NL2012491A - Intelligent appointment reminder alerts, task checklists, and one-click everything ''ready, set, go''. - Google Patents
Intelligent appointment reminder alerts, task checklists, and one-click everything ''ready, set, go''. Download PDFInfo
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- NL2012491A NL2012491A NL2012491A NL2012491A NL2012491A NL 2012491 A NL2012491 A NL 2012491A NL 2012491 A NL2012491 A NL 2012491A NL 2012491 A NL2012491 A NL 2012491A NL 2012491 A NL2012491 A NL 2012491A
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- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
- G06Q10/10—Office automation; Time management
- G06Q10/109—Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
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- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
- G06Q10/08—Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
Description
INTELLIGENT APPOINTMENT REMINDER ALERTS, TASK CHECKLISTS, AND ONE-CLICK EVERYTHING “READY, SET, GO”
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention addresses the improved functioning of the impending Internet of Things and relates generally to the fields of software calendaring and intelligent scheduling of appointments and reminders, including the use of real-time information to dynamically update appointment and reminder information, electronic searching, location, tracking and pattern recognition of people, places, objects, activities and behaviors as well as to recordation and electronic indications of ownership, usership, custody and responsibility.
BACKGROUND OF THE RELATED ART
Appointment scheduler applications embodied within a software engine, e.g., electronic calendars and daily planners, comprise a functionality provided by most contemporary personal digital assistants (PDAs), cell phones, smart phones, etc. Scheduler applications enable users to store and maintain a daily schedule of real-world and virtual (teleconference, videoconference, virtual world, etc.) meetings and events, based on time.
For example, a user can create calendar entries for one-time scheduled appointments or recurring events (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly etc.), including user-set parameters, such as a predetermined date, time, location, weather conditions or other parameters for appointments or issuing reminder alerts. A conventional, commercially available scheduling application is Microsoft Outlook.
Appointments, events and activities also frequently have an intrinsic association with a place or event. And, many smart devices are equipped with location detectors capable of sensing device and user location, such as a wifi, cellular telephone, global positioning system (GPS) or other transceivers capable of transmitting, calculating or otherwise determining a precise geographic location, such as the European Galileo system or the Russian global navigation satellite service (GLONASS).
Advanced electronic schedulers can manage appointment reminder alerts based on real-time location or other parameters, such as preset reminder dates, times or occurrence of particular events, e.g. weather conditions, for example a reminder might be set to go skiing on the next “good powder” day. The scheduler application will then issue reminder alerts the user of the scheduled meeting, for example starting from one hour prior to the meeting time.
The reminder alert provides a sensory stimuli output to indicate to the user that the time for a scheduled event has arrived, or will arrive within a predetermined amount of time. When a reminder must be issued, a scheduler application will typically manipulate the functionality of the smart device (e.g., electronic messaging, flashing lights, sounding auditory alarms or vibrating) on which it is loaded to alert the user, and the reminder alert will continue to periodically trigger until the user disables it. Location-based services available with geo-spatial navigation devices, including smart phones, assist in decision-making during user performance of tasks in space and time by enabling spatio-relational queries such as, for example, “the shortest route from A to B” or “the closest restaurant to A,” where A represents a location as specified either by the user or a current location of a location-detecting system. These services are capable of delivering real-time instructions to the user based on current location, helping the user to follow a selected route and arrive at a desired destination.
To minimize disruptions from unnecessary reminders, contemporary scheduler applications attempt to modify or suppress unnecessary event reminders by detecting conditions which may obviate the need for a reminder, e.g., when the user is already located at the scheduled appointment or is already on the line with the scheduled teleconference call. Real-time information employed to this end may include, date, time, location, direction of travel, traffic conditions, weather conditions, whether the user is calling the phone number associated with a scheduled teleconference, etc.
For example, in order to determine whether to issue, suppress or modify appointment reminder alerts the scheduler application operating on a smart device may ascertain whether the current user location or a placed phone call respectively match a location or phone number indicated in a calendar entry (referred to herein as a scheduled appointment).
However, although contemporary scheduler applications may issue, modify or suppress reminders based on real-time indications of whether or not sending of the reminder is deemed appropriate, use of contemporarily available real-time information does not always yield satisfactory results. For instance, smart phone GPS transceivers are typically unable to determine the distinction between whether the user is in the room where a scheduled meeting is occurring or merely in the same building. Consequently, reminder alerts for scheduled appointments may sometimes be incorrectly suppressed by contemporary scheduling applications.
And, the method of communication used to convey a reminder may be integral to effective conveyance of such reminder. For example, a user may not be able to check email to receive a sent reminder in a timely manner, rendering it of no use. Instead, advanced scheduler applications can send SMS or voice reminders at the scheduled time or modify the time of the reminder, to improve user ability to be on-time for the appointments.
Further, if the user is traveling or far away from the appointment location, a reminder sent at some predetermined time interval before the appointment may be too late to be effective. Advanced scheduling applications can determine locations and times specified for appointments, current user location, speed, and direction of travel and use this information to schedule an appropriate appointment reminder.
More recently, many people-, pet- and object-tracking companies have been entering the consumer market, offering loss-prevention, virtual leash and intelligent tether solutions in the form of Bluetooth transceiver enabled ‘button’ tags. These contemporary consumer loss prevention solutions address the market need detailed in a 2012 survey conducted by the UK insurance company esure, according to which people misplace on average nine items per week and typically waste 15 minutes a day searching for misplaced items.
Companies that offer consumer loss prevention solutions, such as Tile, StickNFind and Bringrr, typically provide rudimentary object location, tracking and geofencing. Most of these companies manufacture slightly different versions of a button-sized
Bluetooth wireless transmitter that users can attach to objects, pets or people of which they may lose track. An example of an advanced contemporary loss prevention solution can be found in U.S. Patent 8,570,168, “System, Method and Device to Interrogate for the Presence of Objects”, by James D. Logan, et al.
These solutions utilize smart phone applications to determine distance to a Bluetooth transceiver within wireless range of a smart phone running such application and may cause a tag containing the Bluetooth transceiver to vibrate or emit an audio sound in response to a prompt. However, these solutions are typically limited to proximity detection and do not provide precise object location or directional finding. Consequently, users must self-determine general direction of a tagged thing by playing a game of ‘Hot and Cold’.
Further, no loss prevention solutions incorporate appointment scheduling function and conversely, neither do any conventional scheduling applications incorporate location and tracking functions for people, places and things. Moreover, neither appointment scheduling applications nor loss prevention solutions include any functionality related to activity and behavior pattern recognition or predictive groupings of and associations between people, places and things. The functionality of conventional calendaring software tends to be limited in scope to tracking scheduled rather than real-time, actual disposition of meeting locations, such as the company conference room.
To date, solutions to these problems are barely workable, and suffer from a variety of disadvantages and drawbacks. For instance, users can employ printable task checklists and electronic appointment schedulers only as poor, approximate substitutes to the present invention, which require significant user set-up, preparation and capacity to remember.
Further, task-scheduling applications, such as Daily Routine, HomeRoutines and Any. Do, do not present satisfactory solutions because they operate based only on information entered by the user. Appointment scheduling applications such as Microsoft Outlook also rely primarily on information entered by users or supplied by a smart phone or PDA. Neither types of software applications, appointment schedulers nor task schedulers, can adequately incorporate dynamically evolving situational contexts based on information concerning or received from non-user devices and equipment, e.g. the company car, luggage, laptop or handset computers (/.e. smart phones), projectors, poster displays, etc. Nor do they include reminder alerts or task checklists for items and persons essential for scheduled appointments. In addition, currently object loss-prevention systems provide no software calendaring, neither scheduled nor dynamic reminder alerts nor task checklist functionality.
Heretofore, neither have scheduling application software engines incorporated the ability to track ownership, permissions and assignments of responsibility, as well as location, activity and behavior of persons, places and things, nor have tracking devices incorporated scheduling functionality or the capability to indicate ownership, rights or obligations to achieve the specific novelties and advantages of the system and method described herein.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional systems will become apparent to one of skill in the art after reviewing the remainder of the present application with reference to the invention summary, drawings and detailed description which follow.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
For purposes of summarizing the invention, certain aspects, advantages, and novel features of the invention have been described herein. It is to be understood that not necessarily all such advantages may be achieved in accordance with any one particular embodiment of the invention. Thus, the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other advantages as may be taught or suggested herein.
The present invention provides an adaptive scheduling system capable of dynamically responding to evolving situational contexts, i.e. changes in requirements for scheduled appointments or in user or device physical circumstances, such as geographical location and relative position location, and addresses the longstanding and deeply felt need of people, groups, companies and institutions to easily and effectively keep track of their things of primary importance, among others including appointments, tasks, duties, obligations, responsibilities, items and possessions. This need is simple to identify and observe.
Watching the behavior of people in public spaces, they can often be seen doing the “leaving a place” check, i.e. patting their pockets, visually inspecting their immediate premises and generally checking to make sure that they will not leave anything behind. Similarly, in talking with people about their upcoming plans, it is evident that many people have at least a small difficulty in remembering all of their impending tasks, obligations and appointments for the current day, let alone the coming week. The present invention overcomes a plurality of disadvantages suffered by the prior art to provide an improved system and method for assisting users in keeping track of their important persons, places and things. By tracking location, direction and relative proximity to other system elements, as well as indications of ownership, custody-ship, user-ship, etc., the present invention uses real-time information to dynamically determine assignments of tasks, duties to hold custody over or responsibilities to carry or transport persons or things from one place to another.
In particular, the present invention relates to a system and method disclosed herein, which provide dynamic action reminder alerts to at least system users, smart devices and unique digital profiles for persons, places and things. With the present invention, users can create a routine checklists, check tasks on the checklist as completed, attach tags to any items associated with specific scheduled events, e.g. briefcases, laptops, thumb drives, projectors, etc., mark such items as required or desired for recurring or one-time events and enable generation of dynamic reminder alerts and task checklists based upon the scheduled appointments of a particular day.
The present invention generates and dynamically updates action reminders and task checklists, meaning that when a user marks a scheduled event as associated with a particular item, the present invention will provide to the user a reminder alert or task checklist indicating the need to collect and bring such item on the morning of and throughout the day of that scheduled event. And, if the user has tagged the item with a smart node or a uniquely identifiable tag (UIT), the user would be alerted upon attempting to leave home or other location without such essential item. This user location-aware functionality can be enabled through the use of place-identified smart devices, such as Bluetooth beacons or other location embedded smart nodes.
In one selected embodiment, a system is configured to enable users and system elements to respond effectively and efficiently to a digitalized synthesis of evolving situational contexts by providing said users and system elements with both dynamically generated and updated reminder alerts and task checklists, based on calendaring, timekeeping and tracking location or activity, among other principles. The system of the present invention comprises at least I) one or more persons, places and things, II) unique digital profiles, representing such persons, places and things, and groupings, associations and other current statuses thereof, and III) an enhanced digital calendar, including at least scheduled appointments, indicating persons or things scheduled to be present at designated places and specified times, as well as reminder alerts and task checklists indicating one or more actions or tasks suggested to satisfy the criteria of the scheduled appointments.
Further, the system includes IV) one or more smart devices, comprising at least one or more processors, storage devices, transmitters, receivers or transceivers, and power sources, configured to a) be associated to unique digital profiles representing the persons, places and things; b) to make wireless connections with other smart devices, the internet and one or more devices connected to the internet, and c) to operate a software engine configured to cause the system to: 1) create and maintain an enhanced calendar of scheduled appointments, including to create, update and store scheduled appointment calendar entries and various parameters thereof; 2) create, update and store unique digital profiles and various parameters thereof.
Furthermore, the system is configured to: 3) associate unique digital profiles to scheduled appointments; 4) store these associations in one or more of the various parameters of such scheduled appointments; 5) associate unique digital profiles to smart devices corresponding to persons, places or things represented by said unique digital profiles; and 6) store these associations in one or more of the various parameters of said unique digital profiles;
Moreover, the system is further configured to 7) calculate and store a dynamic set of information based upon evolving situational contexts; 8) recalculate and update the dynamic set of information and store an updated dynamic set of information; 9) iterate a query to determine whether to generate and issue one or more reminder alerts or task checklists to prompt a user, smart device or unique digital profile to complete an action based on an updated dynamic set of information; and 10) generate and issue reminder alerts or task checklists to a user, smart device or unique digital profile, upon determining to prompt said user, smart device or unique digital profile.
And, the System also includes V) an adjusted, altered, modified or other implemented change to the status, disposition, activity or behavior of a system user, smart device, unique digital profile, scheduled appointment, networks thereof and associations therebetween, taking into account one or more of issued reminder alerts and task checklists.
