GB2464688A

GB2464688A - Location of a device attached to an item within a cellular network is provided to a mobile telephone

Info

Publication number: GB2464688A
Application number: GB0819319A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Duncan Gregory Anderson
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2008-10-22
Filing date: 2008-10-22
Publication date: 2010-04-28
Also published as: GB0819319D0

Abstract

A slave device is responsive within a cellular network and is attachable to an item. Upon receiving a location activation request from an activating mobile telephone, location data is generated indicating the location of the slave device within the cellular network. The location data is relayed to the activating mobile telephone. The location data may be derived from the current preferred cell for radio communication within the cellular network or it may be derived by a process of triangulation. An indication of the location of the slave device relative to the location of the activating mobile telephone may be provided to the activating mobile telephone.

Description

Location Detection

Cross Reference to Related Applications

This application represents the first application for a patent directed toward the invention and the subject matter.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a method of, and apparatus for, providing location data of an item to a mobile cellular-network telephone user.

Background of the Invention

Systems are known for providing positional information, for example systems involving global positioning satellite (GPS) technology. The GPS system is highly effective in terms of identifying the location of a device and providing information to a user, which in turn may be compared against geographical information showing road maps etc. Location information may be obtained in response to a digital request from a mobile telephone cellular network.

It is desirable to make the requested information available to the proprietor or user of the mobile telephone device. It is also desirable to provide the proprietor or user of a device with control over access to location information requested from the cellular network.

Another problem with known systems is that although they are generally configured to identify the location of a device, they are not configured to provide location data with respect to another location.

Brief Summary of the Invention

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of providing location data of an item to a mobile cellular-network telephone user, comprising: attaching a slave device to said item, wherein said slave device is responsive within said cellular network; issuing a location activation request from a mobile telephone (the activating mobile); identifying the location of said slave device within said cellular network in response to said location activation request; and providing an indication of the location of the slave device to the activating mobile.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided apparatus for providing location data of an item to a mobile-cellular network telephone user, comprising: a slave device attachable to said item, said slave device responsive within a cellular network; a reception device for receiving a location activation request from a mobile telephone (the activating mobile); a processing device configured to generate location data indicating the location of said slave device within said cellular network in response to said location activation request; and a relaying system configured to relay said location data to the activating mobile.

Brief Description of the Several Views of the Drawings Figure 1 shows a mobile cellular telephone network; Figure 2 illustrates components of a mobile cellular telephone network; Figure 3 shows a slave device that is responsive within a mobile cellular network; Figure 4 illustrates steps performed in a request for information procedure; Figure 5 illustrates steps performed in response to a request for information procedure; Figure 6 shows a display; Figure 7 shows an alternative type of display; Figure 8 shows a scenario in which a slave device is active for use; Figure 9 shows a display generated in response to activation of a slave device; and Figure 1 0 illustrates steps performed in an additional procedure initiated in response to a request for information.

Description of the Best Mode for Carrying out the Invention Figure 1 Is A mobile cellular telephone network is illustrated in Figure 1. In this example, the network is established by base station transceivers 101 to 110. The location of transceivers 101 to 110 creates an arrangement of cells 111 to 1 20 such that each transceiver 1 01 to 11 0 effectively operates within its own respective cell 111 to 1 20. In the example shown, the cells are substantially hexagonal. However, in practice, it is unlikely that base stations are allowed to be positioned at ideal locations centrally within a cell and other geographical constraints will place thorough restrictions upon the ideal coverage.

In practice to establish communication with the network a mobile cellular telephone will send out an identification signal. This signal is detected by a plurality of local base stations. However a process is then performed to determine a single transceiver through which the mobile cellular telephone will subsequently communicate with the network. The exact procedure performed to determine which of the base station transceivers will be the main communicator may vary between applications. The procedure may include a determination of the closest transceiver or may include a determination of a quality of local transmitter signals once communication between a mobile cellular telephone. Once a particular base station transceiver is established, data transmission is optimised and any anticipation from the mobile device is minimised.

In the network shown in Figure 1, three mobile positions are identified as position 121, position 122 and position 123. Position 121 lies within cell 114 and a determination process may determine that the mobile at this location will communicate with base station 104.

