Zone Suspension Tracking Device Battery Optimization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current electronic monitoring systems for tracking portable devices, such as those used in law enforcement and asset tracking, face challenges in situations where continuous tracking is not desirable, particularly in locations like workplaces or schools, and also require conserving battery power due to communication components.
Innovation Solution
A tracking device system that includes a processor and memory to determine if it is within defined zones, allowing for partial or complete suspension of tracking, and a central monitoring facility that configures the device to suspend or resume tracking based on predefined zones, using GPS and communication data to manage tracking and battery life.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If continuous tracking is implemented to ensure compliance and monitoring, then reliability of monitoring is improved, but use of energy by the tracking device increases
Solution Approach 1:
The monitoring system is segmented into multiple zones with different tracking requirements. The tracking device operates in different modes depending on its location: full tracking mode when outside designated zones, and suspended tracking mode when inside zones where supervision is provided. This segmentation allows the system to maintain reliability where needed while conserving energy in supervised environments.
Solution Approach 2:
The tracking device periodically checks its location against defined zones and adjusts its operational state accordingly. Instead of continuous full-scale tracking, the device periodically determines whether it is in a zone where tracking should be suspended, and only activates full tracking functionality when exiting these zones. This periodic location-based state adjustment reduces overall energy consumption while maintaining monitoring reliability when necessary.
2Use of energy by moving object
If tracking is suspended in certain zones to conserve battery power, then use of energy is improved, but loss of information about offender location occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where the tracking device continuously monitors its location and provides status information to a central monitoring facility. When the device enters a designated zone, it communicates this status change, allowing the central facility to understand the context of suspended tracking. This feedback ensures that information is not truly lost but rather contextualized, as the monitoring facility knows the device is in a zone where supervision is provided.
Solution Approach 2:
The central monitoring facility acts as an intermediary that receives location data and zone status information from the tracking device. When tracking is suspended in a designated zone, the intermediary maintains the informational chain by recording the zone entry status and making it available to authorities. This intermediary ensures that location information is preserved in the system even when the device itself is not actively transmitting detailed location data.
3Ease of operation
If tracking is suspended in work release or school zones, then ease of operation is improved, but reliability of compliance monitoring deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different monitoring qualities to different locations. In designated zones such as workplaces or schools where supervision is provided, the tracking requirements are locally modified to be less stringent. Outside these zones, full tracking reliability is maintained. This local quality adjustment allows ease of operation in supervised environments while preserving compliance monitoring reliability in unsupervised areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The tracking system dynamically adjusts its operational characteristics based on the device's location. When the tracking device enters a designated zone, the system automatically transitions to a suspended tracking mode with reduced monitoring requirements. When exiting the zone, it dynamically transitions back to full tracking mode. This dynamic adaptation ensures ease of operation when appropriate while maintaining reliability when necessary.
Data Source
AI summary
A tracking device and system are described where a location data collector device to receive location data of the tracking device and one or more communication devices that send the location data to a central facility and that receives a defined location package that includes location information where the tracking device is placed in either a suspension or active tracking mode.