Active geo-fence management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9924311-B2
Application number	US-201615342725-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 3, 2016
Priority date	Jan 9, 2014
Publication date	Mar 20, 2018
Grant date	Mar 20, 2018

Abstract

In one embodiment, techniques approximate concurrent monitoring of a large number of geo-fences, potentially beyond a number supported by a mobile device, The mobile device may obtain a set of geo-fences and maintain a first subset of the geo-fences as an active subset of geo-fences and a second subset of the geo-fences as an inactive subset of geo-fences. The mobile device may also establish and monitor an envelope geo-fences that excluded the inactive subset of geo-fence. In response to detecting that the mobile device has moved to a new location proximate to the envelope geo-fence, one or more geo-fences are moved between the active subset of geo-fences and the inactive subset of geo-fences to produce a new active subset of geo-fences and a new inactive subset of geo-fences.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
obtaining, by a mobile device, a set of geo-fences;
maintaining a first subset of the geo-fences as an active subset of geo-fences and a second subset of the geo-fences as an inactive subset of geo-fences;
establishing and monitoring an envelope geo-fences that excludes the inactive subset of geo-fences;
detecting the mobile device has moved to a new location proximate to the envelope geo-fence, wherein proximate to the envelope geo-fence is measured based on the new location being within a predetermined distance of the envelope geo-fence or the mobile device having crossed the envelope geo-fence to reach the new location; and
in response to detecting the mobile device has moved to the new location proximate to the envelope geo-fence, moving one or more geo-fences between the active subset of geo-fences and the inactive subset of geo-fences to produce a new active subset of geo-fences and a new inactive subset of geo-fences.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
establishing and monitoring a new envelope geo-fence, the new envelope geo-fence excluding the new inactive subset of geo-fences.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the envelope geo-fence is defined by the union of one or more tiles of a location determination system.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the envelope geo-fence contains all the active subset of geo-fences.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the envelope geo-fence is a minimum bounding geo-fence whose perimeter forms a minimum bounding shape around the active subset of geo-fences.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the envelope geo-fence is a maximum bounding geo-fence whose perimeter forms a maximum bounding shape around the active subset of geo-fences that still excludes the inactive subset of geo-fences.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining obtains geo-fences that are within a given distance of a first location of the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
determining the mobile device has moved to a second location that is more than a given distance from the first location; and
in response to the determining, obtaining a new set of geo-fences that are within the given distance of the second location of the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein proximity to the envelope geo-fence is measured based on the new location being within the predetermined distance of the envelope geo-fence.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein proximity to the envelope geo-fence is measured based on the mobile device having crossed the envelope geo-fence to reach the new location.

11. A method comprising:
obtaining, by a mobile device, a set of geo-fences;
maintaining a first subset of the geo-fences as an active subset of geo-fences and a second subset of the geo-fences as an inactive subset of geo-fences;
establishing and monitoring an envelope geo-fence that is defined by a union of one or more tiles of a location determination system;
detecting the mobile device has moved to a new location proximate to the envelope geo-fence, wherein proximate to the envelope geo-fence is measured based on the new location being within a predetermined distance of the envelope geo-fence or the mobile device having crossed the envelope geo-fence to reach the new location; and
in response to detecting the mobile device has moved to the new location proximate to the envelope geo-fence, moving one or more geo-fences between the active subset of geo-fences and inactive subset of geo-fences to produce a new active subset of geo-fences and a new inactive subset of geo-fences.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the envelope geo-fence contains the active subset of geo-fences and excludes the inactive subset of geo-fences.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
establishing and monitoring a new envelope geo-fence that is defined by a union of one or more different tiles of the location determination system.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the new envelope geo-fence contains the new active subset of geo-fences and excludes the new inactive subset of geo-fences.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein proximity to the envelope geo-fence is measured based on the new location being within the predetermined distance of the envelope geo-fence.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein proximity to the envelope geo-fence is measured based on the mobile device having crossed the envelope geo-fence to reach the new location.

17. An apparatus comprising
a processor configured to execute instructions; and
a memory configured to store executable instructions for a client application, the client application to include:
a request process configured to a obtain a set of geo-fences from a server,
a geo-fence cache configured to store the set of geo-fences, and to maintain a first subset of the set of geo-fences as an active subset of geo-fences, and a second subset of the set of geo-fences an inactive subset of geo-fences, and
an activation process configured to define an envelope geo-fence that excludes the inactive subset of geo-fences, and to move geo-fences between the active subset of geo-fences and the inactive subset of geo-fences based on changes in proximity of the mobile device to the envelope geo-fence to produce a new active subset of geo-fences and a new inactive subset of geo-fences.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the activation process is further configured to define a new envelope geo-fence, the new envelope geo-fence excluding the new inactive subset of geo-fences.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the envelope geo-fence contains all the active subset of geo-fences.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the envelope geo-fence is a minimum bounding geo-fence whose perimeter forms a minimum bounding shape around the active subset of geo-fences or a maximum bounding geo-fence whose perimeter forms a maximum bounding shape around the active subset of geo-fences that still excludes the inactive subset of geo-fences.

Assignees

• Skyhook Wireless Inc

Inventors

• Steger Christopher
• Dytko Thomas Jason
• Brachet Nicolas
• Jones Russel Kipp
• Dancus Andrei
• Broadstone Andrew
• Alizadeh-Shabdiz Farshid

Classifications

• H04W4/023

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

• H04W4/028

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W4/021 Primary

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

• H04W4/029

  Location-based management or tracking services · CPC title