Geofence information delivery systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9906902-B2
Application number	US-201514755669-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 30, 2015
Priority date	Jun 2, 2015
Publication date	Feb 27, 2018
Grant date	Feb 27, 2018

Abstract

The present invention is directed to methods and systems for requesting information from a mobile device with a fencing agent. The fencing agent determines a position with a DNS resolver, queries geofences with an IP address, receives an anchor point with an IP address from the DNS resolver. The device with the fencing agent is able to receive multiple anchor points within multiple geofences within an ROI and translate fence points into fence geometries. Geofence information is stored and registered in a database of geofences, and each geofence is associated with a plurality of geographic designators, wherein each of the plurality of geographic designators is associated with an IP address.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for requesting information for at least one geofence by at least one device having a processor coupled with a memory and programmed to include a fencing agent to query for geofence information, comprising the steps of:
generating a request for geofence information for a region of interest (ROI);
determining a position of the at least one device with a Domain Name System (DNS) resolver;
using an Internet Protocol (IP) address to query for geofences in the ROI;
receiving in near real-time geofence information corresponding to the ROI including at least one anchor point with at least one IP address from the DNS resolver associated with at least one class and at least one entitlement;
wherein the geofence information includes identification of at least one geofence in the ROI, and the fencing agent translates the geofence information, including a set of fence points, into a fence geometry;
determining a license associated with the at least one geofence; and
activating at least one rule associated with the license on the at least one device,
wherein the at least one geofence is defined by at least one geographic designator; and
wherein the at least one rule includes a rule directed to a content stored on the at least one device within the at least one geofence.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one class and the at least one entitlement are associated with the at least one anchor point with the at least one IP address, wherein the fencing agent filters classes on the at least one device.

3. The method of claim 2 , further including the step of automatically providing a reason code or a violation code for the at least one entitlement with the geofence information.

4. The method of claim 2 , further including the steps of automatically providing a reason code or a violation code to the at least one device for the at least one entitlement and the at least one device responding accordingly, based upon how it has been programmed to respond.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the response includes compliance with at least one rule associated with the at least one entitlement.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of receiving a request from the at least one device for activating the at least one rule associated with the license.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of receiving an activation message.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the activation message includes terms of payment, terms of time, terms of use, terms of termination, terms of assignability, terms of content, terms of confidentiality, a warranty, post-termination rights, and/or a notice.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of activating the at least one rule associated with the license on the at least one device includes transmitting an activation packet to the at least one device, wherein transmitting the activation packet to the at least one device transforms the at least one device from a first state to a second state.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of receiving an acceptance of a license agreement from the at least one device before activating the at least one rule associated with the license for the at least one device.

11. The method of claim 5 , further comprising the step of:
automatically blocking an attempt by the at least one device to access a website based on the at least one rule associated with the at least one entitlement.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of storing information relating to the at least one rule associated with the license in a geofence database.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one rule includes a rule restricting or enabling access to the content stored on the at least one device within the geofence.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fence geometry is a polygon or centroid geometry in geoJSON format.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one class includes an indication of whether the at least one geofence is verified or unverified.

16. A system for requesting information for at least one geofence by at least one device within a geofence, comprising:
the at least one device having a processor coupled with a memory, constructed and configured for wireless communication, and programmed to include a fencing agent to query for geofence information in a region of interest (ROI) over a network to at least one server computer associated with a geofence database, a Domain Name System (DNS) resolver used by the fencing agent to determine a position of the at least one device, and an Internet Protocol (IP) address used to query for geofences in the ROI;
the geofence database including at least one registered geofence having a class and at least one entitlement and/or at least one license, wherein the at least one registered geofence is determined by at least one geographic designator that is automatically associated with at least one corresponding IP address, wherein the at least one corresponding IP address is automatically converted to an anchor point for the at least one registered geofence; and
a geofence manager module implementing rules on the at least one device,
wherein the geofence manager module confirms and/or activates the at least one license associated with the geofence in the geofence database; and
wherein the fencing agent creates a continuous production of geometry and automatically resolves anchor points.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the class includes an indication of whether the at least one registered geofence is verified or unverified.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein multiple anchor points exist for multiple geofences within the ROI and the fencing agent monitors each of the geofences.

Assignees

• Jones Benjamin T
• Geofrenzy Inc

Inventors

• Jones Benjamin T

Classifications

• H04W12/08

  Access security · CPC title

• H04W4/021 Primary

  Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences · CPC title

• G06F16/29

  Geographical information databases · CPC title

• G08B13/00

  Burglar, theft or intruder alarms · CPC title

• G06F21/604

  Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems · CPC title