In another selected embodiment, a method is configured to provide users of a system or system elements with dynamically generated and updated reminder alerts and task checklists, based on calendaring, timekeeping or tracking location or activity, among other principles, to enable said users and system elements to respond effectively and efficiently to a digitalized synthesis of evolving situational contexts within the system. The method comprises at least: I) operating on one or more smart devices, wherein each smart device is configured to a) be associated to unique digital profiles and b) to make wireless connections with other smart devices, the internet and one or more devices connected to the internet, a software engine. The software engine is configured to perform portions of the method, including: 1) creating and maintaining an enhanced digital calendar, comprised at least of scheduled appointments, indicating one or more of persons and things scheduled to be present at designated places and specified times, as well as reminder alerts and task checklists indicating one or more actions or tasks suggested to satisfy the criteria of the scheduled appointments, including creating, updating and storing scheduled appointments and various parameters thereof; and 2) creating, updating and storing unique digital profiles, representing persons, places and things and groupings, associations and other current statuses thereof, and various parameters thereof.
The software engine is configured to perform further portions of the method, including: 3) associating unique digital profiles to scheduled appointments; 4) storing these associations as one or more of the various parameters of said scheduled appointments; 5) associating unique digital profiles to smart devices corresponding to a person, place or thing represented by said unique digital profiles; 6) storing these associations as one or more of the various parameters of such unique digital profiles; 7) making a data connection to other smart devices, the internet and one or more devices connected to the internet and transmitting data; and 8) calculating and storing a dynamic set of information based upon evolving situational contexts. Furthermore, The software engine is configured to perform additional portions of the method, including: 9) recalculating and updating the dynamic set of information and storing an updated dynamic set of information; 10) iterating a query to determine whether to generate and issue one or more reminder alerts and task checklists to prompt a user, smart device or unique digital profile to complete an action based on an updated dynamic set of information; and 11) generating and issuing one or more reminder alerts or task checklists to a user, smart device or unique digital profile, upon determining to prompt said user, smart device or unique digital profile. And, the method further includes II) adjusting, altering, modifying or in any other way implementing a change to the status, disposition, activity or behavior of a system user, smart device, unique digital profile, scheduled appointment, networks thereof and associations therebetween taking into account one or more of issued reminder alerts and task checklists.
These and other embodiments of the present invention, as well as its objectives, advantages and other novel features, will be apparent from the following detailed description, when read in conjunction with the appended claims and accompanying drawings, without limiting the invention to any particular embodiment(s) discussed. The claimed invention may be expressed in alternative arrangements while still maintaining the spirit of its original purpose and fundamental features.
Various modifications, as well as a variety of uses in different applications, will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. The general principles, defined herein, may be applied to a wide range of embodiments. The descriptions of the various embodiments provided herein explain and are not intended to be nor should they be read as limiting of the invention to any of the particular selected exemplary embodiments.
The present invention should rather be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein. Additional information in the claims concerning the present invention must be realized to the extent the claim language enables the invention. The scope of the invention will be pointed out in the claims.
The following drawings, in conjunction with the subsequent description, are presented to help enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the present invention and to implement the various embodiments of the present invention. Furthermore, it should be noted that unless explicitly stated otherwise, the figures included herein are illustrated schematically and without any specific scale, as they are provided as qualitative illustrations of the concept of the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Figure 1 illustrates a flow chart for a first embodiment of the claimed method.
Figure 2 illustrates a flow chart for a second embodiment of the claimed method. Figure 3 illustrates a flow chart for a third embodiment of the claimed method.
Figure 4 illustrates the components of a simple smart device.
Figure 5 illustrates the components of a more complex smart device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention, comprising the disclosed system and method for dynamic reminder alerts, their component parts and constituent parts, will become more thoroughly understood through the following detailed description and elaboration of possible embodiments and configurations as well as through the subsequent claims. The described embodiments and configurations provide only exemplary details, which should not in any way be interpreted to limit the invention.
Description of the present invention makes reference to the embodiments and configurations of the included figures. Figures 1 - 5 illustrate components of the dynamic reminder alert system and method, described in the current disclosure. The drawings in the figures are not to scale and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way.
The system and method disclosed herein implement an improved functionality for the impending Internet of Things and are based on calendaring, timekeeping and tracking location and activity, among other principles. Of primary importance, the present invention, system and method, enable a user of the system to access improved real-time information and decision support regarding the user’s possession and obligations, responsibilities and duties as a caretaker, caregiver, guardian, steward or manager of possessions, animals, places or other persons.
As used herein, the term “user” may indicate either a person or an autonomous virtual agent embodied in one or more software engines resident on or distributed across one or more computing devices. In addition, as used herein, the term “person” means a natural person, i.e. a human being. Further, the term “place”, will be used to mean either a geographic or relative position location, capable of identification by, respectively, spatial coordinates and a referential position such as a proximity to a person, an object or another location. Furthermore, for the purposes of this description, “thing” will be used to mean anything having a physical embodiment, including at least, and without limitation, all tangible possessions, objects, items, articles, equipment, devices, animals, pets, places and persons.
For the purposes of this description, “smart devices” 400/500, as depicted in Figures 4 and 5, will be used to mean a network node, having at least one or more of processors 420/520, storage devices 430/530, transmitters, receivers or transceivers 410/510, and power sources 440/540.
As further depicted in Figure 5, smart devices may also include user interfaces, such as user display interfaces 550, and other peripherals, such as sensors 560. Examples of smart devices can include and instances of the term “smart device” within this specification and the following claims shall be interpreted to include computers, handset or “pocket” computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable calendar devices, cell phones, smart phones, augmented reality display devices and other types of network beacons, nodes, routers, access points and the like which interface with computer or communications networks.
And, as used herein, “smart nodes” can be considered to be a subset type of smart device, generally configured to attach to persons, places and things. Smart nodes include both smart beacons, such as commercially available Wifi, RFID or Bluetooth indoor location beacons, including the Estimote and StickNFind beacons, which implement the Apple iBeacon protocol, as well as button tracking devices, such as the commercially available Bluetooth button trackers including Tile, StickNFind, Bringrr, etc.
However, the smart devices, e.g. smart nodes and smart beacons, contemplated under the present invention are configured to include many different modes of connectivity known in the art, such as wifi, radio frequency (RF), near field communication (NFC), cellular, satellite, and physical hard line connections, including Ethernet, serial peripheral interface (SPI), universal serial bus (USB) and MicroUSB, among others. The smart devices, smart nodes and smart beacons are also configured to incorporate many different types of sensors and detectors. Information collected by smart devices is both processed locally to derive intelligent decision support and is also communicated to back-end server systems as well as among groups of smart devices, mutually associated using digital associations of “unique digital profiles” (or “UDPs”), representative of persons, places and things. Also for the purposes of this description, “uniquely identifiable tags” (or “UlTs”) will be used to mean tags having at least one or more of transmitters, receivers, and transceivers, supporting RF, NFC or other wireless connectivity, patterned image reflectors, such as bar code, quick response code (QRC) or other digitally recognizable image, and storage devices, storing at least a unique identifier on the tag, and capable of being attached to persons, places or things.
