# US 10,229,381 B1 · Machine or group of machines for monitoring location of a vehicle or freight carried by a vehicle > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,229,381 B1 - Document ID: US10229381B1 - Status: Granted - Kind: B1 - Application number: 15/714,764 - Filed: 2017-09-25 - Granted: 2019-03-12 - Earliest claimed: 2012-03-26 - Assignees: MacroPoint, LLC - Applicants: MacroPoint LLC - Inventors: Bennett H. Adelson - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10229381B1 ## CPC - G06Q 10/0833: Tracking - G01S 19/13: Receivers - G01S 19/46: the supplementary measurement being of a radio-wave signal type - G06Q 10/0631: Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations - G06Q 10/08: Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management - G08G 1/13: the indicator being in the form of a map - G08G 1/20: {Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles} - G08G 1/205: {Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental} - 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 - G01S: RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES - G08G: TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS (guiding railway traffic, ensuring the safety of railway traffic B61L; arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00; radar or analogous systems, sonar systems, lidar systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91, G01S15/88, G01S17/88; {radar or analogous systems, sonar systems, lidar systems specially adapted for anti-collision purposes G01S13/93, G01S15/93, G01S17/93}) ## Abstract A machine or group of machines for monitoring location of at least one of a vehicle or freight carried by the vehicle includes a server comprising a central processing unit, a memory, a clock, and a server communication transceiver that receives location information of a mobile device, the mobile device comprising a GPS receiver, a microprocessor and a wireless communication transceiver coupled to the GPS receiver, the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver programmed to receive data sent by a plurality of GPS satellites, calculate location information of the mobile device comprising the GPS receiver and transmit the location information. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A machine or group of machines system for monitoring location of a vehicle or freight carried by the vehicle, the system comprising: a communications interface configured to receive a request for the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle from a first device; a data store operably coupled to the communications interface and configured to correlate a communications device to the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle; a processor operably coupled to the communications interface and the data store and configured to validate that a user of the communications device provided consent to obtaining the location information of the communications device; the communications interface further configured to transmit a request for the location information of the communications device to a location information provider and to receive the location information of the communications device from the location information provider; the processor configured to correlate the location information of the communications device to the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle; and the communications interface further configured to transmit the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle to the first device or a second device. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The machine or machines of claim 1, wherein the location information of the communications device is originally obtained using a method that does not require a global position system (GPS) satellite receiver to form part of the communications device. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The machine or machines of claim 1, wherein the location information of the communications device is originally obtained using a technique utilizing a global position system (GPS) satellite receiver that forms part of the communications device. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The machine or machines of claim 1, wherein the location information of the communications device is originally obtained through techniques including at least one: triangulation between radio towers, obtaining a range of locations corresponding to a transmission range of a single radio tower, advance forward link trilateration (AFLT), observed time difference (OTD), and Cell-ID (CID). ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The machine or machines of claim 1, wherein the communications interface is configured to receive the location information of the communications device from one or more of: a wireless service provider providing wireless service to the communications device, and a third party obtaining the location information from the wireless service provider providing wireless service to the communications device. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The machine or machines of claim 1, wherein the data store is configured to correlate the communications device to the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle based at least in part on the communications device being associated with a user of the communications device who is also associated with the vehicle and the processor is configured to correlate the location information of the communications device to the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle based at least in part on the correlations stored in the data store. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The machine or machines of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to correlate the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle to the communications device by correlating a vehicle reference number or a freight reference number, respectively, to the communications device, and the communications device is configured to transmit the request for location information of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle to the location information provider including the vehicle reference number or the freight reference number. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The machine or machines of claim 1, wherein the processor validates that the user of the communications device provided consent to obtaining the location information of the communications device by determining that the communications interface received the location information of the communications device from the location information provider. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The machine or machines of claim 1, wherein the communication device transmits the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle to one or more of: a freight service provider, a party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services, and a party that provides location information services to the freight service provider or to the party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The machine or machines of claim 1, wherein the communications device is configured to cause display of a visual representation of the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle. ### Claim 11 A method for a machine or group of machines system to monitor location of a vehicle or freight carried by the vehicle, the system comprising: receiving a request for the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle from a first device; correlating a communications device to the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle; validating that a user of the communications device provided consent to obtaining the location information of the communications device; transmitting a request for the location information of the communications device to a location information provider corresponding to party or device different from the communications device; receiving the location information of the communications device from the location information provider; correlating the location information of the communications device to the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle; and transmitting the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle to the first device or a second device. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the location information of the communications device is originally obtained using a method that does not require a global position system (GPS) satellite receiver to form part of the communications device. ### Claim 13 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the location information of the communications device is originally obtained using a technique utilizing a global position system (GPS) satellite receiver that forms part of the communications device. ### Claim 14 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the location information of the communications device is originally obtained through techniques including at least one: triangulation between radio towers, obtaining a range of locations corresponding to a transmission range of a single radio tower, advance forward link trilateration (AFLT), observed time difference (OTD), and Cell-ID (CID). ### Claim 15 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the location information of the communications device is received from one or more of: a wireless service provider providing wireless service to the communications device, and a third party obtaining the location information from the wireless service provider providing wireless service to the communications device. ### Claim 16 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the correlating the communications device to the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle includes correlating the communications device to the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle based at least in part on the communications device being associated with a user of the communications device who is also associated with the vehicle and the correlating the location information of the communications device to the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle includes correlating the location information of the communications device to the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle based at least in part on the correlating the communications device to the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle. ### Claim 17 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the correlating the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle to the communications device includes correlating a vehicle reference number or a freight reference number, respectively, to the communications device, and the transmitting the request for location information of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle to the location information provider includes transmitting the vehicle reference number or the freight reference number. ### Claim 18 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the validating that the user of the communications device provided consent to obtaining the location information of the communications device includes determining that the communications interface received the location information of the communications device from the location information provider. ### Claim 19 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the transmitting the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle includes transmitting the location of the vehicle or the freight carried to one or more of: a freight service provider, a party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services, and a party that provides location information services to the freight service provider or to the party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services. ### Claim 20 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein the transmitting the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle is configured to cause display of a visual representation of the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle.