Patent Application
20070200695
The present invention relates generally to methods and systems for monitoring mobile objects such as children.
It is often the case that parents wish to know the whereabouts of their children unobtrusively. For instance, in particular for small children parents who might be at work or otherwise distanced from their children might wish to know that the child is located in an expected place, e.g., in a school or at a friend's house, without alienating the child by calling teachers, friends, etc. to check up. Furthermore, the present invention understands that in the event that a child departs from approved areas as happens during kidnappings, it would be highly advantageous to automatically send an alert to parents or law enforcement. With these recognitions in mind, the invention herein is provided.
A system includes a mobile communication device such as a wireless telephone that is configured to receive position information such as global positioning satellite (GPS) information representative of the location of the device. The device is configured to communicate the position information to a wireless telephony system. A monitoring computer receives the position information and displays the position information on a display.
A monitoring server may be provided to receive the information from the wireless telephony system and to communicate the information over the Internet to the monitoring computer. A data store may also be provided that contains electronic map information. The monitoring computer receives map information from the data store and presents on the display a map in accordance with the map information, with the location of the mobile communication device indicated on the map. The data store can contain approved areas and/or excluded areas, and the monitoring computer can be configured to receive an alert when the GPS information indicates that the location of the mobile communication device is outside the approved areas or inside the excluded areas. Or, the position information may be presented to the monitoring computer in a non-map format, e.g., by alpha-numeric street address or by alpha-numeric latitude and longitude display. Both the position information from the mobile communication device and the alert may be sent using short message service (SMS).
In another aspect, a computer medium such as a data store or data storage device stores a program of instructions executable by a computer processor to receive a GPS location of a designated wireless communication device. The wireless communication device is associated with a monitored object. The GPS location is plotted on a map.
In still another aspect, a method is disclosed for monitoring the location of a person. The method includes, at a wireless telephone carried by the person, receiving position information from a satellite, and sending the information from the wireless telephone to a Web server. The method also includes allowing a monitor to access the Web server over the Internet using a monitoring computer. A display showing the location of the person as represented by the information is presented on the monitoring computer.
The details of the present invention, both as to its structure and operation, can best be understood in reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and in which:
Referring initially to
The mobile telephone 12 can include a processor 18 that operates in accordance with disclosure below to automatically and, e.g., periodically send the location of the mobile telephone 12 (and, hence, the location of a monitored object such as a child that is associated with the telephone 12) to a monitoring computer 20 with video display 21, which may belong to the parent of the child, for example. In other embodiments the video display 21 may be replaced by an audio display and position information audibly transmitted over the audio display using, e.g., voice recognition principles. The monitoring computer may be a personal computer with Web browser, laptop computer, PDA, or wireless telephone.
In the non-limiting implementation shown, the mobile telephone 12 automatically and periodically sends its latitude and longitude as represented by the GPS information through a wireless telephony system 22. The GPS information may be sent by, e.g., transmitting the latitude and longitude of the mobile telephone 12 using short message service (SMS). The period between position transmissions may be established by the user of the monitoring computer 20 by appropriately programming the processor 18 of the mobile telephone 12.
The wireless telephony system 22 may communicate directly with the monitoring computer 20 using, e.g., a telephone number of the monitoring computer 20, but in the non-limiting implementation shown the telephony system 22 relays the location of the mobile telephone 12 to the Internet 24. In some implementations, the GPS information is sent through the Internet 24 directly to the monitoring computer 20, while in other implementations the information is sent to a Web-based monitoring server 26 that can be accessed by the monitoring computer 20. The monitoring server 26 may access its own data store 28 as shown, while the processor 30 of the monitoring computer 20 may access a local data storage 32 such as a disk-based store, solid state memory, etc. Relevant logic of the invention may be stored in one or both of the data store 28 and local storage 32 for execution by the appropriate processor, as can be the GPS information and below-discussed maps.
With the overall exemplary non-limiting system 10 in mind, attention is now directed to
In some implementations, regardless of whether the user is actively viewing the map on the display 21, the logic may move to decision diamond 38 to determine whether the monitored object is out of an approved area. This test may be undertaken by first allowing a user of the monitoring computer 20 to define excluded areas on the map by inputting the latitude and longitude of boundary points of the area or by using, e.g., computer draw principles known in the art to draw the boundaries of the excluded area. Also, the user may define approved areas on the map. Yet again, an approved area may be established based on historical movement of the mobile telephone 12 as observed from the GPS locations, e.g., the locations of the mobile telephone 12 over the course of a predetermined time period such as a day or a week may define the boundaries of the approved area. Excluded areas may be presented on the map on the display 21 in one color, e.g., red, while approved areas may be presented on the map in another color, e.g., green.
In any case, if the mobile telephone 12 is not out of an approved area, the logic ends at state 40, but otherwise an alert can be generated at block 42. The alert may be generated any time the location of the mobile telephone 12 is outside of an approved area. Or, the alert may be generated only if the mobile telephone 12 strays into an excluded area. The alert may be presented in audible or visual form on the display 21, and/or the alert may be sent to the monitoring person out of band by, for instance, sending a SMS message to a wireless telephone whose telephone number the monitoring person has provided to the monitoring server 26.
It may now be appreciated that a monitor can access the position of a monitored object such as a child from a location that is remote from the child.
While the particular SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MONITORING LOCATION OF OBJECT SUCH AS CHILD as herein shown and described in detail is fully capable of attaining the above-described objects of the invention, it is to be understood that it is the presently preferred embodiment of the present invention and is thus representative of the subject matter which is broadly contemplated by the present invention, that the scope of the present invention fully encompasses other embodiments which may become obvious to those skilled in the art, and that the scope of the present invention is accordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims, in which reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one or more”. It is not necessary for a device or method to address each and every problem sought to be solved by the present invention, for it to be encompassed by the present claims. Furthermore, no element, component, or method step in the present disclosure is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether the element, component, or method step is explicitly recited in the claims. Absent express definitions herein, claim terms are to be given all ordinary and accustomed meanings that are not irreconcilable with the present specification and file history.