And in addition, for the purposes of this description, “visual recognizable code” (or “VRC”) will be used to mean any computer readable image, including QR codes, that a machine can capture and read using specialized algorithms for pattern analysis, a processor and a camera. Like a QR code, VRC stored patterns can contain a code, in the case of an image, the image itself can contain, or reference to, a code. This code can then serve as a reference to additional data repositories, such as UDPs.
As used in this description, an “image recognition file” (or “IRF”), means a file containing VRC to act as a passive tag associated to a person place or thing, in contrast to a smart device or UIT, by comparison against VRCs generated by smart devices, in order to determine whether a user or smart device is attempting to interface with a person, place or thing having a system recognized UDP.
In a preferred embodiment, operation of the software engine occurs across a distributed system of personal computers, smart devices, smart nodes and back-end cloud servers, as individual stand-alone instances on any of these devices or as an integrated system of distributed instances across the multiple hardware platforms. The present invention also specifically contemplates the use of smart devices in conjunction with Bluetooth beacons as well as small, wirelessly interconnecting, button-sized smart nodes capable of being attached to persons, places and things. Information collected by the smart devices can be processed to derive intelligent decision support locally, as well as in a distributed fashion by components of the software engine operating across multiple devices and levels of the network. Further, intelligence derived at one location, on one or more specific devices operating in the back-end server system cloud or in any particular sub-network, can be propagated throughout the network to specific smart devices, UlTs, UDPs and IRFs having a definite use or capable of using such intelligence.
The smart nodes can be used to establish and operate a 3D ad-hoc wireless mesh network, using RF, wifi, Bluetooth 4.1 or other wireless connectivity, to enable the present system and method of providing dynamically generated and updated reminder alerts and task checklists to users and smart devices. This 3D ad-hoc wireless mesh network interpenetrates and operates in conjunction with conventional static wireless networks and standard physical connection, hard line networks. Computers, smart devices, e.g. smart phones, smart beacons and smart nodes, UlTs and IRFs are all connected in this interpenetrating network via a physical layer comprising either a wireless or hard line connection, and are all connected virtually, as well, through UDP associations. All devices and UDPs within the network are given unique digital addresses, such as IPV4, IPV6, 6LowPAN or Bluetooth 4.1 addresses, enabling point to point addressing and location.
Both the smart devices and smart nodes may communicate with and across the internet using one or more of cellular, satellite, wifi, Bluetooth, RF or other type of wireless or wired connectivity. In alternative embodiments, the 3D ad-hoc wireless mesh network may be composed entirely of interconnected smart devices not including smart nodes, i.e. smart phones, augmented reality display devices, etc. Or, even further alternative embodiments, smart nodes may be built directly into products, e.g. toaster, refrigerator, washer, dryer, etc., obviating the need for users to attach the smart nodes to the things they want to include within the network. Similarly, although affording markedly less functionality than smart devices or smart nodes, UlTs can be incorporated into and located within an established 3D ad-hoc wireless mesh network for purposes of tracking ss of persons, places and things. Alternatively, items may be associated to UlTs, including RF, NFC, bar code, or QRC, or IRFs, used as a trigger for a type of virtual passive “tag”. The smart devices of the present invention are configured to make wireless connections with one or more of other smart devices and UlTs.
The present invention comprises, at least in part, one or more smart devices, including smart beacons and smart nodes, configured to operate a software engine enabled to provide enhanced scheduling, location, pattern recognition, prediction and decision support. To accomplish this, the invention incorporates multiple realtime streams of information including user input, location and other autonomous transmissions between one or more smart devices, as a first layer of user interface, a broader 3D ad-hoc wireless distributed sensor and mesh communications network composed of one or more smart nodes, as a second layer of user interface, and a tertiary level of network and user interface, comprising connections to individual UlTs or to other wireless device alternative protocol networks of devices, regardless of whether wired or wireless.
The primary network protocols for communicating across the extended smart device and smart node network include Internet Protocol 4 (IPV4) and Internet Protocol 6 (IPV6), inclusive of IPV6 over low power wireless personal area networks (6L0PAN), as embedded within cellular, wifi, RF, Bluetooth or Ethernet transmission protocols. However, the individual UlTs, and other wireless device alternative protocol devices and networks to which the 3D ad-hoc wireless mesh network may connect, may support RF, NFC, Bluetooth (specifically Bluetooth 4.1), and other types of wireless connectivity, as well as barcode, QRC, IRF and other image pattern recognition capability.
Further, the essence of the present invention should be recognized as entirely independent of the types of network connections and network protocols utilized to effectuate the network telecommunications. Indeed, the present invention relates primarily to the use of interconnected mobile computers, aka smart devices, and a method of using such interconnected mobile computers to provide enhanced scheduling, location tracking, reminder alerts and task checklists.
One of the primary aims of the present invention is to assist people in overcoming the difficulty inherent in remembering all impending tasks, obligations and upcoming appointments for themselves, their charges and possessions. Another primary aim of the present invention is to use pattern recognition to accurately infer or deduce emotional and mental states of users and equivalent statuses for smart devices, UlTs, IRFs, UDPs and corresponding persons, places and things, in order to better determine efficiencies and goals for users and system components. These inferences and deductions are based on machine learning and recognition of patterns of activity, behavior, location and disposition, among other parameters.
In particular, the present invention relates to a system and method disclosed herein, which provide dynamic reminder alerts and task checklists to at least system users, smart devices, UlTs, IRFs and UDPs. These reminder alerts and task checklists can be shared between users, smart devices, UlTs, IRFs and UDPs manually, automatically or dynamically based on multivariate conditional criteria. For instance, if a UIT or smart device, e.g. smart node or smart beacon, is not connected to the internet or in range of the broader 3D ad-hoc wireless mesh network, or a subnetwork thereof, it can store one or more task checklists or reminder alerts to be triggered upon entering into the wireless connection range of another smart device or upon operation by a user. For UlTs and IRFs, the one or more task checklists and reminder alerts may be generated by one or more smart devices and exported to the UDPs of one or more UlTs or IRFs, or to a physical storage device contained in a UIT, for future access, to be activated by proximity, wireless connection or other appropriate trigger.
The present invention provides to users thereof the ability to easily, efficiently and effectively track the past and present and predict future locations of persons, places and things important to such users. It also allows users to quickly determine whether such users have satisfied all tasks or holds in their immediate possession everything needed to achieve the goals and criteria for present and future events or appointments. In addition, the present invention can be utilized to make determinations or predictions regarding the mental and emotional states of users based on patterns of user location, activity and behavior.
