Method and system of zone suspension in electronic monitoring

• US 9,521,513 B2
• Filed: 10/21/2014
• Issued: 12/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Corrisoft, LLC
• Original Assignee: Earthsweep LLC
• Inventors: McConathy, Nathaniel, Poe, Brian C., Gilbert, Jason
• Primary Examiner(s): Siddiqui, Kashif
• Application Number:
  US14/519,217
• Publication Number:
  US 20160112835A1
• Time in Patent Office: 784 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/265 Personal security, identity or safety
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

A tracking device and system are described where a location data collector device to receive location data of the tracking device and one or more communication devices that send the location data to a central facility and that receives a defined location package that includes location information where the tracking device is placed in either a suspension or active tracking mode.

Claims

1. A tracking system, the system comprising:

a storage device configured to store location data collected by a location data collector associated with a tracking device;

a processor device; and

memory coupled to the processor, with the tracking system configured to;

retrieve a location data package including one or more geographically defined zones, with the location data package including ranges of location data that correspond to the one or more geographically defined zones, and temporal data associated with at least one of the one or more geographically defined zones;

retrieve a set of location data received from the tracking device;

determine from the retrieved set of location data and the retrieved location data package whether the tracking device is in one of the one or more defined zones; and

at least partially suspend tracking according to a determination that the tracking device is in the one of the one or more defined zones and according to current temporal data compared to the associated temporal data.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the tracking system is a tracking device and comprises:

a housing being a smartphone housing or an ankle monitor housing, the housing holding a set of components that comprise;

a location data collector configured to collect location data; and

at least one transceiver for transmission of location data to a remote device, with the at least one transceiver selected from a peer-to-peer transceiver, a cellular transceiver, and a satellite transceiver.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the defined zones are defined as zones to suspend tracking with areas outside the zones being areas to continue tracking.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the defined zones are defined as zones to continue tracking with areas outside the zones being areas to suspend tracking.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the retrieved location data package is defined according to a user of the tracking device and associated temporal data is an indication of a specified time/day for the tracking device to be in the one of the one or more defined zones.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the tracking system is a central server system having a database that stores the collected location data and the central server system is further configured to:

continue tracking according to a determination that the tracking device is not in the one or more defined zones.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the location data collector is a system configured to collect terrestrial based location data or GPS based location data or non-GPS based satellite location data, and the system is configured to determine the location of the system according to the collected data.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to track compliance with plural requirements and the tracking device communicates compliance with a central database.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the tracking device is wirelessly coupled to a second device that monitors compliance with the plural requirements, and the processor is configure to suspend a determination of compliance with the plural requirements according to the determination that the tracking device is in the one or more defined suspension zones.

9. A tracking system comprises:

a storage device configured to store location data collected by a location data collector associated with a tracking device, the location data collector is a system configured to collect terrestrial based location data or GPS based location data or non-GPS based satellite location data;

a processor and memory configured to;

retrieve a set of location data of the tracking device;

determine according to the collected data whether the tracking device is in one of one or more defined zones;

at least partially suspend tracking according to the determination that the tracking device is in the one of the one or more defined zones;

continue tracking according to a second, different determination that the tracking device is not in the one of the one or more defined zones;

track compliance with plural requirements that the tracking device communicates compliance with to a central database; and

suspend tracking of compliance for some but not all of the plural requirements according to the location of the tracking device.

11. A tracking system comprises:

a central monitoring server system that stores data from plural tracking devices, the central monitoring server system comprising a processor and memory and is configured to;

download to a tracking device data that defines one or more tracking suspension zones to configure a processor in the tracking device to at least partially suspend tracking when the tracking device is in one of the one or more defined zones;

receive a set of location data from the tracking device;

detect that the tracking device suspended sending location data to the central monitoring facility;

determine from the received location data whether the tracking device system is in one of the one or more suspend zones; and

when the tracking device is in one of the one or more zones record that the tracking device is in a suspend tracking zone or when the tracking device is not in one of the one or more zones record a tracking violation by the tracking device.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the location data is global positioning satellite (GPS) location data.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the tracking device is configured to track compliance with plural requirements and the central monitoring server system receives communications of compliance from the tracking device.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the central monitoring server system is configured to suspend tracking of compliance with some but not all of the plural requirements according to the location of the tracking device.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the central monitoring server system includes a database.

16. The system of claim 11 wherein the central monitoring server system further comprises a database configured to store location data according to an identification of the tracking device.

17. A tracking method comprises:

storing location data from plural tracking devices, in a central monitoring facility that comprises a processor and memory and computer storage;

transferring to a first tracking device of the plural tracking devices, data that defines one or more tracking suspension zones for the tracking device;

transferring to the first tracking device instructions to configure a processor in the tracking device to at least partially suspend tracking when the tracking device is in one of the one or more defined zones;

receiving location data from the tracking device;

detecting that the tracking device has suspended sending location data;

determining from the received location data whether the tracking device is in one of the one or more tracking suspension zones; and

when the tracking device is in one of the one or more tracking suspension zones recording in a database in the central facility that the tracking device was in the one tracking suspension zone.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the tracking device is configured to track compliance with plural requirements and the central monitoring facility receives communications of compliance from the tracking device.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the central monitoring is configured to suspend tracking of compliance with at least some of the plural requirements according to the location of the tracking device.

25. The method of claim 17 wherein when the central monitoring facility detected that the tracking device suspended sending data and that the tracking device was not in one of the one or more zones, the method further comprises:

recording in the database in the central facility that the tracking device incurred a tracking violation.

20. A tracking device comprises:

a location data collector device to receive location data of the tracking device;

one or more communication devices that send the location data to a central facility and that receives a defined location package that includes location information where the tracking device is placed in either a suspension or active tracking mode;

a processor and memory in communication with the processor, the processor configured to;

store location data collected by the location data collector device;

at least partially suspend tracking when the processor determines that tracking device is in a suspension zone determined from comparing the location information in the defined location package to location data receive from the location data collector device;

cause the tracking device to suspend sending location data to the central monitoring facility based on determining from the received location data and the location information in the defined location package that the tracking device system is in the suspension zone; and

record that the tracking device was in the suspension zone when sending of data was suspended.

21. The tracking device of claim 20 wherein when the tracking device is not in the suspension zone, the processor is configured to:

send location data collected by the location data collector device to a central monitoring facility.

22. The tracking device of claim 20 wherein the defined location package further includes data that defines days and times that suspended tracking in the zone is valid and compliance requirements that are suspended within zone, and parameters for causing the tracking device to enter and exit from a sleep mode.

23. The tracking device of claim 22 wherein the tracking device is configured to track compliance with plural requirements contained in the defined location package and the tracking device sends communications of compliance to the central monitoring facility.

24. The tracking device of claim 20 wherein the location data collector device is a global positioning satellite (GPS) location data collector device.