PROXIMITY FENCE

摘要

A proximity fence can be a location-agnostic fence defined by signal sources having no geographic location information. The proximity fence can correspond to a group of signal sources instead of a point location fixed to latitude and longitude coordinates. A signal source can be a radio frequency (RF) transmitter broadcasting a beacon signal. The beacon signal can include a payload that includes an identifier indicating a category to which the signal source belongs, and one or more labels indicating one or more subcategories to which the signal source belongs. The proximity fence defined by the group of signal sources can trigger different functions of application programs associated with the proximity fence on a mobile device, when the mobile device moves within the proximity fence and enters and exits different parts of the proximity fence corresponding to the different subcategories.

主权项

1. A method including:
receiving, by a mobile device, an application program, the application program being associated with an identifier of a signal source group that includes a plurality of signal sources, the signal source group defining a multi-level proximity fence including a high-level proximity fence and a low-level proximity fence, the low-level proximity fence enclosing a first area, the high-level proximity fence enclosing a second area that is larger than the first area, wherein the application program is configured to activate upon entering the multi-level proximity fence; detecting, by the mobile device, a signal source identifier from a signal source, the detected signal source identifier including a first-level identifier and a second-level identifier; upon determining that the first-level identifier in the detected signal source identifier matches the identifier of the signal source group, activating, by the mobile device, a first function of the application program; and upon determining that the second-level identifier matches at least a portion of an identifier of an individual signal source in the signal source group:
determining that the mobile device is located in proximity of the individual signal source; and thenswitching, by the mobile device, the first function of the application program into a second function of the application program, the second function being different from the first function.