When a user marks a scheduled appointment as associated to certain persons, places or things, or a particular group thereof, on the morning of the day of that scheduled appointment, the software engine will remind the user to bring, retrieve, or secure the associated item or person. And, if the user has attached a smart device, such as a smart node or smart beacon, or a UIT to a person, place or thing of interest and the smart device or UIT is in range of a smart device employed by the user, the scheduler application will issue a reminder alert to the user if they attempt to leave their home or current location without one or more associated items or persons.
In addition, a current or future predicted state, activity, behavior, location or disposition of a user, smart device, UIT, IRF, or UDP can be used by the system and method to determine which persons or things a user must retrieve, at which locations such persons and things must be retrieved and to which locations such persons and things must be transported. Further, current and predicted future states, activities, behaviors, locations or dispositions of persons and things, as well as of locations where such persons and things might be located currently or in the future or to where such persons or things must be delivered, may further inform determinations by the system and method regarding which persons and things a user must retrieve and the most efficient order of retrieval and delivery or other disposition.
In a preferred embodiment, the present invention is configured to provide users with a one-click “everything ready, set, go” inventory function, to quickly and easily determine for such users whether they have accomplished all suggested tasks or actions or have in their immediate or planned possession all desired items to achieve the goals of an upcoming appointment or event. To achieve this “ready, set, go” functionality, the system of the present invention is configured to review all current checklists and reminder alerts relevant to a user, or any smart devices or UDPs associated to such user, to determine whether the user has satisfied all “ready, set, go” criteria. This same functionality enables the location and retrieval of all necessary and desired persons and things at any given location, taking into account the prospective outlook of current task checklists and reminder alerts as well as upcoming scheduled appointments, reminder alerts and task checklists.
The system and method of the present invention achieve this in part by employing a network of smart devices, including smart nodes, to locate and track the activity of users, smart devices or UlTs and to provide an embedded-intelligence analysis of historical patterns of object, item, thing, place, and person or user activity or behavior using pattern recognition and predict future locations and dispositions of devices and users. To enable this functionality, the present invention draws from the fields of software calendaring, e.g. electronic appointment scheduling, and electronic location, tracking and pattern recognition of persons, places, things, activities and behaviors as well as the use of real-time information to dynamically update information regarding scheduled appointments, locations and preferences for persons, places and things.
Specifically, the one-click “everything ready, set, go” checklist function relies upon a search and locate function, indications of digital associations, such as ownership, usership, custody-ship or assignments of responsibilities, duties or obligations, and dynamic reminder alerts, based on precise time-keeping and scheduling. The “everything ready, set, go” indications can be considered to be a subset type of reminder alerts, initiated either by a user or autodynamically based upon system conditions. “Everything ready, set, go” indications comprise an reminder alert that is issued as an ‘all clear’ signal, indicating to the user that the user has successfully gathered all items, things and persons or completed all actions necessary to achieve the goals of a scheduled appointment.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a system is configured to provide users with dynamically updated reminder alerts and task checklists based on calendaring, timekeeping or tracking location and activity, among other principles. The system of the present invention comprises at least: one or more persons, places and things, and smart devices 400/500, such as smart phones, smart beacons or other smart nodes, configured to be associated to one or more UDPs, representing a person, place and thing. In addition, the system may further include one or more of UlTs, and one or more smart devices may further comprise augmented reality display systems having an augmented reality interface for interacting with the smart device 400/500 and the system of the present as a whole. Further, the smart devices are configured to make wireless connections with one or more of other smart devices, e.g. smart phones, smart beacons or smart nodes, and UlTs.
The system of the present invention may be comprised of one or more smart devices 400/500, including smart nodes, smart beacons and smart phones, configured to operate a software engine, distributed across a 3D ad-hoc wireless mesh network composed of such smart devices. Stand-alone instances of the software engine exist on each computer and smart device 400/500 in the network, as well as on backend server systems connected to the internet. However, although each instance of the software engine is capable of stand-alone, independent operation, they are each enabled for integrated, collaborative, distributed operation in conjunction with all other instances of the software engine. In this way, the software engine of the system is configured to operate as an end-to-end software appliance (from node to handset to cloud) and to leverage evolving statuses and situational contexts, as well as other information, from all devices connected to a broad digital ecosystem composed of component digital ecosystems, including the internet, the 3D ad-hoc wireless mesh network and sub-networks thereof.
The software engine of the present invention is further enabled to create and maintain an enhanced calendar of scheduled appointments. Smart devices, such as smart beacons and smart nodes, and UlTs may be attached to persons, places and things, and IRFs may be associated to UDPs representing such persons, places and things, in order to monitor the evolving statuses and situational contexts of system components. The enhanced calendar comprises a collection of scheduled appointments, task checklists and reminder alerts, created, updated and stored on one or more system storage devices. Various parameters of the scheduled appointments include, among others, date, time, place, required persons, equipment, items and materials.
Among other functions, the smart devices, including smart beacons and smart nodes, and UlTs enable tracking and identification of persons, places and things to which they are attached. UlTs are included in an alternate embodiment of the invention, which includes UlTs as well as smart devices, whereas the primary embodiment includes solely smart devices. In an even further embodiment of the invention, IRFs, for instance containing VRCs, can be used to enable the system, and components thereof, to recognize persons, faces or other biometrics, as well as objects and places.
Further, the system is configured to create, update and store UDPs, each representing one of a person, place or thing. Various parameters of the UDPs include, among others, name, identity, status, physical characteristics, preferences, typical location, activity or behavior. UDPs are configured to be associated both to scheduled appointments and smart devices, UlTs or IRFs, enabling the system to track and update statuses of various UDPs relevant to particular scheduled appointments. Even further, appointment organizers and participants can select specific persons or things, or classes of persons or things, belonging to or under the custody of all or some participants of a scheduled appointment, as required, suggested or optional for a particular calendar entry.
Furthermore, the system is configured to create, store, update and utilize associations of UDPs to scheduled appointments and to corresponding smart devices, UlTs or IRFs to track the status of system elements, including persons, places and things corresponding with such UDPs and to generate task checklists and reminder alerts and to provide decision support with respect to remaining tasks needed to be completed to achieve the goals and requirements of a scheduled appointment. Associations between UDPs and scheduled appointments are stored in one or more of the various parameters of such scheduled appointments, and associations between UDPs and corresponding smart devices, UlTs or IRFs are stored in one or more of the various parameters of such UDP. Information about smart devices, UlTs or IRFs, and the persons, places or things to which they are associated or attached, may be stored directly on a storage device integrated within or connected to such smart device or UIT, including within a locally stored UDP representing the person, place or thing to which the smart device, UIT or IRF is associated or attached. UDPs representing persons, places or things associated to an IRF, managed by a user or managing smart device and stored within one or more various parameters of such UDP, are typically stored locally on a smart device or UIT, utilized by such user or managing smart device to track the person, place or thing represented by such UDP.
