US 6,774,797 B2 · Wireless tag and monitoring center system for tracking the activities of individuals

Abstract

A tracking tag worn by an individual which cooperates with a monitoring center to monitor the location of individuals. The tracking tag has a number of location determination features, including GPS and cellular geolocation methods. The tag includes a processor, flash memory, a wireless modem, a GPS receiver and tamper detection components. The tags of the system provide location information to the monitoring center on a regular periodic basis. The monitoring center maintains historical data of tag location correlated with tag positional information from both the GPS and cellular systems to enhance the verification of real-time positional information as it is received in real time from the tags. The system allows for a complex set of permissible and impermissible activities for the tag wearer and provides for detection and notification of violations.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A one-piece lightweight personal tracking tag, comprising:

a main housing having a contoured surface;
a processor housed within said main housing;
flash memory connected to said processor and housed within said main housing;
a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver housed within said main housing to obtain geographic location information;
a wireless modem housed within said main housing for two way communication with a wireless network to exchange data with a centralized data system connected to said wireless network,
wherein the processor determines a geographic position of the tag to verify the tag location through collection of location data from both said geographic location information from said GPS receiver and a geolocation implemented through the wireless network,
weighs the location data from each of these sources to determine a probability of actual location, and
transmits said weighted determination of the location data, as well as original geographical positional information gathered by the tag, to said centralized data system using said wireless modem.

5 more elements

A system for monitoring the location of individuals, comprising:

a centralized database system for maintaining a database of specified parameters for a plurality of offenders;
a plurality of mobile tags each assigned to one of said plurality of offenders, each tag having:
a main housing having a contoured surface;
a processor housed within said main housing;
flash memory connected to said processor and housed within said main housing;
a global positioning satellite receiver housed within said main housing to obtain geographic location information and connected to said processor to provide said obtained geographic location information to said processor;
a wireless modem housed within said main housing for two way communication with a wireless network to exchange data with said centralized database connected to said wireless network,
wherein said processor monitors said geographic positional information provided by said global positioning satellite receiver to monitor said tag location, compares said monitored tag location to a database of acceptable and unacceptable location and time parameters stored in said flash memory and provides geographic location updates to said centralized database system and receives downloads and updates from said centralized database,
wherein the processor determines a geographical position of the tag utilizing fuzzy logic to verify tag location through collection of location data from both the GPS signal and geolocation implemented through the cellular system, and weighs the location data from each of these sources to determine a probability of actual location, wherein said weighted determination of the location data, as well as original geographical positional information gathered by the tag, is transmitted to said centralized database by said wireless modem,
wherein said centralized database:
receives geographical positional information from each of said tags;
combines said geographical information into a geographical database comprising a large number of data points spread over a geographical area, and
makes a refined determination of the location of each tag based upon the historical location of each tag and the overall correlation between GPS indicated location and cellular system location information based upon said geographical database.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Wireless tag and monitoring center system for tracking the activities of individuals

Life of this patent

Wireless tag and monitoring center system for tracking the activities of individuals

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims17