Location history access for lost tracking device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10111032-B2
Application number	US-201514937887-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 11, 2015
Priority date	Nov 11, 2015
Publication date	Oct 23, 2018
Grant date	Oct 23, 2018

Abstract

A tracking device can securely communicate with a secondary device. The secondary device can provide locations associated with the tracking device to a tracking system. When the secondary device determines that the tracking device is lost (for instance, in response to no longer receiving communications from the tracking device), the secondary device can provide additional locations associated with the secondary device to the tracking system. The tracking system can store locations received before and after the tracking device was lost, and can provide these locations to the user for display within a map interface, enabling a user to digitally retrace the user's steps in order to aid the user in locating the lost tracking device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for locating a tracking device comprising:
receiving, at a mobile device from the tracking device, a communication;
in response to receiving the communication, determining, by the mobile device, a first location of the mobile device using a location-detection component and a signal strength of the communication;
providing, from the mobile device to a tracking server, an identity of the tracking device, the determined first location, and a first presence indicator indicating a connection between the tracking device and the mobile device, the tracking server configured to store the determined first location and the first presence indicator in association with the identity of the tracking device;
in response to a determination that the connection between the mobile device and the tracking device has been severed, activating a location-detection functionality of the mobile device;
determining, by the mobile device, a second location of the mobile device using the activated location detection functionality;
providing, from the mobile device to the tracking server, the identity of the tracking device, the determined second location, and a second presence indicator indicating the lack of a connection between the tracking device and the mobile device, the tracking server configured to store the determined second location and the second presence indicator in association with the identity of the tracking device; and
in response to receiving the determined first location, the first presence indicator, the determined second location, and the second presence indicator from the tracking server, displaying, by the mobile device, a map interface showing a first plurality of previous locations of the mobile device while the mobile device was connected to the tracking device and a second plurality of previous locations of the mobile device after the connection between the mobile device and the tracking device has been severed, the first plurality of previous locations of the mobile device including the determined first location and the second plurality of previous locations of the mobile device including the determined second location, the map interface further including a first visual indication identifying each of the first plurality of previous locations and indicating that for each of the first plurality of previous locations, the mobile device was connected to the tracking device, and the map interface further including a second visual indication identifying each of the second plurality of previous locations and indicating that for each of the second plurality of previous locations, the mobile device was not connected to the tracking device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received communication is broadcast as a Bluetooth-format advertisement or connection event.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the location-detection component comprises a Global Positioning System (“GPS”) receiver.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determined first location and the determined second location each comprise geographic coordinates.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mobile device is configured to determine that the connection between the tracking device and the mobile device is severed if after an interval of time has passed, the mobile device has not received a communication from the tracking device.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the interval of time is configurable.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving from a user of the mobile device, an indication that the tracking device is lost;
requesting, from the tracking server, locations associated with the tracking device stored by the tracking server, at least one requested location associated with a time before the tracking device was lost, and at least one requested location associated with a time after the tracking device was lost;
receiving, from the tracking server, the requested locations;
displaying, within the map interface, the received locations.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the map interface displays a last known location of the tracking device.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the received locations associated with times before the tracking device was lost are displayed in a first color, and wherein received locations associated with times after the tracking device was lost are displayed in a second color.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the map interface includes a slider bar configured to enable the user to select a timeframe corresponding to a starting time and an ending time, and wherein the map interface displays only received locations associated with times between the starting time and the ending time.

11. A mobile device configured to locate a tracking device comprising:
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer instructions that, when executed, perform steps comprising: receiving, at the mobile device from the tracking device, a communication, in response to receiving the communication, determining, by the mobile device, a first location of the mobile device using a location-detection component and a strength of the communication signal; providing, from the mobile device to a tracking server, an identity of the tracking device, the determined first location, and a first presence indicator indicating a connection between the tracking device and the mobile device, the tracking server configured to store the determined first location and the first presence indicator in association with the identity of the tracking device;
in response to a determination that the connection between the mobile device and the tracking device has been severed, activating a location-detection functionality of the mobile device;
determining, by the mobile device, a second location of the mobile device using the activated location detection functionality;
providing, from the mobile device to the tracking server, the identity of the tracking device, the determined second location, and a second presence indicator indicating the lack of a connection between the tracking device and the mobile device, the tracking server configured to store the determined second location and the second presence indicator in association with the identity of the tracking device; and
in response to receiving the determined first location, the first presence indicator, the determined second location, and the second presence indicator from the tracking server, displaying, by the mobile device, a map interface showing a first plurality of previous locations of the mobile device while the mobile device was connected to the tracking device and a second plurality of previous locations of the mobile device after the connection between the mobile device and the tracking device has been severed, the first plurality of previous locations of the mobile device including the determined first location and the second plurality of previous locations of the mobile device including the determined second location, the map interface further including a first visual indication identifying each of the first plurality of previous locations and indicating that for each of the first plurality of previous locations, the mobile device was connected to the tracking device, and the map interface further including a second visual indication identifying each of the second plurality of previous locations and indicating that for each of the second plurality of previous locations, the mobile device was not connected to the tracking device; and
a processor configured to execute the instructions.

12. The mobile device of claim 11 , wherein the received communication is broadcast as a Bluetooth-format ad

Assignees

• Tile Inc

Inventors

• Vega Jose Pons
• Tam Daniel

Classifications

• G01S19/16

  Anti-theft; Abduction · CPC title

• H04W4/80

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• H04W64/00

  Locating users or terminals {or network equipment} for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management · CPC title

• H04W4/023 Primary

  using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds · CPC title

• G01S5/00

  Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations {(using active systems G01S13/00, G01S15/00, G01S17/00)} · CPC title