Moreover, the system and method are configured to enable creation, update and storage of scheduled appointments, reminder alerts, task checklists, UDPs, various parameters thereof and associations therebetween, as well as associations between UDPs and smart devices, UlTs or IRFs by system users, employing a computer or smart device having a software engine application interface. Alternatively, these system components may be created, updated and stored autodynamically by an instance of the software engine operating on a smart device or backend server, based on evolving statuses and situational contexts of system components.
And further, the system and method of the present invention are additionally configured to utilize the information collected by smart devices, UlTs and UDPs, and with respect to IRFs, to autodynamically determine, predict and indicate persons and things required or suggested to be included in scheduled meetings. In addition, the system and method are configured to autodynamically determine, predict and appoint required or suggested locations for meetings, based on the same collected information. Effectively, this means that the system and method of the present invention are capable of independently determining and scheduling appointments, including appointment locations, participants and items suggested to be included in such meetings.
Moreover, the system is further configured to calculate, update and store a dynamic set of information based upon an evolving situational contexts related to the status of system elements. Evolving situational contexts may include updates to UDPs, changes in requirements for scheduled appointments, such as location, time or list of attendees, changes in the disposition or physical circumstances of smart devices or UlTs and information derived therefrom, such as location, activity or behavior, networks and associations therebetween and changes to the same.
And, based upon updated dynamic sets of information, the system is further configured to iterate a query to determine whether to generate and issue one or more reminder alerts or task checklists to prompt a user, a smart device or a UDP. This determination also includes the suppression of one or more reminder alerts and task checklists, based on evolving statuses of system components. Determining which information to not display to the end user is just as, if not more, important than determining which information to display.
Upon determining to prompt a user, smart device or UDP, the software engine will generate and issue one or more reminder alerts or task checklists to such user, smart device or UDP. Current solutions fail to appropriately create, update and suppress object reminder alerts because they are unable to incorporate a level of real-time contextual information of sufficiently fine granularity. The present invention achieves the necessary level of granularity in information regarding the evolving situational contexts of the system and system components by implementing unique addressing of communications between objects within a 3D ad-hoc mesh network system based on network protocols, including IPV6, 6LowPAN, and Bluetooth 4.1, among others.
In a preferred embodiment, the present invention is configured to autodynamically incorporate evolving situational contexts, including information related to scheduled appointments, UDPs, users, smart devices and UlTs, into updates for scheduling, reminder and task checklist functionalities. Users may attach wirelessly linked smart devices, such as smart nodes, or UlTs to persons and things associated to UDPs, which are in turn associated to scheduled appointments, e.g. a presenter, support staff, briefcases, laptops, thumb-drives, projectors, etc., and also to places comprising appointed locations or waypoints for scheduled appointments, e.g. the board room or a conference room.
The system of the present invention enables users to create a daily calendar of scheduled appointments and a variety of routine task checklists, such as morning routine, daily routine and travel or appointment routine task checklists, as well as mark persons and items as associated with a specific scheduled appointment and check tasks on the routine checklists as completed (e.g. laptop and projector placed in briefcase). Further, the system automatically updates reminder alerts and routine task checklists for that day, based on detected changes in the configuration of system elements and evolving situational contexts.
The system is further configured to create, store, update and utilize associations between smart devices or UlTs and UDPs representing persons, places or things, e.g. luggage, briefcases, laptops, projectors, thumb-drives, etc. and also thereby to create, store, update and utilize associations between such persons, places or things with one or more scheduled appointments and also with specific smart devices or UlTs, through associations both between such smart devices or UlTs and the UDPs representing such persons, places and things and between the UDPs and specific scheduled appointments. Additionally, the software engine is further configured to automatically update reminder alerts and routine task checklists based on evolving situational contexts, including information related to scheduled appointments, UDPs, smart devices and UlTs.
For instance, when a scheduled appointment has been marked as associated with one or more UDPs for a particular set of persons, places and things, either directly by a user or autodynamically by a smart device, on the morning of the day of that scheduled appointment the system will remind the appointment participants, through their associated UDPs, to bring with them the required persons and things when they leave their home or other location. And if the user has attached a smart device or UIT to a person, place or thing of interest and the smart device or UIT is in range of a smart device employed by the user, the software engine will issue one or more reminder alerts or task checklists to the user, via the smart device(s) employed by such user, if said user starts to leave their home or current location without any required item or person.
Further, users may designate items or persons associated to smart devices or UlTs as required, essential, or suggested for particular categories of events or appointments. The system and method employ smart devices attached to associated persons, places and things to actively track their location and disposition. Persons, places and things, associated to individual or set(s) of scheduled appointments, may also be as associated to UlTs, including RF, NFC, bar codes or QRC, or IRFs, as a trigger for a type of virtual passive tags. And last, items may be designated as required but remain untagged, in which case the scheduler application can only issue reminders based on a user-indicated typical location of the untagged item.
In a preferred embodiment, the system and method are configured to enable users to create different classes or categories of UDPs configured to interact with corresponding classes of users, smart devices and other UDPs based on assigned levels of permission. For instance. A user may designate certain UDPs as belonging to, for instance, public, private (/.e. trusted) and hidden categories. Public class UDPs would allow anyone (user, smart device, or UDP) defined as a member of the general public to interact with information included in the UDP, through the smart device or UIT associated to the person, place or thing represented by such UDP.
Private class UDPs would allow all users to see a limited amount of information contained in the UDP, such as type of object {e.g. 1957 Chevy), but would only allow users, smart devices or UDPs having been assigned to a specific subcategory of the private classification granting a sufficient level of permission to view and interact with a larger subset of the information contained in such private class UDP and the corresponding smart device or UIT. Hidden class UDPs do not even show themselves or the fact of their existence to users, smart devices or UDPs not having been assigned a classification granting a sufficient level of permission to view the UDP or some subset of information contained in the UDP. “Pure” hidden class UDPs would only be visible to the creator or manager of such UDP.
Users may wish to designate further subcategories; for instance, private class UDPs could be further divided into levels of trust or permissions including, among others, acquaintance, business associate, friend, family or some other set list of individual users, smart devices or UDPs. Each subcategory could be granted different levels of permission or authorization to interact with the managing user’s smart devices, UlTs, persons, places and things and their corresponding UDPs. Private and hidden class UDPs would provide restricted access for interaction with information in such UDPs and their corresponding smart devices and UlTs. In a preferred embodiment, the current states and classes of persons, places and things is used to determine one or more corresponding classes of persons places and things with which they may interact.
