Patent Application
20080007398
Embodiments of the invention are generally directed to wireless tracking of valuable assets upon detecting events, such as theft or tampering, via a tracking system. Such tracking techniques may be useful in a variety of contexts, such as distribution of valuable goods, transit of cargo containers, delivery of courier packages or sensitive documents, and so forth. While descriptions herein provide examples in the context of asset distribution, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily apprehend the application of embodiments of the invention in other contexts, such as for delivery of packages or sensitive documents, is well within the scope of the invention.
Referring now to
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, a wide variety of event sensors may be employed by the tracking system 10 for detecting various events. For example, different event sensors may include a RFID tag and a reader, a magnetic switch, a wired electric circuit, and so forth. It should be noted that, in certain embodiments, one or more of the above event sensors may be employed by the tracking system 10 for detecting events such as theft or tampering of the asset, opening of the asset, breaking of the asset, and so forth. The position sensing (locating) device 14 may include one or more of a GPS-based position sensing device, a TV-based position sensing device, a TV-GPS based position sensing device, a wireless access point network-based position sensing device, or a GSM network-based position sensing device. These position sensing devices 14 utilize TV signals, GPS signals, GSM signals, or wireless network signals for receiving positional information of the asset being tracked. Further, as will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the communication device 16 may include one or more of a GSM-based communication device, a GPRS-based communication device, a wireless communication device, or other devices known to one skilled in the art.
The tracking system 10 may be installed in and/or coupled to a wide variety of assets, such as cargo containers, packages, pharmaceutical drug containers, sensitive documents, for tracking or monitoring the assets during transit. Such trackable assets may include an event sensor for generating a trigger signal on sensing an event and a position sensing device disposed within the trackable asset for receiving positional information of the trackable asset. The position sensing (locating) device 14 may be constantly acquiring location information of the asset. The trackable asset further includes a communication device 16 disposed within the trackable asset for communicating a date, a time and the received positional information to one or more monitoring stations upon being triggered by the trigger signal. In one embodiment, the event sensor is embedded in the trackable asset in a certain state such as a 1. When an event occurs, the state of the sensor changes to a 0. The change in state of the sensor triggers the communication device 16 to send the event trigger date and time as well as the location information of the asset to one or more monitoring stations 18.
For example, various trackable assets 20 employing the tracking system 10 are illustrated in
In the embodiment illustrated in
Similarly, in the embodiment illustrated in
In an alternative embodiment illustrated in
The trackable asset 20, described in the various embodiments above, further includes a position sensing device for receiving positional information of the case or the container and a communication device for communicating a date, a time and received positional information to one or more monitoring stations upon being triggered by the trigger signal. The position sensing device and the communication device may be disposed within the case or the container 24. As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, in one embodiment, the position sensing device and the communication device may be disposed within a false bottom 30 of the case or the container 24 or within a false bottom of the lid 32 so that the tracking system is hidden from view.
It should be noted that any of the position sensing device or the communication device listed above may be employed in the illustrated embodiments. In one embodiment, a TV-GPS based position sensing device and a cellular or wireless communication device may be employed. As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the use of TV and GPS waves to triangulate position of the asset by the TV-GPS based position sensing device enables locating the asset indoors as well as outside of a premises.
A schematic diagram of tracking the trackable asset 20 is illustrated in
In one specific example, a RFID embedded transponder is installed in an asset and a small receiver is installed in the case of the trackable asset. The transponder and receiver would trigger a GSM device to constantly dial a number with a TV-GPS device information. When the asset is removed from the case, the receiver stops seeing the transponder and the flow of information ceases with the database knowing the last date, time and location of the asset. The database would look at the event and determine, based on the business process rules, if the event is expected or if it is an anomaly and if someone should be notified.
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, a wide variety of assets, such as cargo containers, packages, pharmaceutical drugs, sensitive documents may be tracked via the techniques described herein. In certain embodiments, the tracking system 10 may be installed in false bottom of the cargo container, courier packages, jars, or packets of sensitive documents so as to track them in case of any tampering or theft.
The tracking system and techniques, described in the various embodiments discussed above, enables tracking valuable assets as they are shipped globally to determine the asset's location by employing integration of positioning technologies, communication technologies and event detection technologies. Further, the techniques described in various embodiments discussed above enable identifying shipping deviations if the courier is compromised and also provide the status, date, time and location of the compromised asset. Moreover, the use of TV-GPS based positioning device enables locating assets indoors or outside and does not require a line of sight to GPS satellites to transmit location. The business process rules and the anomaly detection algorithms keep the responsible end user from being inundated with useless information and only inform when an event is detected that calls for some sort of response. Additionally, the tracking device and transmitter is located on the asset itself and remains inconspicuous and undetectable by the outside world.
Further, as will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the use of existing wireless communication technologies and tracking technologies to monitor the movements and handling of the valuable assets provides efficient and cost effective tracking techniques to reduce loss via theft or tampering and to identify critical leaks in the distribution channel. Moreover, the techniques, described in the various embodiments discussed above, support law enforcement investigations by sending time and location stamp information as an alert when the case or the container is opened in route.
While the invention has been described in detail in connection with only a limited number of embodiments, it should be readily understood that the invention is not limited to such disclosed embodiments. Rather, the invention can be modified to incorporate any number of variations, alterations, substitutions or equivalent arrangements not heretofore described, but which are commensurate with the spirit and scope of the invention. Additionally, while various embodiments of the invention have been described, it is to be understood that aspects of the invention may include only some of the described embodiments. Accordingly, the invention is not to be seen as limited by the foregoing description, but is only limited by the scope of the appended claims.