Similarly, mobile position 1 22 is closest to transmitter base station 1 06 in cell 11 6 and in accordance with a distance based determination process it is highly likely that a mobile at position 1 22 would communicate with base station 106. Mobile position 123 lies near to the border between cells 11 3 and 11 6. A quality of signal based determination process may determine that a mobile at this position is to communicate with base station 1 03 or with base station 1 06 however, mobile position 1 23 is closest to base station 1 04 and hence considers base station 1 04 to be local. The mobile at position 1 23 will receive a signal from base station 104 during an initial process during which a communication channel is selected.

Figure 2 Base stations 103, 104 and 106 are also shown in Figure 2. Each base station includes a local data processing system 201 at station 103, 202 at station 104 and 203 at station 106. These local processing systems 201 to 203 also communicate with a communications centre 204. A mobile cellular telephone 205 is also illustrated in Figure 2. It is known that mobile telephone networks use triangulation to work out which base stations are detecting the existence of a communicating mobile telephone. Triangulation enables the determination of the base station that is the closest to a particular communicating mobile telephone. The exact location of each base station is known, and it is therefore possible to calculate the location of each communicating mobile telephone within the network, without relying upon GPS systems. As described in further detail below, use is made in embodiments of the invention of the availability of this location data.

Figure 3 A slave device is illustrated in Figure 3. Slave device 301 is responsive within a mobile cellular network, The slave device is attachable to an item. In an embodiment, the slave device does not require the use of keys, no use of a screen, along with unnecessary functions, thereby allowing the device to become substantially smaller.

Thus for example the device could be small enough to be included as * part of a key ring or a clip that could for example be attached to documents or even included within clothing. A slave device is used to provide location data of an item to a mobile cellular network telephone user.

Figure 4 Figure 4 illustrates steps performed in a request for information procedure. At step 401 a location activation request is issued from a mobile telephone. At step 401 the activating mobile telephone is effectively asking of the slave device, "Where are you?". At step 402 the activating mobile receives an indication of the location of the slave device. Thus in effect, at step 402 a message is effectively received from the slave device saying, "I am here." Figure 5 Figure 5 illustrates steps performed in response to a request for information procedure. At step 501, a reception device receives a location activation request from an activating mobile telephone. At step 502 a processing device generates location data indicating the location of the slave device within the cellular network in response to the location activation request. At step 503, a relaying system relays the location data to the activating mobile.

In an embodiment, the slave device is normally in a passive state yet is activated into a fully communicating state in response to the location activation request.

In an embodiment, the generated location data is passed to the slave device itself, which then passes the location data to the activating * mobile. Furthermore, once this information has been received by a device responsive within the cellular network, this information can be transmitted to other devices, such as mobile telephones or SMS devices or to a computer for example.

Figure 6 Once location data indicating the location of slave devices within the cellular network, this information could then be combined with local geographical information (road maps for example) thereby providing navigation systems without relying upon satellite based systems. Figure 6 shows a display 601. In this example, location data is transformed to produce geographical location data. Display 601 displays an indication of the location of slave device 301 with respect to a geographical area. The display provides an indication 602 of which way direction North is for the shown geographical region. Within the shown surrounding area, there is a road 603, a road 604, a road 605, a local road 606, a pond 607 and a building 608. Thus, having identified the location of the slave devices being within the region shown within display 601 it is likely that the slave device will be in building 608 or will be a vehicle somewhere along the section of road 603 that passes near building 608.

Figure 7 An alternative type of display is illustrated in Figure 7. Display 701 comprises mainly textural components. In this example, the display comprises an indication of the location of the slave device relative to the location of the activating mobile. Thus at 702, information is provided to the effect that the slave device is three hundred metres North and twenty-five metres West of the location of the activating mobile.

Figure 8 Figure 8 shows a scenario in which a slave device 801 is attached to the belt 802 of a child 803. It is to be appreciated however that apparatus or method steps as described herein may be utilised in other scenarios or applications to achieve a desired objective.

In the scenario of Figure 8, child 803 is under the guardianship of an adult 804, in this case the child's mother, who is in possession of a mobile telephone 805. Figure 8 shows a typical situation in which a parent and child are out shopping and the child is prone to wandering off or otherwise being separated from the mother. This event can be distressing for both parent and also the child. In addition to the previously described functionality of slave device 301, slave device 801 includes a "panic button functionality". This allows the child to activate the slave device 801 to the effect that data is sent to mobile telephone handset 805.

