Patent ID: 9384654
Filing Date: 2016-07-05
CPC Classification: G06Q,G08B

Claim Text:
1. A method implemented on a backend server computer for tracking location and behavior of a plurality of both animate items and inanimate items, and enforcing tracking policies concerning the plurality of items based on detected spatiotemporal events over time, the method comprising: receiving, by the backend server computer, registration information concerning multiple mobile computing devices, the registration information concerning each mobile computing device comprising an identifier of an associated item to be tracked and categorization information concerning the associated item to be tracked; maintaining, by the backend server computer, a record concerning each registered mobile computing device, each record comprising an identifier of the specific registered mobile computing device, an identifier of the corresponding associated item, and categorization information and a tracking policy concerning the corresponding associated item; receiving, by the backend server computer, notifications from multiple ones of a plurality of routers each of which maintains an associated captive network, each received notification indicating that a specific registered mobile computing device has executed a connection event on a specific captive network; in response to received notifications, tracking locations of items over time, by the backend server computer; determining, by the backend server computer, when the tracking policy associated with a specific tracked item indicates to transmit an alert to a given user under a current set of circumstances indicated by the tracking step; transmitting alerts to target users concerning tracked items, by the backend server computer, in response to results of the determining step.