Locating a lost device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10229582-B2
Application number	US-201615284578-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 4, 2016
Priority date	Jun 22, 2016
Publication date	Mar 12, 2019
Grant date	Mar 12, 2019

Abstract

An embodiment of the invention may include a method, computer program product and computer system for detecting a device. The embodiment may include a computing device that determines a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) of a beacon of a second device. The computing device may determine a first location of the first device. The computing device may determine whether the UUID of the beacon of the second device matches a UUID in a list of UUIDs, where each UUID in the list of UUIDs corresponds to a beacon associated with a device. The computing device may transmitting the UUID of the beacon of the second device and the first location to a third device, based on determining the UUID of the beacon of the second device matches an entry in the list.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for detecting a device, the method comprising:
receiving, by a first device having data connectivity with a service provider, a list of Universally Unique Identifiers (UUIDs);
determining, by the first device without data connectivity with a service provider, a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID)UUID of a beacon of a second device;
determining a first location of the first device;
determining, by the first device, whether the UUID of the beacon of the second device matches a UUID in a list of UUIDs, wherein each UUID in the list of UUIDs corresponds to a beacon associated with a device;
based on determining the UUID of the beacon of the second device matches an entry in the list and determining connectivity with the service provider has been reestablished with the first device, transmitting, by the first device, the UUID of the beacon of the second device and the first location to a third device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, by the first device, an update to the UUID list is required, wherein the determining the update to the UUID list is required comprises one or more of:
detecting a second location of the first device, and determining the second location is different from the first location; and
determining a threshold time has been exceeded since;

requesting, by the first device, an update to the UUID list.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving, by the first device, the update to the UUID list, wherein the update to the UUID list only contains UUIDs corresponding to the second location; and
adding, by the first device, each UUID contained in the update to the UUID list into the list of UUIDs.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving, by the first device, the update to the UUID list, wherein the update to the UUID list contains UUIDs that are not relevant to the second location;
removing, by the first device, each UUID contained in the update to the UUID list from the list of UUIDs.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising
receiving, by the first device, a wireless signal with a new UUID;
determining, by the first device, the new UUID is not contained in the UUID list; and
adding, by the first device, the new UUID to the UUID list.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the UUID of the beacon of the second device further comprises:
detecting, by the first device, a wireless signal;
determining, by the first device, a wireless UUID associated with the wireless signal;
determining, by the first device, a tag in the wireless UUID, wherein the tag corresponds to a portion of the wireless UUID; and
determining, by the first device, the tag matches a beacon tag from a list of beacon tags, wherein the list of beacon tags is one or more tags corresponding to a beacon signal.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
wherein determining the first location of the first device further comprises determining a first signal strength of the second device;
determining a second location of the first device and a second signal strength of the second device;
determining a third location of the first device and a third signal strength of the second device;
determining a location of the second device based on the first location of the first device, the second location of the first device, the third location of the first device, the first signal strength of the second device, the second signal strength of the second device, and the third signal strength of the second device; and
transmitting the location of the second device to the third device.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Cox Benjamin D
• Craggs Daniel P
• Poole Christopher J

Classifications

• G01S2205/05

  Anti-theft or abduction · CPC title

• G01S5/0249

  Determining position using measurements made by a non-stationary device other than the device whose position is being determined · CPC title

• H04B17/318

  Received signal strength · CPC title

• G08B21/0227

  System arrangements with a plurality of child units · CPC title

• G08B21/0272

  System arrangements wherein the object is to detect exact location of child or item using triangulation other than GPS · CPC title