System and method for preserving forests and certifying the supply chain of lumber
AssigneeEarth Observation Inc.
InventorsAndrew Dudley, Jesse House, Elliot Dudley
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for registering an individual, registering an area of land, establishing a geofence and satellite tracking for the area of land, identifying trees within the area of land, providing certification for the preservation or logging of trees, and for the latter, tracking the transfer of wood from the forest to the mill and beyond is disclosed. Certification of the tree or volume of wood and the persons involved can be verified when the tree or its wood is transferred from one person to the next, using an analysis of that person's role and function relative to their time, date and physical location.
Claims40
A method of surveying a polygon of land and a plurality of trees contained within the polygon of land, comprising:
- obtaining, by a mobile device, position information for a plurality of physical locations on a perimeter of the polygon of land;
- storing, by the mobile device, the position information for the plurality of physical locations;
- obtaining, by the mobile device, tree information for each of the plurality of trees, the tree information comprising position information for the tree, dimension information for the tree, and species information for the tree;
- and
- transferring, by the mobile device to a server, the position information for the plurality of physical locations and the tree information for each of the plurality of trees.
A method of monitoring a supply chain for wood, comprising:
- receiving, by a server from a first mobile device, first position information captured by the first mobile device for a tree before the tree has been cut down;
- generating, by the server, a first volume estimate for wood contained in the tree;
- generating, by the server based on data received from a second mobile device, a second volume estimate for wood contained in the tree after the tree has been cut down;
- generating an alert, by the server, if the second volume estimate exceeds the first volume estimate by a threshold amount.
A method of certifying a supply chain for wood, comprising:
- capturing, by a first mobile device, a first set of time, date, and position information associated with a tree when it is cut down in a first location;
- capturing, by a second mobile device, a second set of time, date, and position information associated with a tree when the tree is delivered to a second location;
- and
- generating an alert if the volume of the tree exceeds the estimated volume of wood that can be logged from an area of land comprising the first location.
A computing device comprising a processing unit and non-volatile storage, the non-volatile storage containing a computer program comprising instructions to be executed by the processing unit for performing the following steps:
- receiving, by the computing device, a first set of transaction data for a first transaction involving a physical commodity, the first set of transaction data comprising identification information for one or more persons performing the first transaction, position information for the first transaction, a date and time for the first transaction, and identification information for the physical commodity;
- and
- sending, by the computing device, a second set of transaction data for a second transaction involving the physical commodity, the second set of transaction data comprising identification information for one or more persons performing the second transaction, position information for the second transaction, a date and time for the second transaction, and identification information for the physical commodity.
A method of facilitating transactions for a physical commodity, comprising:
- receiving, by a first computing device, a first set of transaction data for a first transaction involving a physical commodity, the first set of transaction data comprising identification information for one or more persons performing the first transaction, position information for the first transaction, a date and time for the first transaction, and identification information for the physical commodity;
- and
- sending, by the first computing device, a second set of transaction data for a second transaction involving the physical commodity, the second set of transaction data comprising identification information for one or more persons performing the second transaction, position information for the second transaction, a date and time for the second transaction, and identification information for the physical commodity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.