Geofence information delivery systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10834212-B2
Application number	US-202016750683-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 23, 2020
Priority date	Jun 2, 2015
Publication date	Nov 10, 2020
Grant date	Nov 10, 2020

Abstract

The present invention is directed to methods and systems for querying a database of geofences, with each geofence in the database being associated with a plurality of IP addresses, preferably IPv6 addresses, and each IP address corresponding to a specific geographic coordinate. The method and system convert location coordinates to IP addresses and determine whether a location anchor point is associated with a geofence.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for delivering geofence information by one or more processors, comprising the steps of:
generating a first Domain Name System (DNS) request comprising a geographic location;
converting the geographic location to an Internet Protocol (IP) address and matching the IP address to at least one anchor IP address, wherein a single anchor IP address of the at least one anchor IP address is a unique identifier of a geofence;
identifying at least one geofence associated with the at least one anchor IP address;
creating a first DNS response, wherein the first DNS response comprises information describing the at least one identified geofence, including the at least one anchor IP address and a plurality of additional IP addresses associated with the at least one geofence; and
displaying the first DNS request, the IP address, the at least one anchor IP address, a second DNS request, and the information describing the at least one identified geofence via a Graphical User Interface (GUI),
wherein converting the geographic location to the IP address comprises using the geographic location as a database key and querying a geofence database with data stored thereon for IP addresses.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating the second DNS request; and
creating a second DNS response to the second DNS request, wherein the second DNS response comprises fence points of the at least one identified geofence.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the geographic location is related to at least one geographic region.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information describing the at least one identified geofence comprises an indication whether the at least one geofence is verified or unverified, a class of the at least one geofence, an entitlement of the at least one geofence, a time-to-live value, or a context summary of the at least one geofence.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information describing the at least one identified geofence further comprises boundaries of the at least one identified geofence and the GUI comprises an interactive map showing the boundaries of the at least one identified geofence.

6. A system for delivering geofence information by one or more processors, comprising:
at least one device having a processor coupled with a memory, wherein the at least one device is constructed and configured for wireless communication with a server computer including a geofence database;
wherein the at least one device generates a first Domain Name System (DNS) request comprising a geographic location and sends the first DNS request to the server computer;
wherein the server computer converts the geographic location to an Internet Protocol (IP) address;
wherein the server computer matches the IP address to at least one anchor IP address, wherein a single anchor IP address of the at least one anchor IP address is a unique identifier of a geofence;
wherein the server computer identifies at least one geofence associated with the at least one anchor IP address;
wherein the server computer creates a first DNS response, wherein the first DNS response comprises information describing the at least one identified geofence, including the at least one anchor IP address and a plurality of additional IP addresses associated with the at least one geofence;
wherein the at least one device displays the first DNS request, the IP address, the at least one anchor IP address, a second DNS request, and the information describing the at least one identified geofence via a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the at least one device generates the second DNS request and the server computer creates a second DNS response to the second DNS request, wherein the second DNS response includes fence points of the at least one identified geofence.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the information describing the at least one identified geofence includes an indication whether the at least one geofence is verified or unverified, a class of the at least one geofence, an entitlement of the at least one geofence, a time-to-live value, or a context summary of the at least one geofence.

9. The system of claim 6 , wherein the GUI further includes an interactive three-dimensional (3-D) map displaying boundaries of the at least one identified geofence.

10. The system of claim 6 , wherein the single anchor IP address of the at least one anchor IP address is a geofence address.

11. The system of claim 6 , wherein the geofence database is queried using at least one of a location, a class, a verification status, an owner, a licensee, and/or an email address.

12. A system for delivering geofence information, comprising:
at least one device, wherein the at least one device is constructed and configured for network communication with a server computer including a geofence database;
wherein the geofence database includes data for Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and anchor IP addresses for geofences;
wherein the at least one device generates a first Domain Name System (DNS) request comprising a geographic location and sends the first DNS request to the server computer;
wherein the server computer converts the geographic location to an IP address;
wherein the server computer matches the IP address to at least one anchor IP address, wherein a single anchor IP address of the at least one anchor IP address is a unique identifier of a geofence;
wherein the server computer identifies at least one geofence associated with the at least one anchor IP address;
wherein the server computer creates a first DNS response, wherein the first DNS response includes information describing the at least one identified geofence;
wherein the at least one device generates a second DNS request;
wherein the server computer creates a second DNS response; and
wherein the at least one device displays the first DNS request, the IP address, the at least one anchor IP address, the second DNS request, and the information describing the at least one identified geofence via a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the information describing the at least one identified geofence includes the at least one anchor IP address, a plurality of additional IP addresses associated with the at least one geofence, an indication whether the at least one geofence is verified or unverified, a class of the at least one geofence, an entitlement of the at least one geofence, a time-to-live value, a context summary, or boundaries of the at least one identified geofence.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the geofence database is automatically updated at predetermined time intervals, wherein the automatically updating includes updating geofence ownership information and/or geofence license information.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the geofence database includes analytics for the at least one identified geofence, and wherein the analytics for the at least one identified geofence include a number of devices which have accessed and/or attempted to access the Internet within the at least identified geofence and a number of times devices have entered the at least one identified geofence.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the server computer automatically generates a sphere map of the Earth including the IP addresses and the anchor IP addresses for geofences contained within the geofence database.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein boundaries of the at least one geofence are defined by real property boundaries, a radius around a beacon, or by the perime

Assignees

• Geofrenzy Inc

Inventors

• Jones Benjamin T

Classifications

• G08G5/59

  in accordance with predefined flight zones, e.g. to avoid prohibited zones · CPC title

• G08G5/57

  for unmanned aircraft · CPC title

• G08G5/55

  for a single aircraft · CPC title

• H04L2101/659

  Internet protocol version 6 [IPv6] addresses · CPC title

• H04L2101/69

  using geographic information, e.g. room number · CPC title