Separation Alerts for Notification While Traveling

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024371252-A1
Application number	US-202418773257-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 15, 2024
Priority date	May 7, 2021
Publication date	Nov 7, 2024
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods to provide separation notifications are described. In an embodiment, movement is detected beyond a threshold distance from a trusted location, in response to the detecting, receiving an indication that at least one accessory device is nearby the electronic device and storing information on a status of a wireless connection with the at least one accessory device, receiving an indication that the electronic device is in transit, monitoring the wireless connection for the at least one accessory device, and upon detection of a lost wireless connection for the at least one accessory device, send a separation notification

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method performed by one or more processors of an electronic device to provide separation notifications, the method comprising:
detecting movement beyond a threshold distance from a trusted location; in response to the detecting, receiving an indication that at least one accessory device is nearby the electronic device upon detection that the electronic device has moved beyond a threshold distance from a trusted location and storing information on status of a wireless connection with the at least one accessory device; receiving an indication that the electronic device is located in a known location and monitoring a geofence for the known location; upon receipt of an indication of crossing the geofence boundary, monitoring the wireless connection for the at least one accessory device; and upon detection of a lost wireless connection for the at least one accessory device, send a separation notification.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether located within the known location for a threshold period of time, wherein the known location comprises a defined boundary for the geofence and a characterization for a type of location by a classifier.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
upon detection of the lost wireless connection for the at least one accessory device, setting a first timer for a first defined period of time; upon expiry of the first timer, requesting information on whether the lost wireless connection is reestablished; updating information stored on the status of the wireless connection; and sending the separation notification unless the lost connection is reestablished.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving an indication that at least one accessory device is nearby the electronic device comprises at least one of:
receiving an indication of a wireless connection with the at least one accessory device or receiving beacon data with an indication that the at least one accessory device is nearby.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
monitoring a geofence for a last known location; and upon detection of crossing a geofence boundary of a last known location for a threshold period of time, increasing a rate of a beacon scan.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the rate of the beacon scan is performed every N seconds for M minutes at a higher duty cycle.

7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising increasing the rate of the beacon scan to be performed every P times more than an expected rate of packets received from the at least one accessory device.

8 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions to cause one or more processors of an electronic device to perform operations comprising:
detecting movement beyond a threshold distance from a trusted location; in response to the detecting, receiving an indication that at least one accessory device is nearby the electronic device upon detection that the electronic device has moved beyond a threshold distance from a trusted location and storing information on status of a wireless connection with the at least one accessory device; receiving an indication that the electronic device is located in a known location and monitoring a geofence for the known location; upon receipt of an indication of crossing the geofence boundary, monitoring the wireless connection for the at least one accessory device; and upon detection of a lost wireless connection for the at least one accessory device, send a separation notification.

9 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8 , the operations further comprising:
determining whether located within the known location for a threshold period of time, wherein the known location comprises a defined boundary for the geofence and a characterization for a type of location by a classifier.

10 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the receiving an indication that at least one accessory device is nearby the electronic device comprises at least one of:
receiving an indication of a wireless connection with the at least one accessory device or receiving beacon data with an indication that the at least one accessory device is nearby.

11 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8 , the operations further comprising:
upon detection of the lost wireless connection for the at least one accessory device, setting a first timer for a first defined period of time; upon expiry of the first timer, requesting information on whether the lost wireless connection is reestablished; updating information stored on the status of the wireless connection; and sending the separation notification unless the lost connection is reestablished.

12 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8 , the operations further comprising:
monitoring a geofence for a last known location; and upon detection of crossing a geofence boundary of a last known location for a threshold period of time, increasing a rate of a beacon scan.

13 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the rate of the beacon scan is performed every N seconds for M minutes at a higher duty cycle.

14 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 12 , further comprising increasing the rate of the beacon scan to be performed every P times more than an expected rate of packets received from the at least one accessory device.

15 . A data processing system comprising:
a memory to store instructions for execution; one or more processors to execute the instructions stored in memory, wherein the instructions, when executed cause the one or more processors to:
detect movement beyond a threshold distance from a trusted location;
in response to the detecting, receiving an indication that at least one accessory device is nearby the electronic device upon detection that the electronic device has moved beyond a threshold distance from a trusted location and storing information on status of a wireless connection with the at least one accessory device;
receive an indication that the electronic device is located in a known location and monitoring a geofence for the known location;
upon receipt of an indication of crossing the geofence boundary, monitoring the wireless connection for the at least one accessory device; and
upon detection of a lost wireless connection for the at least one accessory device, send a separation notification.

16 . The data processing system of claim 15 , further causing the one or more processors to:
determine whether located within the known location for a threshold period of time, wherein the known location comprises a defined boundary for the geofence and a characterization for a type of location by a classifier.

17 . The data processing system of claim 15 , wherein the receiving an indication that at least one accessory device is nearby the electronic device comprises at least one of:
receiving an indication of a wireless connection with the at least one accessory device or receiving beacon data with an indication that the at least one accessory device is nearby.

18 . A method performed by one or more processors of an electronic device to provide separation notifications, the method comprising:
receiving an indication located at a known location; receiving an indication that at least one accessory device is nearby the electronic device and storing information on the at least one accessory devices; upon detection of crossing a geofence boundary for the known l

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Detwiler Benjamin A
• Movva Siva Ganesh
• Ernst Katherine K
• Heru Richard Akira
• Bergerengen Johan O
• Wasada Langford M
• Erdmann Iv Ernst Thomas

Classifications

• H04W4/023 Primary

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

• H04W76/14

  Direct-mode setup · CPC title

• H04W4/029

  Location-based management or tracking services · CPC title

• H04W76/19

  Connection re-establishment · CPC title

• G08B21/24 Primary

  Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms · CPC title