waypoints in the plurality of waypoints have the same coordinate but different radii, such that all the waypoints in the plurality of waypoints are concentric.

26. The method of claim 16, wherein the entity is a vehicle, a vessel, a craft, a boat, a helicopter, a plane or a person.

27. The method of claim 16, wherein the command is a request for a time and a corresponding location of a occurrence of a previous event.

28. The method of claim 16, wherein the command is a request for a speed and direction of the entity.

29. The method of claim 16, wherein the command is a request for a state of any assigned inputs or outputs.

30. The method of claim 16, further comprising electrically connecting the microprocessor to at least one electrical input associated to the entity.

31. The method of claim 16, wherein the transponder is configurable wirelessly using a wireless communications network.

32. The method of claim 16, further comprising communicating at least one event message from the transponder to a central computer using a communications network, the at least one event message including data representative of the occurrence of the event.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the communications network is a cellular communications network, satellite communications network, short range radio, wireless network or a short message service network.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the command comprises a request to switch communication from a first communications network to a second communications network.

35. A method to wirelessly communicate with an entity having transponder, comprising:

using a computing device to identify a geometrical area using at least two coordinate attributes, wherein said geometrical area is divided into a grid having at least one section;

defining a geographical zone by selecting within the grid one or more of the at least one section representative of a desired area and correlating the at least one section to a pixilated computer image by associating the at least one section with a pixel;

loading said pixilated computer image into a transponder'"'"'s memory; and

programming a microprocessor in the transponder to execute a configurable operation upon receiving a command from a control center, the command being associated with a status of the entity in relation to the geographical zone.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the status of the entity is based upon movement of the entity.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein the status of the entity is based upon position of the entity.

38. The method of claim 35, wherein the status of the entity is based upon non-movement of the entity.

39. The method of claim 35, wherein the entity is a vehicle, a vessel, a craft, a boat, a helicopter, a plane or a person.

40. The method of claim 35, wherein the command is a request for a time and a corresponding location of an occurrence of a previous event.

41. The method of claim 35, wherein the command is a request for a state of any assigned inputs or outputs.

42. The method of claim 35, further comprising electrically connecting the microprocessor to at least one electrical input associated to the entity.

43. The method of claim 35, wherein said geometrical area is rectangular and is divided into a plurality of rectangles.

44. The method of claim 35, wherein said geometrical area is circular and is divided into a plurality of sections.

45. The method of claim 35, wherein the transponder is configurable wirelessly using a wireless communications network.

46. The method of claim 35, further comprising communicating at least one event message from the transponder to a central computer using a communications network, the at least one event message including data representative of the occurrence of the event.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein the communications network is a cellular communications network, satellite communications network, short range radio, wireless network or a short message service network.

48. The method of claim 46, wherein the command comprises a request to switch communication from a first communications network to a second communications network.

49. A method to wirelessly communicate with an entity having a transponder, comprising:

loading from a computing device to the transponder'"'"'s memory a plurality of coordinates;

programming a microprocessor in the transponder to define a geographical zone by creating an area using said plurality of coordinates, wherein said area is representative of a geographical zone; and

sending a command to the transponder to execute a configurable operation upon receiving a command from a control center, the command being associated with the location of the entity in relation to the geographical zone.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the communication with the entity is based upon movement of the entity.

51. The method of claim 49, wherein the communication with the entity is based upon position of the entity.

52. The method of claim 49, wherein the communication with the entity is based upon non-movement of the entity.

53. The method of claim 49, wherein the transponder is wirelessly configurable using a wireless communications network.

54. The method of claim 49, further comprising communicating at least one event message from the transponder to a central computer using a communications network, the at least one event message including data representative of the occurrence of the event.

55. The method of claim 54, wherein the communications network is a cellular communications network, satellite communications network, short range radio, wireless network or a short message service network.

56. The method of claim 54, wherein the command comprises a request to switch communication from a first communications network to a second communications network.

57. The method of claim 49, further comprising allowing a user to define more than one geographical zone.

58. The method of claim 49 wherein the geographical zone is associated with a moving location that is related associated to the transponder.

59. The method of claim 49, further comprising taking an action based on an interaction of an entity with the geographical zone.

60. The method of claim 59, wherein the action is sending an alert when a portable electronic device crosses the geographical zone.

61. The method of claim 49 wherein a the service is offered to the user when within the geographical zone, the service being an availability of an event.

62. The method of claim 49 wherein the geographical zone has a user-defined shape other than circular or spherical, and selectively a closed polygonal shape.

63. A method of claim 49 wherein the transponder is an electronic portable device, the device being provided with a GPS receiver and includes the ability to communicate wirelessly, and by short radio range, selectively by Bluetooth protocol to effect location information.

64. A method according claim 49 wherein the transponder is an electronic portable device is a cell phone, PDA or navigation system in an automobile.

65. A method according claim 49 including having the transponder be enabled to define a geographical zone is based on a 3-D location, and selectively for different locations in 3-D there are different geographical zones.