In an additional preferred embodiment, the system and method are configured to enable users to create different classes or categories of appointments and to designate corresponding different classes and categories of things or equipment which must or are preferred to always be brought to certain appointments of a particular corresponding category. For instance, users may designate core items, essential to have with the user at all times, such as smartphone, wallet, purse, backpack, keys, etc. Effectively, if the user and any objects or persons included in the core group ever become separated by more than a specified distance, the software engine will issue one or more reminder alerts and task checklists to the user. Or, as a further example, a particular user may be designated to always bring the company laptop and projector to the conference room for Monday morning meetings.
Specifically, the system of the present invention may additionally be configured to enable users to designate a core group of items or persons, attached to corresponding smart devices or UlTs, to be kept with the user at all times or at particularly specified times. For instance, a user may employ this functionality to ensure that items, such as keys, wallet, smart phone, briefcase, handbag or backpack, are kept within a certain proximity of the user at all times.
Or, this functionality could be used to support an activity such as babysitting the neighbor’s child every day from 15:00 to 18:00 hours, where the child is equipped with a smart node to ensure that the child does not leave the immediate proximity of the babysitter. This scenario could work something like the following arrangement: Amy comes home from high school and stops at her house to drop off her things; since the system knows that Amy is due at the neighbor’s house in 15 minutes, it issues her a reminder alert and reminds her to bring her keys, smart phone, backpack and homework with her, if and only if she fails to retrieve any of these items before she leaves her house; when Amy arrives at the neighbor’s house, she is greeted by the mother and because the schedules for Amy and the mother have been synchronized for this event in the system, the system automatically hands-off or transfers primary responsibility for the child, i.e. indications, determinations and predictions regarding the child’s needs and wants, including reminder alerts and task checklists e.g. moisture sensor detects a dirty diaper needs changing, to the babysitter before the mother leaves the house.
Additionally, the system can remind the user to prepare for an upcoming duty based upon user location, direction of travel, speed, and may even autonomously cancel or reschedule certain appointments based on these and other parameters of user activity and behavior. As further examples, the system and method are especially well suited for adapting to a variety of exemplary scenarios, including emergency situations, public outings, visiting friends, travel arrangements and business meetings, among others. For instance, when an emergency or accident happens that requires an emergency response, emergency responders are required to retrieve and bring with them certain sets of critical tools, depending on the type of emergency call.
The system and method of the present invention are configured to enable determination, based on the type of emergency call, of which set(s) of tools the emergency responders must retrieve and bring with them on the emergency call. For instance, an alarm issued by a system component, or by an alarm system connected to one or more system elements, alerting users, smart devices, and UDPs of the fire conditions will be interpreted by the system and cause the method to dynamically change user preferences and update reminder alerts and task checklists issued to emergency responders.
In addition, the system and method are configured to provide dynamic routing to users, indicating the best path of travel to the appointed location, including the most efficient order and route for collection of required items and tool sets. In a preferred embodiment, the system and method of the present invention, continually take inventory of the state of users, smart devices, and UDPs, as well as the state of the local, regional and global envionrments, in order to better inform calculations of dynamic sets of information and evolving situational contexts and updates to reminder alerts and task checklists. In addition, these state-based calculations and updates can be used to further inform “ready, set, go” queries as well as for autodynamic updating of updating of UDPs and preferences for users, smart devices, UlTs or IRFs.
As an additional example, take for instance a mother taking her young child for an outing to a local park which they frequently visit and where she has friends and acquaintances also in attendance. The mom has attached smart nodes to both the child and to the stroller she uses to wheel the child to the park. Further, the mother has classified the UDPs for the stroller and child as trusted private, meaning that only family and friends, and not acquaintances, that the mother has also designated as trusted can view or interact with certain subsets of the information contained in the UDPs managed by the smart nodes of the stroller and child.
Acquaintances would be allowed to view a limited amount of information contained in these UDPs and members of the general public who attempt to interact with the UDPs and smart nodes of the stroller or child will be informed that they are not allowed to do so. In addition, should the mother and stroller or child become separated by more than a specified distance, the system and method are configured to automatically transfer responsibility over the child and stroller to the nearest and most trusted friend in a tiered hierarchy of descending order priority, for instance first to a family member and then to a trusted friend, if available, before issuing an system wide emergency alert (/.e. a lost child alert). Further, smart nodes and smart devices in sufficient proximity to the smart nodes of the child and stroller will inform the smart device employed by the mother of the current location of her child and stroller.
And furthermore, the system and method are also configured to issue one or more reminder alerts and task checklists to users for UDPs of persons, objects or other things associated with a particular smart device, but which remain physically unattached to any smart device or UIT. Preferably, in this embodiment the software engine is at least configured to use VRC based IRFs to recognize images of persons, places and things, captured by a smart device equipped with a camera or other image capture device, and to associate such persons, places and things with the location of image capture. However, items in this embodiment may be designated as required but remain untagged altogether, e.g. unattached to either a smart device or UIT and unassociated with any IRFs. In this case the software engine can only issue reminders based on various parameters, such as user location, time and indicated last known or typical location of the untagged item or person. VRC based IRF tags include images, such as pictures or diagrams, which reveal associated information or are associated to referenced information (i.e. a UDP) in a database (e.g. stored on a local smart device or online). In a preferred embodiment, facial and object recognition algorithms can be used to identify persons, places and things and to reference correspondingly associated UDPs by matching captured images to VRCs stored in IRFs. Additionally, IRF tags can be functionally implemented when a user views a person, place or object, such as a building, through a camera integrated in or otherwise connected to a smart device, such as a smart phone. In a preferred embodiment, the geolocation or relational proximity location of a user, camera or smart device is used to determine a subset of possible IRF files upon the initiation of an IRF comparison request. Further, perspective, as defined by compass direction, angle of view as well as height, as determined by 3D mesh network location algorithms, or solely compass direction can be used to further narrow the subset of potential IRF files for consideration by the system regarding an IRF request.
The system and method are configured to compare VRC(s) generated by the camera of the smart phone, and a geo-location signal encoded in the images captured by the user’s smart phone, to the VRC(s) included in an IRF stored in UDP(s), having a geolocation parameter indicating a geolocation similar to that of the VRC captured by the user’s smart phone, Upon recognizing and identifying an IRF, and associated UDP, having VRC(s) sufficiently similar to and represented by the VRC(s) captured by the user’s smart phone, the system and method are configured to access the information, contained within the such UDP.
