Method and system for heuristic location tracking

1. A method comprising:

maintaining, in a storage module, a location profile of a target mobile device;

receiving the current location of the target mobile device;

verifying whether the current location deviates from the location profile; and

if the current location deviates from the location profile, triggering a notification to an observer device;

wherein the notification includes a distance by which the current location deviates from the location profile.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the location profile is created during a learning phase.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the location profile includes an expected location and an error range for each time period of a time cycle.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising the step of:

looking up the expected location and the error range for the current time period of the time cycle; and

determining whether the current location is within an area defined by the expected location and the expected error range.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the learning phase comprises:

during each time period of the time cycle, and for N time cycles, reading the current location of the target mobile device;

computing an average and a standard deviation of the location for each period within the time cycle;

wherein N is a positive integer.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the error range for each time period of the time cycle is a function of the standard deviation for the time period.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the storage module is on the observer device, target mobile device or an application server.

8. The method of claim 1 , further including the steps of:

maintaining a list of prohibited geographical areas; and

after the step of reading the current location, if the current location is within a prohibited area of the list of prohibited geographical areas, notifying the observer device.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the verifying step comprises:

evaluating each one of a set of rules based on said current location;

if at least one rule of the set of rules is satisfied during the evaluating step, notifying the observer device.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving supplementary data for the target mobile device, wherein the verifying utilizes the supplementary data in determining whether to trigger a notification.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the verifying utilizes rules related to the supplemental data and location to determine whether to trigger the notification.

12. A network element comprising:

a communication subsystem;

a processor;

memory;

wherein the communications subsystem, processor and memory cooperate to:

maintain, in a storage module, a location profile of a target mobile device;

receive the current location of the target mobile device;

verify whether the current location deviates from the location profile; and

if the current location deviates from the location profile, trigger a notification to an observer device;

wherein the notification includes a distance by which the current location deviates from the location profile.

13. The network element of claim 12 , wherein the location profile includes an expected location and an error range for each time period of a time cycle.

14. The network element of claim 13 , wherein the communications subsystem, processor and memory further cooperate to:

look up the expected location and the error range for the current time period of the time cycle; and

determine whether the current location is within an area defined by the expected location and the expected error range.

15. The network element of claim 14 , wherein the communications subsystem, processor and memory further cooperate to:

during each time period of the time cycle, and for N time cycles, read the current location of the target mobile device; and

compute an average and a standard deviation of the location for each period within the time cycle;

wherein N is a positive integer.

16. The network element of claim 15 wherein the error range for each time period of the time cycle is a function of the standard deviation for the time period.

17. The network element of claim 12 , wherein the communications subsystem, processor and memory further cooperate to:

maintain a list of prohibited geographical areas; and

after reading the current location, if the current location is within a prohibited area of the list of prohibited geographical areas, notify the observer device.

18. The network element of claim 12 , wherein the communications subsystem, processor and memory cooperate to verify by:

evaluating each one of a set of rules based on said current location;

if at least one rule of the set of rules is satisfied during the evaluating, notifying the observer device.

19. The network element of claim 12 , wherein the communications subsystem, processor and memory cooperate to receive supplementary data for the target mobile device, wherein the verifying utilizes the supplementary data in determining whether to trigger a notification.

20. The network element of claim 19 , wherein the verifying utilizes rules related to the supplemental data and location to determine whether to trigger the notification.

21. The network element of claim 12 , wherein the network element is the observer device, target mobile device or an application server.

22. A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon for execution on a network element so as to implement the method of claim 1 .