Methods and systems for detecting potential interference with a tracking device associated with a vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10598795-B2
Application number	US-201514815681-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 31, 2015
Priority date	Jul 31, 2015
Publication date	Mar 24, 2020
Grant date	Mar 24, 2020

Abstract

An exemplary method includes a monitoring system identifying a time period during which a vehicle equipped with a tracking device travels at least a threshold distance, determining that the tracking device fails to acquire a desired signal for a predetermined amount of time during the time period, and determining, based on the determining that the tracking device fails to acquire the desired signal for the predetermined amount of time during the time period, that the tracking device is potentially being interfered with during the time period. Corresponding systems and methods are also described.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
determining, by a monitoring system based on motion data acquired by a tracking device associated with a vehicle, that the vehicle travels at least a threshold distance between when the vehicle begins moving and when the vehicle stops moving;
identifying, by the monitoring system, a time period during which the vehicle travels at least the threshold distance, the identifying of the time period during which the vehicle travels at least the threshold distance comprising
identifying, based on timestamp data acquired by the tracking device, a first timestamp corresponding to when the vehicle begins moving and a second timestamp corresponding to when the vehicle stops moving, and
designating a difference between the second timestamp and the first timestamp as the time period during which the vehicle travels at least the threshold distance;

accessing, by the monitoring system, a global positioning system (GPS) signal acquired by the tracking device during the time period;
identifying, based on the GPS signal acquired by the tracking device during the time period, a first geographic location corresponding to a particular point of time included in the time period;
applying, by the monitoring system, a triangulation heuristic to a wireless network signal transmitted by the tracking device during the time period;
identifying, by the monitoring system based on the applying of the triangulation heuristic to the wireless network signal, a second geographic location corresponding to the particular point in time included in the time period;
determining, by the monitoring system, that the second geographic location is outside a predetermined distance from the first geographic location;
determining, by the monitoring system based on the determination that the second geographic location is outside the predetermined distance from the first geographic location, that the GPS signal includes a counterfeit GPS signal instead of a legitimate GPS signal for an amount of time during the time period, the amount of time including the particular point in time;
determining, by the monitoring system, based on the determining that the GPS signal includes the counterfeit GPS signal, that the tracking device is potentially being interfered with during the time period; and
providing, by the monitoring system in response to the determining that the tracking device is potentially being interfered with during the time period, a notification to an entity that manages the vehicle, the notification including information that indicates a type of interference used to interfere with the tracking device, information that identifies at least one of the tracking device and the vehicle, and a possible location of the interference.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining that the tracking device is potentially being interfered with during the time period comprises determining that the tracking device is potentially being interfered with during the time period by a GPS signal spoofer.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
automatically adjusting, by the monitoring system based on the determining that the tracking device is potentially being interfered with during the time period, an insurance rate for the user.

4. The method of claim 1 , embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

5. A system comprising:
at least one physical computing device that:
determines, based on motion data acquired by a tracking device associated with a vehicle, that the vehicle travels at least a threshold distance between when the vehicle begins moving and when the vehicle stops moving;
identifies a time period during which the vehicle travels at least the threshold distance by
identifying, based on timestamp data acquired by the tracking device, a first timestamp corresponding to when the vehicle begins moving and a second timestamp corresponding to when the vehicle stops moving, and
designating a difference between the second timestamp and the first timestamp as the time period during which the vehicle travels at least the threshold distance;

accesses a global positioning system (GPS) signal acquired by the tracking device during the time period;
identifies, based on the GPS signal acquired by the tracking device during the time period, a first geographic location corresponding to a particular point of time included in the time period;
identifies, based on an application of a triangulation heuristic to a wireless network signal transmitted by the tracking device during the time period, a second geographic location corresponding to the particular point in time included in the time period;
determines that the second geographic location is outside a predetermined distance from the first geographic location;
determines, based on the determination that the second geographic location is outside the predetermined distance from the first geographic location, that the GPS signal includes a counterfeit GPS signal instead of a legitimate GPS signal for an amount of time during the time period, the amount of time including the particular point in time;
determines, based on the determination that the GPS signal includes the counterfeit GPS signal, that the tracking device is potentially being interfered with during the time period; and
provides, in response to the determination that the tracking device is potentially being interfered with during the time period, a notification to an entity that manages the vehicle, the notification including information that indicates a type of interference used to interfere with the tracking device, information that identifies at least one of the tracking device and the vehicle, and a possible location of the interference.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the notification comprises at least one of a visual message and an audible message.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the notification comprises an email message.

8. The method of claim 3 , wherein the automatically adjusting of the insurance rate comprises decreasing an amount of a discount applied to an insurance rate for the user.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining that the GPS signal includes the counterfeit GPS signal instead of the legitimate GPS signal for the amount of time further comprises determining that the tracking device fails to acquire a desired signal for a certain percentage of the identified time period.

10. The system of claim 5 , wherein the determination that the tracking device is potentially being interfered with during the time period comprises determining that the tracking device is potentially being interfered with during the time period by a GPS signal spoofer.

11. The system of claim 5 , wherein the at least one physical computing device further automatically adjusts, based on the determination that the tracking device is potentially being interfered with during the time period, an insurance rate for the user.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the automatic adjustment of the insurance rate comprises decreasing an amount of a discount applied to an insurance rate for the user.

13. The system of claim 5 , wherein the notification comprises at least one of a visual message and an audible message.

14. The system of claim 5 , wherein the notification comprises an email message.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, direct at least one processor of a computing device to:
determine, based on motion data acquired by a tracking device associated with a vehicle, that the vehicle t

Assignees

• Verizon Patent & Licensing Inc

Inventors

• Elliott Bryant
• Berkobin Eric

Classifications

• G01S19/215 Primary

  issues related to spoofing · CPC title

• G01S19/21 Primary

  Interference related issues {; Issues related to cross-correlation, spoofing or other methods of denial of service} · CPC title