Further, the system and method may be configured to provide information contained in such UDP in view of the associated person, place or thing enhanced by an augmented reality informational overlay. Furthermore, this augmented reality display may additionally be configured to operate as an interactive user management interface for UDPs and associated persons, places and things; options for status, preferences and settings can be overlaid directly upon a view of the person, place or thing in question, using geolocation information to orient the view the overlay information provided.
In another preferred embodiment, the present invention includes a method for providing users, smart devices and UDPs with dynamically updated action reminder alerts, task checklists and “everything ready, set, go” indications. As depicted in Figures 1-3, the method further comprises at least the first step (110, 210 and 310, respectively) of operating a software engine, configured to create and maintain an enhanced calendar of scheduled appointments, on one or more smart devices. To this end, the method of operating the system and software engine includes the second step (115, 215 and 315, respectively) of creating, updating and storing one or more scheduled appointments and various parameters of the scheduled appointments. The third step of the method (120, 220 and 320, respectively) includes creating, updating and storing UDPs, representing persons, places and things, and various parameters of such UDPs.
The method further includes the step (125, 225 and 325 respectively) of associating UDPs to scheduled appointments and storing these associations in one or more of the various parameters of such scheduled appointments. For the method employing
UlTs, the step (230) of attaching the UlTs to one or more persons, places and things must follow. The method additionally comprises associating UDPs to corresponding smart devices (130), UlTs (235) and IRFs (330) and storing these associations in one or more of the various parameters of such UDPs (130, 235 and 335, respectively). For the method employing IRFs, this step (335) includes storing one or more IRFs in one or more of the various parameters of such UDPs.
For the method employing UlTs, the UlTs must make a wireless communication and transmit data to one or more of smart devices, the internet and other devices connected to the internet (Step 240). For the method employing IRFs, the method further includes the steps of using one or more smart devices or cameras to capture images of persons, places and things (Step 340) and comparing captured images to IRFs to determine whether the images captured represent persons, places or things corresponding to IRFs associated to one or more UDPs (Step 345).
The method furthermore includes the step of calculating, updating and storing a dynamic set of information based on evolving situational contexts (135, 245 and 350, respectively), as enumerated above but not limited thereto. The method also furher includes the steps of recalculating, updating and storing an updated dynamic set of information (140, 250 and 355, respectively) and iterating a query to determine whether to prompt one or more users, smart devices and UDPs with one or more reminder alerts or task checklists based on an updated dynamic set of information (145, 255 and 360, respectively). Upon determining to prompt such users, smart devices or UDPs, the method continues with the step of generating and issuing such reminder alerts and task checklists (150, 260 and 365, respectively). Finally, the method concludes with the step of adjusting or altering a status, disposition, location, activity or behavior of a user, smart device UDP or scheduled appointment in response to a reminder alert or task checklist (155, 265, 370, respectively).
In an additional embodiment, the method may furthermore include attaching UlTs, supporting wireless connectivity, to two or more persons, places and things, making a wireless communication between such UlTs and one or more smart devices or other UlTs, and establishing wireless connections between such UlTs and one or more smart devices or other UlTs to establish a 3D ad-hoc wireless mesh network.
Such 3D ad-hoc wireless mesh network may operate based on cell, wifi, Bluetooth, RF, IPV4, IPV6 or6LoPAN connections or other wireless connectivity.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the system and method may also use global positioning system (GPS) transmitters, receivers or transceivers, or other means of geolocation, e.g. the European Galileo or the Russian GLONASS systems, onboard the smart device to acquire a geographic location signal. In addition the system and method of the present invention may incorporate the European geostationary navigation overlay service (EGNOS), a geolocation augmentation system developed in part by the European Space Agency, to supplement the GPS, GLONASS and Galileo systems. EGNOS achieves this by providing ephemeris files to the system and smart devices, which determine the reliability and accuracy of positioning data provided by other systems.
The smart device then provides this geographic location to one or more of other smart devices and UlTs, calculating a precise geographic location for one or more of the smart devices and UlTs using one or more of: multilateration, hyperbolic navigation and multiangulation (when a smart device or UIT is within an appropriate range to make a wireless connection to two or more of other smart devices and UlTs having established locations) and inertial navigation (when a smart device is outside an appropriate range to make a wireless connection to two or more of other smart devices and UlTs having established locations).
Multilateration is a navigational technique based on measuring the differences in distances of a point from two or more stations at known locations broadcasting signals at known times, by determining the timing differences in reception of the two or more signals at the point in question. Multilateration determines a small number of possible locations, based on multiple measurements, from which the system may deduce the actual location. Multilateration is common in radio navigation systems, where it is known as hyperbolic navigation, because plotting all of the potential locations of the receiver for the measured delay produces a series of hyperbolic lines on a chart. Taking two such measurements and looking for the intersections of the hyperbolic lines reveals the receiver’s location to be in one of two locations. Any form of other navigation information can be used to eliminate this ambiguity and determine a fix.
As compared to lateration, the numerical problem of angulation is similar, but the technical problem presented by the need to perform angular measurements is more challenging because angles require two measures per position. Triangulation uses the angular measurements performed within the contexts of trigonometry and geometry to determine the location of a point by measuring angles to it from known stations at either end of a fixed “baseline”, whereas trilateration measures distances to the point directly. In triangulation, the point can then be fixed as the third point of a triangle with one known side and two known angles. Similar to triangulation, multiangulation utilizes more than two known stations and uses angular measurements from the point in question to all known stations to fix the desired location.
Further, the method may additionally comprise performing inertial navigation by calculating a position, orientation and velocity for a smart device, via dead reckoning from a last known geographic location using various sensors, including one or more of motion sensors, such as accelerometers, and rotational sensors, such as gyroscopic sensors.
The method may also further include associating UDPs to corresponding smart devices and linking the network address included in the UDPs to corresponding smart devices and recording these associations in one or more of the various parameters of such unique digital profile and storing such UDPs in one or more storage devices. Specifically, the method may include storing a known geographic location or a precise relational location, such as a relative position location, comprising a proximity to one or more of other smart devices, UlTs and IRF tagged persons, places and things, in one of the various parameters of such UDPs.
Various modifications and variations of the described invention and its components will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Although the disclosure has been described in connection with specific preferred embodiments, it should be understood that the invention as claimed should not be unduly limited to such specific embodiments. Indeed, those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalents to the specific embodiments of the invention described herein. Such equivalents are intended to be encompassed by the following claims.
Claims (97)
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| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| MM | Lapsed because of non-payment of the annual fee |
Effective date: 20180401 |