Figure 9 Figure 9 shows a display 901 generated in response to activation of slave device 801 by child 803. At 902 an indication is given to the effect that activation of the slave device was initiated at the end of the slave device rather than an activating mobile. In this example the word "help!" is displayed however any other suitable alert may be used. At 902 the originating slave device is identified. The location of the slave device is indicated at 904. Further information may be displayed for example the time at which the alert was initiated and br received displayed at 905 whilst a date is displayed at 906. Thus, a location request is issued by the slave device, location data indicating the location of the slave device within a cellular network is subsequently generated and this generated location data is subsequently relayed to an associated mobile. Thus as previously described either in response to a location request from an activating mobile or from the slave device. Location data indicating a location of display device within the cellular network is relayed to a mobile telephone.

Figure 10 Figure 1 0 illustrates steps performed in an additional procedure initiated in response to a request for information. In an embodiment, following receipt of generated location data, a question is asked at 1001 as to whether a trace function is to be initiated. If the question asked at step 1001 is answered in the negative, no further action is taken by the mobile telephone. Alternatively if the question asked at step 1 001 is answered in the affirmative step 1 002 is entered and a location activation request is issued. Subsequently, a question is asked at step 1 003 as to whether an instruction has been received to terminate the trace function. If the question asked at step 1 003 is answered in the negative, step 1 002 is subsequently entered again.

The question asked at step 1 003 will continue to be answered in the negative until an instruction is received to the effect that the trace function is to be terminated. In an embodiment, the user of the activating mobile physically selects an option to the effect that the trace function will be terminated, It is to be appreciated that the trace function allows a series of location data indicating the location of the slave device within a cellular network to be received and logged. A record may thus be built up of a slave device that is known to be moving before it is actually physically located. This function is particularly useful when a child has gone missing, feared lost or abducted, or an expensive or otherwise valuable item has been lost or stolen.

Claims

Claims 1. A method of providing location data of an item to a mobile cellular-network telephone user, comprising: attaching a slave device to said item, wherein said slave device is responsive within said cellular network; issuing a location activation request from a mobile telephone (the activating mobile); identifying the location of said slave device within said cellular network in response to said location activation request; and providing an indication of the location of the slave device to the activating mobile.
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said location data is derived by an identifying process of identifying a current preferred cell for radio communication within the cellular network.
3. A method according to claim 2, wherein said identifying process is performed at a base station.
4. A method according to claim 1, wherein said location data is derived from a comparison of a quality of local transmitter signals.
5. A method according to claim 4, wherein said location data is derived by a process of triangulation.
6. A method according to claim 5, wherein said triangulation process is performed at a base station.
7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the location data derived by triangulation is transformed to produce geographic location data.
8. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein said indication of the location of the slave device provided to the activating mobile comprises an indication of the location of the slave device relative to the location of the activating mobile.
9. Apparatus for providing location data of an item to a mobile-cellular network telephone user, comprising: a slave device attachable to said item, said slave device responsive within a cellular network; a reception device for receiving a location activation request from a mobile telephone (the activating mobile); a processing device configured to generate location data indicating the location of said slave device within said cellular network in response to said location activation request; and a relaying system configured to relay said location data to the activating mobile.
10. Apparatus according to claim 9, established as additional functionality to an operational mobile handset that is compatible with said network.
11. Apparatus according to claim 9 or 10, wherein said processing device is configured to receive location data derived by an identifying process of identifying a current preferred cell for radio communication within the cellular network.
12. Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said identifying process is performed at a base station.
1 3. Apparatus to claim 9 or 1 0, wherein said processing device is configured to receive location data derived from a comparison of a quality of local transmitter signals.
14. Apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said location data is derived by a process of triangulation.
1 5. Apparatus according to claim 1 4, wherein said triangulation process is performed at a base station.
16. Apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the location data derived by triangulation is transformed to produce geographic location data.
17. Apparatus according to any of claims 9 to 16, wherein said indication of the location of the slave device provided to the activating mobile comprises an indication of the location of the slave device relative to the location of the activating mobile.